Meet Kelsey Willis | Artist: Luxury Wedding and Party Invitations

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kelsey Willis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kelsey, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
This is a bit of a wild story that I have never really publically spoken about. I started Grey & Cake five years ago while going through a traumatic divorce. I had been a stay-at-home mom for the previous 5 years. The kind that is always the room parent and co-chairs the auctions – then has champagne lunches before pick-up. It was a good and comfortable life, especially while my husband worked. One afternoon I got a random DM from someone I didn’t recognize. He was a bartender at a hot spot in Seattle who knew of me via friends of friends. He told me my then-husband had been in the bar the night before with a blonde woman and was kicked out for disorderly conduct. He was writing to tell me that I deserved better and to run while I had the chance. My whole world blew up that day. I had a choice to make about what I was going to model for my young daughter. Was I going to be someone who turns a blind eye, diminishing my value to live a comfortable life? Or was it time to remember my worth and show my daughter what it means never to settle? Grey & Cake was sort of my emancipation from a robotic life, launching me into something where I was personally valued for what I could create. I got fortunate with my first client. My brother is a wedding planner in the luxury wedding space, and a client did not have a stationer, so he asked if I wanted to take a crack at it. The client loved the first iteration, had zero changes, and the rest of the design process went without a hitch. I didn’t realize until I was addressing the envelopes that the client was a famous athlete and my first invitation suite was published in a wedding magazine. Things took off from there, and it has been the most incredible, healing, powerful, thrilling, and insane ride since. I look back at the person I once was and don’t even recognize her. This business gave me a fresh start and reminded me of my full potential and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
99% of everything I create is inspired by fashion. The lines, texture, movement, color, and detail turn an “idea faucet” on in my mind like nothing else. From the early years to the present of Christian Dior, Celine, and Tom Ford with Gucci, Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, Manolo Blahnik, Yves Saint Laurent – these design houses launch my inspiration for the client that wants a romantic, gorgeous, striking design style that offers elegance, curated luxury, and fine details. Then there is Virgil Abloh, Aimé Leon Dore, Maison Margiela, Rhude – these inspire the designs for clients that want less of a wedding and more of a party. The kind where you need to sleep for an entire month beforehand to prepare for how much fun the wedding weekend will be. I believe this is the foundation for what sets me apart. I don’t get inspired by other weddings or other invitation suites. I love looking at them and think they’re stunning, but what I am most proud of is I am not in this world for myself and my ego, I am in it because I truly love my clients and feel like it is a privilege to create for them. Getting to know the client, creating something uniquely them, and bringing it to life on paper – there’s nothing better.

In the first question, I shared a little about my professional journey. But to elaborate more, getting where I am was not a cakewalk. I have a degree in graphic design and illustration. Right out of college, I was offered several incredible design house jobs that would have been a dream come true. However, at that time, I was part of a global religious organization my parents were in charge of. It was expected that after college, I would come and work for the church. It sounds so crazy even to type this as that life doesn’t even feel real, but I turned down all of the offers and went to work at the church as their creative director, doing PowerPoint slides, book covers, and event graphics. I hated every second of it, but it was what was done, and I wasn’t strong enough to think bigger than what I knew. I married, had a baby, and worked for the church. I would go home every day and cry because I felt like I had given up this amazing professional life of my dreams and would fantasize about what it would have been like to be this strong, independent, self-supporting female boss who got to generate beautiful things every day in a job she loved. Eventually, I left the church entirely as I wanted my daughter to grow up in a world that celebrated all types of people without judgment, fear, or hate. A few years later, my marriage ended, and for the first time since college, I was back at square 1, getting a second chance to choose my path—this time, I chose myself and launched Grey & Cake.

I have learned (the hard way) that anytime I make a choice to please someone else or to satisfy their expectation of me, I am choosing poorly. Living my life as defined by religion, by an abusive partner, a controlling husband or even fear of not having enough business, I give a piece of myself away and let myself compromise my value for someone else’s goals and dreams. Now, 5 years into Grey & Cake, I wake up every day doing what I love, and I don’t take that for granted.

So hopefully, my brand and story show an authenticity that even though I have never been lucky in love, I still believe in it. I believe in the beauty of finding a soul mate. I believe in the power of family and celebration. I love seeing happiness through other people’s eyes and creating a piece that reflects all that magic in paper form.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh I love this.

Day 1:
Breakfast: The Ivy (it is the giant mug they serve coffee in for me)
Hike: Runyon Canyon
Juice: Erewhon
Refresh
Drive and Chill: PCH to Malibu
Dinner: Nobu
Nightcap: Wally’s

Day 2:
Late Morning
Visit the Shoe Surgeon and make your own custom Nikes
RH Hardware Rooftop or Urth
Melrose Trading Post
Bar Marmont
Catch
The Abbey

Day 3:
Disneyland/CA Adventure

Day 4:
Abbot Kinney Boulevard and Canals
E Bike or Scooter to Santa Monica
Father’s Office OR Calabra for Dinner

Day 5:
Lazy Morning
Getty
Katsuya Brentwood

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would not be in luxury stationery without Kaleb Norman James Design. Kaleb gave me my first client and taught me the ropes of the wild wedding world. He’s the type that will answer a FaceTime at 3 am when I am on a design block and help shake the ideas free. It helps that he is also my brother. Tory Smith of Smith + James is also a massive influence. She has a unique space in the wedding world that allows for highly editorial, fashion-forward, ultra-chic designs. That is my favorite space to design in. She pushes me to think outside the box and tap into a design muscle that gives me a euphoric art high, producing projects I am so proud of. Finally, my daughter. She gave me my first $1 from her birthday money when I started my business and has been my biggest inspiration ever since. I wake up each day knowing I am modeling what an entrepreneurial woman looks like for her – there is nothing better.

Website: www.greyandcake.com

Instagram: greyandcake

Image Credits
Photography: O’Malley Photographers Flatlay Styling: Kaleb Norman James Design