I’ve been an Etsy customer since 2012 and have always loved marveling at the talent and creativity out there. You get to support individuals and their small businesses, you almost always get a great deal, AND there are a million options you simply can’t find anywhere else. It’s a triple win.

This post was sponsored by Etsy and Shopstyle, but all thoughts and opinions are my own! With 7 years of shopping and both hits and misses under my belt, here are my five all-time favorite Etsy shops…

JEWELRY

AZRAM DESIGNS (Houston, Texas): If there’s one signature jewelry look I have, it’s dainty gold pieces. That said, I love jewelry with a twist—something a bit different, the kind of thing that causes double takes and strangers to ask where you got it. :)

This body chain was one of my first ever Etsy purchases. In fact, I featured it in one of my first ever fashion posts. It’s subtle, feminine, and only as visible as what you’re wearing allows it to be. It looks fantastic with a swimsuit. My favorite thing about it is its simplicity; so many body chains are too intricate and become distracting. And unlike other body chains I’ve owned, it doesn’t tug in weird ways and I can usually forget I’m even wearing it. Best of all, it looks SO much more expensive than it is.

It’s been such a standby in my wardrobe that I’ve since purchased a second one for myself and as a gift for a friend.

BENITTA MOKO (Tel Aviv, Israel): In continuing with my dainty gold pieces, I actually discovered these ear crawlers while sleuthing for the fashion section of this Bachelor recap. I fell in love with their low profile to high impact ratio and ordered them immediately. I wear these a lot—along with the cuffs that can come as a set—and get compliments every time.

Given the daintiness of the jewelry I wear and the fact that it’s easy to forget I’m wearing it, I try whenever possible to opt for gold filled pieces over gold plated—if I hop in the shower or go swimming, I don’t have to stress about my gold looking crappy over time. I love how Benitta Moko’s pieces have stood up despite daily wear and how they look expensive. The bang for buck here is excellent.

WEDDING

FABULOUS STYLE DESIGN (Częstochowa, Poland): No Etsy roundup would be complete without including the shop behind one of my favorite finds ever: my wedding veil! As I said in my Wedding Recap: What I Wore post, I searched high and low for veils in New York’s many bridal stores but quickly found them to be absurdly overpriced for what they are, simply because the word “bridal” was involved.

It’s amazing not only how much more affordable this Etsy find was, but also how much of an impact something like a birdcage veil could have on my overall wedding look. At first, after trying on traditional veils, I planned on going to go veil-less. That was until a birdcage veil crossed my mind at about 3 weeks out. Without Etsy I probably would have been stuck buying one at a bridal store, but even then, I never found a SIMPLE birdcage veil at any of the stores I visited in person. Etsy really saved the day with this 11th hour and budget find. What makes this shop particularly great is that they have EVERYTHING you could possibly want in terms of bridal accessories—including but not limited to belts, hair combs, and even garters—all at a true fraction of prices you’d see in stores.

FACCI DESIGNS (New York, NY): When assembling this post, I was surprised to see I hadn’t ever mentioned our wedding cake topper in my wedding-related posts. It was touched on over at Us Weekly, but I’ll go into more detail here. During wedding planning, cake toppers were something I’d felt were pretty unnecessary as for the most part I find them to range from cheesy to painful. (The worst are those ones where the bride is holding onto the groom as he attempts to escape… ugh!) But during a long Etsy cake topper sleuth I found these insanely adorable needle felted animals and fell in love.

Since very early on, Andy’s affectionately called me his yellow canary, and he my silver fox. I wrote Linda Facci via her Etsy shop and asked if she could create these animals, if this combo were even a possibility. She’d never done either but was so sweet and enthusiastically took on the challenge, even sending photos of the animals she’d be modeling them after to make sure we were on the same page. (Neither of us knew that silver foxes were actually black and grey!)

Every detail was thought through, from the diameter of the top cake tier to the color of the base to the design of the fox’s bowtie. Best of all, Linda lives in NYC and even hand-delivered it, so not only did she get to witness our reaction when we unboxed it, we got to meet the talented artist behind it as well. Other than our stationery and favors, we didn’t do many completely custom-made wedding touches, so this was in a way our ultimate custom wedding treat for ourselves. It now lives on our living room shelf so we can admire it every day. :) HIGHLY recommend!

FUNCTION

ATESSOUÉ (Toulouse, France): I like to inject a little style whenever and wherever I can. Although many cameras come with black straps with the camera brand’s logo on them, I find those pretty darn boring. I love the look of natural leather, the kind that develops a lovely patina over time, so when I came across this gorgeous camera strap, it had my name on it.

It’s durable, simple, and stylish without being too feminine or masculine. The leather has been aging beautifully and only gets better with time. When I’m out and about with my camera slung across me, I get questions about my strap all the time. The shop also has other simple, understated handmade leather goods, plus the option to personalize them, making them great as gifts. This was a fantastic, functional purchase that made a boring everyday item a bit more interesting and fabulously French. :)

That’s it for my Etsy shop round-up! I’m always on the lookout so if you have a favorite Etsy shop or item, I’d love to hear about it. Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for stopping by!