WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Episodes 10-11 of Love Is Blind Season 7.
Beyond the DC-ish cast members on this season of Love Is Blind, local businesses are also getting screen time. In Episode Ten, engaged couple Taylor Krause and Garrett Josemans head to Old Town paper goods shop Penny Post for a calligraphy class with Michele Hatty Fritz of Meant to Be Calligraphy.
When production reached out to Hatty Fritz to teach a class, she had no idea which program it was for—just that it would involve a couple on a reality show for a major streaming network. In fact, Hatty Fritz had never even watched Love Is Blind before appearing on it. Though she has a home studio, the calligraphy instructor needed a space that could accommodate filming. So she reached out to Amy Rutherford, owner of Old Town shops Penny Post, Red Barn Mercantile, and Pippin Toy Co., to utilize the Penny Post space. (Even though Rutherford had to close the store down for the day, she says she still made around $500 in sales from the crew and Josemans.)
“In the course of my day, I’m not usually on TV. I knew I could meet the goal, but nevertheless, it was still nerve-wracking,” says Hatty Fritz.
As viewers may remember, Krause brought a box of her grandparent’s letters to the pods during the “dating unseen” portion of the experiment. Before getting engaged, Krause read Josemans her grandfather’s proposal letter. So, in honor of their literary beginnings, the couple decided to have a letter-writing station at their wedding. Enter Hatty Fritz, who taught the couple calligraphy to make a sign for the table.
“I could tell that they both were taking these letters seriously. It was clearly meaningful to both of them to have an artifact from her past,” says Hatty Fritz. “Given that their relationship was on this sped up timeline, I think it probably really gave Garrett insight into what her family was like.”
For Hatty Fritz, it wasn’t just her passion for calligraphy that made her a fit for the show: Her own love story also features letters, just like Krause and Josemans. Before the first Christmas with with her husband, Hatty Fritz asked him to write her a love letter as a gift. Instead of giving her the correspondence on the holiday, he told her he would write her a love letter every month for a year. “At the end of the year, I asked if he would renew my subscription,” says Hatty Fritz. “He did, and he’s renewed it every year since.” The missives have continued to appear for 15 years, so if there’s anyone that understands the power and poetry of a love letter, it’s Hatty Fritz.
Penny Post and Meant to Be Calligraphy aren’t the only DC-area small businesses in the spotlight. A previous episode featured a scene filmed at Adams Morgan plant shop Plntr where Hailey Rohn, founder of dried flower art shop Wildry, taught Stephen Richardson and Monica Davis how to press flowers. This week, we watched Marissa George and Ramses Prashad set sail on the Hot Tub Boat.
As for Hatty Fitz’s impression of the couple?
“It didn’t matter if I liked them or not—it was immaterial to me teaching them the class,” says Hatty Fitz. “But in terms of just being excited to be part of it, it really helped that I genuinely think they’re great. I really like them a lot.”
If you want to have your own Love Is Blind moment, Hatty Fritz will teach Intro to Modern Brush Lettering—the same class now seen on TV—at Penny Post on January 26.
Daniella Byck joined Washingtonian in 2022. She was previously with Outside Magazine and lives in Takoma.
