The e.m. papers Story

e.m.papers originally started as a wedding invitation business over 10 years ago by me, Eleanor, and my friend Molly. The first initial of our first names were the 'e' and 'm' in e.m.papers.

The business never really got off the ground, mostly because we were young and ambivalent about what we wanted and where our lives would take us. We also couldn't our heads around the business of printing, distributing and selling stationery. The designing part was the most fun, the rest...not so much.

Molly started a family, and a coaching business. It was the middle of the dot.com boom, and I had just graduated from art school as a graphic designer. I wanted to see the world, and while living in Munich, found a job at an American web consulting firm launching it's German offices. I have been in Germany ever since.

In the meantime the internet has grown out of it's infancy and starting a business on the web has never been easier or more enticing. Moreover, the home-printer market has matured (when I was in art school a home color printer cost around $1000.00). Considering these facts, sometime in the summer of 2007  it seemed like a good idea to give e.m.papers another go and bring it online selling printables - download and print-at-home greeting cards and paper goods . A good friend of ours was getting married in California, in the course of the celebrations I brought the idea up to Molly, her response was basically 'Go for it!' and e.m.papers was reborn.

Since 2010. e.m.papers has started to focus on DIY printable wedding invitations. and paper good templates. Each template is a PDF form which you can personalize and print at home. I leveraged my skill as a professional graphic designer to "scratch my own itch" and produce wedding invitations, thank you notes, save the dates, escort cards for my own two weddings (to the same guy in two different countries.) I refined my products through this process, along with helping some of my girlfriends with their weddings. The templates and designs are "by a bride for brides."

There is no reason you can't have fabulous paper goods for your wedding without spending a ridiculous amount of money or getting bogged down in some sort of impossible craft project trying to replicate "easy" DIY projects that an army of professional stylists have produced for a glossy feature. My wedding invitations and kits are cost effective, not just because they are printables, but because I consider ink usage in the design. They are also easy to produce, just enter your personal details in the fields, print and cut. It's sort of like filling out a tax form, but a lot more fun.

The business is run by me, Eleanor, although Molly and my aunt Elizabeth (who also runs Good Form Design) still contribute some designs to e.m.papers from time to time.