Just before Thanksgiving, I met up with Jamie Galley, a St. Augustine-based graphic designer who runs Studio Mulberry — and my former classmate at Flagler College. I had some questions for Jamie that I knew brides-to-be would share, and I wanted to quiz her about the ins and outs of running a design business, too. So we chatted over tea and bagels at Schmagel’s. Here’s a peek into that morning. But first, a peek at Jamie — because I figure you might as well see the woman behind this beautiful work! Although I think custom invitations are the way to go, I had to ask Jamie why she believes it. First thing, she explained how the save the date or formal invitation sets the tone for the wedding, so it’s important to set the right tone. But even more compelling was her second reason: “You spend a whole year preparing for your wedding, and then all of a sudden it’s over, and what do you have left after that? You have pictures, and then you have your stationery,” she said, so the lasting artifacts from a wedding should really reflect the couple. And Jamie takes reflecting her couples accurately very, very seriously.

“I like to have a couple send me their inspiration.” Pinterest boards, magazine clippings — Jamie wants to see it all. And she wants to get to know the couple, their love story, who they are as individuals. She wants to get to know their vision for their wedding day, what they’ve been envisioning and dreaming of. “Getting to know the couple is a really important part of my job. I like to get as much information as I can prior to meeting in person,” Jamie explained. Then, once she’s pored over the couple’s inspiration and understands what makes them tick, she puts all her energy and creativity into one design that she hopes will completely blow the couple away. She would rather amaze them with one nearly-perfect design, she explained, than offer them four or five simply good options, because the emotional reaction for a couple will be much stronger if they see one invitation that really captures their personality and the spirit of their wedding.So if a couple decides they want custom stationery created for their wedding, what do they need to know before they hire a designer?

“You have to be involved in the process,” she said, without a moment’s hesitation. Some couples, Jamie shared, hire her based on her portfolio — and expect she’ll whip up equally-beautiful wedding stationery for them without any of their input. Jamie could design a beautiful invitation suite without any information from a couple, but then the invitation wouldn’t have any more meaning to the couple than if they’d simply ordered pre-designed invitations. That goes against Jamie’s collaborative process, and the personal nature of her business. And besides — bringing a couple’s vision to life is the exciting part. “It’s just so much fun. Every couple is so different.”

I had to ask Jamie what had brought her into the wedding industry in the first place. Straight out of college, she took a job with a design agency in Jacksonville, and after a couple years, she started Studio Mulberry as a side project, which rapidly turned into a second full-time job. In the meantime, she got married (and designed her own wedding stationery, of course), and by the time her son was born last spring, she was ready to leave the 9-5 and make Studio Mulberry her only work . . . besides being a wife and mom. She’s stayed super busy ever since, mostly from word of mouth referrals, with corporate design making up the majority of her work (for now, at least) and weddings making up the majority of her fun work.

“I’m an artist. My background is in fine art and graphic design. So I love it when I get to do hand-drawn things, watercolors, I love doing hand-drawn lettering. It’s always fresh and it keeps me inspired,” she said.

And from the photographer’s perspective, may I just say that fun stationery inspires me, too — and inspires couples. Here’s my take on it: The more personalized a couple’s wedding, the fonder the memories. It’s as simple as that. Pre-designed, ordered invitations can be truly beautiful, but they simply won’t have the same sentiment attached to them as an invitation that a couple helps create. I’m all about personalization and fond memories and sentiment. And so I would love to encourage you to look into having custom wedding stationery designed for you — whether you call Jamie (she can work with couples anywhere in the country!) or a designer in your own town. Love your invitations. Love your wedding. Love your memories.

In the meantime, check out Jamie’s business at Studio Mulberry on the web — www.studiomulberry.com — and on Facebook.
~ Laura