Area brides have lots of stationery options courtesy of The Birds & The Bees Gift Shoppe in Maumee.

The shop specializes in all things bridal and baby. It carries several albums worth of stationery for patrons to choose from and also offers custom-designed pieces.

Karrie Brock and Casey Agosti, who met as sorority sisters, started the store in 2004 after creating birth announcements for Agosti’s second child.

“We just came up with the idea that we could do this on our own,” said Brock, who also owns FASTSIGNS on North McCord Road. Brock does the marketing, advertising and custom design. Agosti, who works for the State of Ohio, handles the bookkeeping and management side. Brock, who majored in interior design at the University of Toledo, didn’t see herself running a stationery business and being a designer. Before and after college, however, she worked at sign shops before opening her own in 1997.

The Birds & The Bees, which moved to Maumee from Perrysburg around 2008, also carries wedding favors and odds and ends like unity candles, flower girl baskets and wedding gown preservation kits. The store also carries items in its baby line created by “mom-preneurs, as we call them,” Brock said.

On the wedding side, a bride or groom can choose stationery — ranging from thank you cards to save-the-dates to seating charts and more — from one of the albums in house. No appointment is needed to look at the albums. However, if a couple wants custom invitations, they need to have an appointment with Brock.

“Custom appointments take a little bit longer because the bride is being more creative,” Brock said. “She kind of designs it herself and I take her vision and make it into a real-life paper product.”

Brock said more couples are choosing custom invitations because they want bright colors and unique designs. “That’s why our custom line has grown in the last two to three years because the brides can do whatever they want,” Brock said.

She recommended that couples order their invitations four to six months before the wedding with the intent of sending them out two months before the big day.

“They have to follow a schedule or things can get backed up, things can get held up. Printing doesn’t happen overnight. To get something assembled, we need time,” Brock said.

Pricing varies depending on the complexity and paper involved. Brock said the average bride would spend $400 to $600 for 125 basic invitations. Her store does carry more economical items in addition to invitations with special options like lasering to make a card look like wood, she said.

Brock’s favorite part of her job is flexing her creativity — and seeing the bride’s joy.

“We enjoy seeing their face light up when they get the right invitation,” she said. “When you read that invitation, that’s real. That’s the day you’re walking down the aisle.”

For more information, visit www.thebirdsnbees.com.

Tags: Brigitta Burks, Casey Agosti, FASTSIGNS, Here comes The Guide, Karrie Brock, Maumee, Stationery, The Birds and The Bees, Wedding

This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2012 at 9:32 am and is filed under Arts and Life, Brides and Weddings, Here Comes The Guide: Fall 2012, Special Section, Star, Wedding planning.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.