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Meet Marcela Barretto of Simply Stated Stationery in Burbank

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcela Barretto.

Marcela, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
It’s simple…boredom. I was 15 years into a stay-at-home mom/wife career. Married to a generous man who wasn’t interested in my creativity or interested my ability to make a few extra bucks. He was one of those old school, “I’m the provider” men. While that was lovely made for a stress-free life, I was bored to tears and wanting something of my own and a way to release my creative juices.

I started by making personalized note cards on a little bubble jet printer (and Microsoft Publisher) for a mommy I met through the kids’ school. She’s one of those rich horse people who has a lot of horsey friends. She wanted personalized gifts for 30 or 40 of her friends at the barn (LA Equestrian Center is her barn). She gave me a list of names with each person’s passion and made something custom for each one. She loved them and so did her horsey friends.

Slowly, and strictly word-of-mouth, I would find a client here and there. A party invitation, a shower, a graduation announcement. Pretty much anything but no weddings, too scary.

Then a neighbor whose kid (high school kid) is dating an up-and-coming actress (only in LA) named Blake Lively. She’s having an 18th birthday party and she wants Willy Wonka candy bars with golden tickets for invites. She asks, ‘can you do that?’ I say ‘sure (I had no idea how to do them but I knew I could figure it out), when does she need them.’ She says ‘tomorrow, It’s the last day of shooting Gossip Girl and she wants to hand them out to the cast and crew before they wrap.’ I ran to Smart and Final and bought 200 candy bars. Stayed up till 3:00 a.m. and got them done for pick up by 9:00 a.m.

Then I finally started working with brides. The one client I was afraid of. I thought working with brides would be nightmare. But I was wrong. They are fantastic.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I was working on Microsoft Publisher when I started and realized very quickly that I needed to learn a better graphic design program like Photoshop. Once I became a self-taught master of Photoshop, I started outsourcing some printing through another mommy friend whose husband ran a union print shop. He ran jobs on the side for me.

Then one day he says…hey, if you’re really going to start outsourcing to commercial printers, you need to start designing in Illustrator, not Photoshop. Photoshop is for photography. All over again, buy the program, teach myself, google instructions, techniques, etc.

I also ended my 20 year marriage to that generous man who didn’t really want me to have any independence. My little side hobby as he called it, became a business and the busier I got, the happier I got and the unhappier he became. I realized I loved my work so much that I would wake up excited about the hours of work ahead of me. I got so busy, started hiring stay at home moms to help.

Now that I’m on my own, I can spend hours working with no guilt! Now the challenge is when to turn it off. But when you LOVE what you’re doing and it doesn’t feel like work, it’s a struggle.

Simply Stated Stationery – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Simply Stated Stationery started out as a hobby. Now I’m a full-service design and print house specializing in outside the box event essentials. From invitations for weddings to huge charity event galas. My ability to make the idea in your head come to fruition is always the goal. There’s a conception out there that custom invitation is for big budgets and fancy events. That is not true and that’s what makes me happiest, giving a client the invite they really wanted but thought they couldn’t afford.

What makes us special is we are a one stop shop. We make all of it happen, from tiny custom stickers for favors to huge fabric banners.

I’m most proud of my ability to take risks and evolve with trends. Early in my career, I got the opportunity to make 15,000 unique fan appreciation birthday cards for a huge Japanese celebrity/rock star. They were made of metal and had a break-off dog tag with chain. I not only outsourced the job to a company in the mid-west, I printed shipping labels every month for fans to receive them (in Japan) the month of their birthday.

Trending right now is wedding signage and mirrors for seating arrangements, So now I’m in the rental business. I saw the trend, ran out and bought large mirrors and wood signs. Fridays are now spent cutting vinyl and making signs. I’m even designing window signage for storefronts.

I look forward to seeing what will trend next and where it will take me and taking on a project I’ve never done.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define success with personal happiness. I literally wake up excited to play with pretty paper and do something I’ve never done. If you don’t LOVE what you’re doing every day, then change it.

When my adults call and say, ‘hey mom, what are you doing’, I love to respond with ‘whatever I want”.

That is success!

Pricing:

  • Wedding Suite average price $800 for 100 invitations (invite, rsvp, 2 envelopes). Discounts applied on full package (invite, program, place card, thank you cards, table numbers).

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Heather & Peter invitation suite photo by: Anna Delores Photography
Cloud Inspired Wedding Shoot: Photography by Kate Noelle

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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