4 Years of Sea + Paper: The journey

As we celebrate our 4th Birthday, we thought it would be a wonderful time to take a look back to how Sea + Paper begun, and they incredible journey we've been on.

Small business isn't always easy, but we wouldn't change this adventure for anything! Each year has seen an immense amount of changes, growth, and product development.

THE BEGINNING: 2020

Sea + Paper begun in April 2020, from Sophie's home office. Everything was designed, assembled and packaged in this office and all orders were taken to the post office by Sophie every morning.

The concept behind the brand wasn't to focus on Wax Sealing, but to be more a freelance design agency! However, during the covid lockdowns, whilst slowly building the brand, it was clear that there wasn't anywhere within Australia (at the time) that you could purchase quality & modern Wax Sealing supplies. With Sophie's experience in product and production management, she was able to begin an Ecomm business focussing on this. 

One of Sophie's favourite memories from the beginning was the development of her own packaging for the products she had designed. From the small wax sealing jars, to the customer experience with packing of orders, every detail was thought about and is always at the front of all design decisions today!

Once all of the branding, packaging and website was sorted, it was time to start putting the product out there to see what the interest would be like!

So many lovely customers commented on how they loved seeing a very old technique come back with a modern twist. We met so many of you at our very first market stalls and were able to showcase the small range of products we had.

Slowly as we were coming out of lockdowns, wedding's began to be organised again and we began to work with our very first couples for all of their event stationery! From Save the Dates to On The Day Signage - we knew we wanted to be a full-service stationery brand!

YEAR 1: 2021

This was the year we started to invest in professional photography, and it honestly changed everything for our brand! There is nothing like seeing your products be taken to another level with styling and profession photography!

We still today work with the same photographer and value every single image from all of the shoots. You will even see us still using photos from our very first shoots 4 years ago.

The business really started to grow in 2021, and with that came a lot of late nights (with a few wines!), to get through all of the enquiries, orders and designing as weddings started to begin again after lockdowns.

We started to expand our product ranges to keep up with the demand for more options, more colours and more designs and were quickly running out of space in our home office!

It was at this stage that we had taken over the entire rumpass room, 2 bedrooms, the garage and the under-house storage in Sophie's home. 

This was the year that we also researched new local suppliers to work with to ensure our quality and standards were always met.

There were a lot of speed humps and road blocks to get around when it comes to suppliers, and it took many months to find exactly what we were looking for. Today, we still work with the majority of our suppliers we found during this year and are so grateful they have all been able to keep up with the growth of Sea + Paper and be there to support us through each milestone. 

This year was a pivotal year for the brand, proving that it was becoming a brand that so many couples trusted and wanted to work with.

That did mean working 7 days a week for most of this year to keep up with all of the exciting projects we were lucky enough to be part of and so many weddings!

Lucky enough, Sophie has so much support from her family during this time who helped pack your orders, count out stock and drop off parcels to the post office.

It was in this year that Emily, our now Production & Warehouse Co-Ordinator started with the brand by stamping packaging and making wax seals!

 We celebrated our first birthday in our Home Office, being part of another lockdown, but not letting that get the better of us and kept up our social presence across all platforms. 

It then led us to our first massive move - out of home, into our very own Studio! It took some time to find the perfect space, but then the perfect space was offered and we said yes straight away.

We quickly got to fitting out the space and making it our own.

YEAR 2: 2022

Our showroom all came together in early 2022, and we welcomed so many of our loyal, long-term customers into the space where they could now see everything we have in person! 

This was the perfect move to support the brand, the business and the team. Having our own Studio to walk into every day was a dream come true. It was a place to keep everything we worked hard for, and loved that all of our customers came on that journey with us.

Weddings were back in 2022, and we were inundated with couples wanting to work with us to create their stationery! 

We began to expand our colour ranges, designs and products again to accommodate for all requests and made sure we were offering the full package when it came to event stationery.

Our Wax Seal Kits has a make-over and were now all packaged in beautiful gift boxes and you would be proud to gift, or have on display in your home office!

We even launched a brand new website at the start of 2022 to make our user experience a whole lot easier.

This was the year we grew our team and offered in-studio workshops where we could continually meet and teach wax sealing to our community!

Whether you've worked directly with, spent time in our Showroom, been part of a workshop or spoken to our team over email, you'll agree that they all have incredible passion for stationery and are there for you, the customer, to ensure your stationery is exactly what you're after.  

YEAR 3: 2023

What a year 2023 was for Sea + Paper! We worked with over 600 couples to produce their wedding stationery (double the 2022 count!) and launched a bunch of new products, including our Hire Range. 

We launched new collection, after new collection and loved seeing that our customers were loving all of our new products as much as we did. With a larger team, it meant more creative minds to be putting these collections together!

We were kept super busy all year with all of your orders and the Showroom was merchandised every 4-6 weeks with all of the brand new products we were bringing out! We even got to collaborate with some of our favourite brands.

This year, we also aligned our brand and products with 2 charities and donated over $1,500. 

We were also featured in a bunch of the most renowned wedding magazines in Australia and New Zealand!

We celebrated this epic year with a team trip down to Hobart to spend 3 days enjoying another city together! Without this team, we couldn't be where are today and have so many positive reviews from so many amazing clients & customers.

YEAR 4: 2024

We can hardly believe that in April, we have already completed over 250 orders for Event Stationery! This year has already had it's ups and downs when it comes to the economy, but reading those figures just blows us away. 

4 years ago, we were loving getting a handful of orders a month, and now to average 60 weddings per month is just so hard to believe. 

Thank you to everyone for their love, support, encouragement and for always cheering us on whether that's through social media, emails, or popping into the Showroom. We wouldn't be where we are today without you and are so overwhelmed that we've been able to build a brand that has offered you such a range of creative goodies to enjoy!