Meet Amy Savinon | Creative Director & Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amy Savinon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I started PaperTales about 11 years ago when a good friend of mine came to me asking if I would be able to design a custom Baby Shower Invitation reflecting her unique style. I already had been well into my career working as a Professional Graphic Designer and thought it would be a cute and creative outlet to do something a little bit different than what I had done before. By referral only, I started receiving request from friends of friends who went to the different birthday parties and baby showers that I had created stationary for. I realized wow, people actually really like this, maybe I should look into creating an ETSY shop to take orders. Just like any other small business, the first year was a complete learning curve. Lots of mistakes that lead into great lessons, but overall I had my little hobby that was completely separate from my professional work. When I first opened my etsy shop, I really didn’t take advantage of a lot of the features etsy had to offer. I never poured any money into advertising or marketing, it was more so if I got a request every once in a while, FUN! Shortly after, I received a request for a Custom Destination Wedding Save the Date. The Bride wanted something unique and fun, but simple enough to get the information out to her guest quickly. One thing that I have learned over the years from running my business, is allowing it to grow organically. I eventually moved away from birthday parties and baby showers, and really started to focus on Wedding Stationary. And the more request I received for Destination Weddings, the more I fell in love with the idea of all the creative pieces I could design. About two years ago, I realized that I had outgrown etsy and decided to take a chance and really focus on nailing down my brand, building my shop and launching my own site. I had a solid customer base and figured “why not?!”. The thought of starting all over again was scary, and not having etsy’s search engine feature was a huge risk! I thought to myself, can I even do this? The extent of my business background is credited to watching Shark Tank and the Profit while fulfilling orders! But again, “why not?”. I am a huge believer that if your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough. If you don’t make the initiative to take risks, you limit your growth potential. It might not always pay off, but the learning experiences is a value in itself. I am a few days over my one year anniversary from launching my shop site and the reward was completely worth the risk! The best part of it all is watching what started off as a hobby, turn into a real business. I have had the opportunity to connect with vendors and Brides from all over the world and I am constantly working on creating a better customer experience for each and every person I encounter. I can not wait for what is to come for PaperTales in 2021!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
When a Bride/Couple choose me as their designer, I choose them right back. I give my full attention to each one of my Brides and my focus has always been on customer experience. Planning a wedding is such a beautiful, but also stressful time in someone’s life, my goal is to make the process as easy as possible.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If it were up to me, we would most likely take the week to go explore! Camping, hiking, anything outdoors! Taking a weekend trip up North, or visiting some of the spots in downtown Gilbert for a quick bite to eat. Arizona has some of the best hiking trails so you can bet, it would be an adventure!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
A huge shoutout to Luxury Designer Cici Johnson in New York. She is known for her innovated and hand drawn custom Invitations and has been an absolute inspiration within the industry. www.cecinewyork.com

Website: https://www.papertalescustom.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/papertalescustom/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaperTalesCustom