Choosing invitations can be a daunting task and this week on Behind the Door, I’m heading to the perfect spot to help you choose something beautiful – Paperlust in Melbourne’s inner city suburb of Richmond. Paperlust is not only a gorgeous store to visit but has a fantastic online platform meaning you can order their designs from anywhere!

Brothers Alex and James started Paperlust because they were tired of seeing young designers not being able to get their work seen and sold. “I had a background in print and publishing and my brother Alex, a background in digital, and we were looking for a solution to this problem and came across the stationery market, which had very few options other than Vistaprint and small boutique designers at the time,” says James.

Alex and James grew Paperlust without any external funding and built Australia’s first print marketplace where designers earn commission off every sale. “Paperlust looks after the marketing, printing, customer service and dispatch of the finished printed goods.” explains James, “Our goal is to make this whole process seamless and stress free for the users and we have invested heavily in world leading tech to do this.”

Today, Paperlust offer custom invitation and card designs for every occasion, including weddings, engagements, birthdays and baby showers. You can search their website by occasion but also by colour, style and print type. I asked James what his favourite designs are and he says he’s a big fan of colour stock and foil, navy and black paper stocks with gold or silver foiling, as well as white ink printing. “This type of stock and design lends itself to minimal designs, which are strong on typography,” says James.

James says calligraphy fonts are massive at the moment, mainly using foil printing and floral and botanical are always up top with designs. “The other big trend is vellum (translucent stock).” says James,  “Originally this was just for information cards and wishing wells, but more and more people are using it for the main invitation. It is a little lighter than our other stocks, (it can’t be too thick as you won’t be able to see through it!) but it is fairly rigid.” Paperlust have recently launched their range of foil print on vellum and it has gone nuts!

Something many couples are concerned about when it comes to invitations is sustainability, which is very important to the team at Paperlust. “Environmental sustainability is front of mind for all our processes.” says James “We are committed to finding better ways to deliver the world’s best stationery products and promoting mindfulness in the stationery and events industry at the same time.” I’m thrilled to hear all of Paperlust’s products are fully recyclable as well as all their packaging. Paperlust have recently teamed up with not-for-profit organisation that aims to restore forest areas and with every purchase made through our the Paperlust donate money to One Tree Planted.

As always, I want to know what James’s favourite part of running Paperlust is and he tells me “There are lots of things to love, having a creative business is incredibly rewarding in a lot of ways, however my favourite thing is we produce high-quality printed products right here in Australia and send them around the world!”

Images all by Paperlust

About Amelia Waddell of Moonstruck Bride: I’m a proud bridal store owner with a love of exploring creative spaces. Whether it’s an office, event space, workshop or retail store I love seeing how other wedding businesses create their own special magic. When I’m not fitting brides I love immersing myself in everything wedding, in the name of “research” of course.