Review is written by Staff @ The Ring and is based on • Interviews with this vendor • Interviews with past brides
After being top of her class and freelancing her design work in Greece, Elena Sebekos has made herself at home in London Ontario, doing exactly what she wants to do, working with local brides and grooms who are all about putting their style on paper. Whether you’re a bride and groom who’s on the hunt for simple, modern wedding stationery, or you’re more traditional, looking for a classic, elegant design, Elena makes it her to job create stationery– several pieces or an entire collection - that is perfect for you and the style of your day. Through her company, Paperboat Creations, Elena combines her love for art and design with the most important events in life to create unique designs that stand out from the rest.
Custom designs for anything from invitations to seating charts to thank you cards come with sweet prices a London bride can love - especially considering that Elena takes your plans and dreams for your wedding and turns them into one-of-a-kind designs. Running on the philosophy that a happy client = a happy designer, Elena says she makes sure she builds a trustworthy relationship with all of her clients. The consensus we got from her brides was that you can relax and count on Elena to design your entire wedding stationery package. Let us tell you more…
Personally speaking…
Elena completed the three year Graphic Design program at Fanshawe College in the top of her class. When she worked as a Freelance Graphic Designer in Athens, Greece she plunged into invitation design and absolutely loved it. So, when she relocated back to Canada in December 2008 she decided to start her own business, which she did in September 2009.
“It wasn’t until I designed my own wedding invitations that it suddenly clicked inside me,” explained Elena. “Combining my love for design with the most important events of my life was exactly what I wanted to do.” Then came the compliments and she began to design wedding stationery for her friends in Athens and sister-in-law in London, Ontario. That spiralled into Christening/baptism invitations, showers, baby announcements, and before she knew it, Paperboat Creations was born.
Elena says that it’s her love for art and design, the passion to create unique designs that stand out from the rest, and the creative freedom she has in making all of this happen that keeps her inspired. “I love the way design can connect people together... from strangers to loved ones,” she adds. “It's what keeps me going.”
Couples put faith in Paperboat
Aside from obviously gorgeous designs, Elena says she makes service a priority. She believes that by going above and beyond, she’s better able to build trustworthy relationships with all of their clients. In doing that, Elena earns the ability to “create freely and deliver satisfying results.”
June 2009 couple, Victor and Sophia Teixeira, admit they would have been at a total loss if it wasn’t for Elena. They also admit to having no problem trusting Paperboat Creations to create their shower invitations, wedding invitations, menus, church pamphlets, table numbers, seating plan and thank you cards. Sophia remembers, "Elena said 'trust me' and I was able to let go and let her design my entire wedding package... It is so busy trying to plan a wedding and it was refreshing to know that I could count on Elena to take care of this for me."
Everyone has their own style
Elena has had the opportunity to work with brides with different styles and themes from a Hollywood movie theme to an elegant damask theme, and since everyone differs, she makes sure she gets to know all of her couples so that she can tailor the stationery design to their needs – from colour to style and elegant to modern.
Aurelia Valiulis used Paperboat for her invitations, table numbers and thank-you cards. She told The Ring, "I found that when looking through the overwhelmingly large number of albums at wedding shops, there was never anything that fit EXACTLY with my vision. When ordering from a big box company, I found that with most styles, I would have to make some sort of concession; I would have to be content with a colour that wasn't exactly right, or a style that wasn't quite that of the wedding...with Paperboat Creations, I was able to create exactly the look I wanted with no compromise whatsoever. Not only that, but I got the advice of an expert in graphic design, and someone with expansive experience in the invitation business to help guide my decisions!"
Amanda Gaspari and Paul Costella knew they wanted something different for their July 2011 wedding stationery. When the couple was referred to Paperboat Creations, one of the reasons they booked Elena was her willingness to work with them to create a personalized invitation. "I loved how many options Elena gave us," says Amanda. "We went to our first meeting not really knowing what we wanted so we just gave her our colours and the overall look we were going for and she said she would come up with a few things. We went back and she had three pages of monograms for us to choose from. It was really amazing knowing that she spent that much time working on something for us."
Elena knows that every bride has her own vision of what her wedding will be like. “… Every wedding has its own style and every design is different if it’s custom made… My job is to work with the bride to create a design that reflects her style and make it appear on paper.”
When Sophia came to Paperboat Creations, she remembers thinking that Elena really saw her as a person. “[She] really put herself in my shoes… She understood what I was asking and was very quick to paint a beautiful picture of her ideas... Elena is a designer and she will listen to your requests and put your description on paper."
While Elena does have a portfolio of past designs you can use for inspiration, she loves having the chance to take your ideas and theme and turn them into one-of-a-kind invitations. And, as she has lived in Greece on and off for her entire life, Elena sometimes adds bits and pieces from Greece (like beads, shells, and ribbons) for a truly unique design, and a bit of her personal touch.
Krista De Groot booked Elena for everything from reply cards to menus to church programs. She says her guests raved about everything from Paperboat Creations, "We wanted our wedding to be different and stand out from all the rest and that first impression of invitations is very important. They set the mood for the whole wedding and let your guests know what to expect. Paperboat Creations designed a different, personalized invitation that earned us so many compliments. Even a few "this is the best/nicest wedding invitation I have ever seen. I wanted something unique...all of the wedding invite catologues looked familiar and I could pick my friend's invites out of them. Working in marketing and communications makes me very picky when it comes to stationary and Elena was able to bring my vision to life and produce stationary that was unique to us. We received dozens of compliments on our invitations!"
Paperboat packages & pricing
Paperboat Creations offers all things wedding stationery from invitations to seating plans, custom made personalized monograms, programs, table numbers, and thank you cards.
Elena says she is able to work with any bride and her budget. Invitations start at $3.25 each for a simple invitation - no embellishment or ribbon and without RSVPs. Prices increase when coordinating pieces such as RSVPs & accommodations cards. Custom invitations start at $4.00.
Ceremony programs start at $2 each, and seating charts start at $100 and include rental fee and easel. All prices include printing, and the design process. Elena tells us that she only uses the best printers to ensure quality.
The average bride can spend anywhere from $500 to $2000 on all of her stationery from Paperboat Creations.
"I was very happy with the price," says Sophia. "Because Paperboat Creations is a custom design, a bride will get a custom quote." She adds that she and Elena were able to work together with her budget because Elena is very conscious of budgets and respects the value of a dollar.
Walking you through a Paperboat wedding…
Contacting Paperboat Creations about eight months before your wedding will ensure you’ve got enough time to find tune the details and get going on the design process so invitations can be sent six or more weeks before the big day. Elena requires an initial appointment with you to get things going, which you can set-up by email or phone. She's pretty easy going as far as where you meet - it could be at your place or a coffee shop. Sophia told us that "Elena was easy to talk to and she was very flexible with my busy schedule."
During the first consultation, she shows you the sample books, discusses specifics of your wedding and figures out what products you’re interested in. Stage two of the process is when Elena presents two to three different design samples with a price estimate. Once a design is chosen the design process for the rest of the stationery begins. Elena says this usually takes five to ten days.
After your final approval on the design layout, wording and wedding details, Elena sends you the final digital proof before printing so you can double check the grammar, spelling and any typography before the printing process begins. At this point, a 50% deposit is required before the design is sent to print.
Melissa Abercromby and Matthew Costella got Paperboat Creations to create all of their November 2010 wedding stationery, and they loved that Elena and her team took the time to listen to what they wanted, and then made it better. "Elena always checks in before finalizing anything and made our save the dates, invites, programs, table names and thank you cards all fit together as a set with a modern, personalized flair."
After the printing process is finished, Elena assembles the products and adds finishing touches. The remaining 50% is due at this point, when you receive the stationery.
If you’ve purchased a seating chart from Paperboat, Elena makes sure she’s the one who delivers it to, and picks it up from your hall - just another little something she does to add a more personalized touch.
Amanda and Paul feel that this personalized touch (at a very reasonable price) is something they couldn't find with other stationery vendors. They're using Paperboat Creations for their save the dates, invitations, table numbers, seating chart, and thank you cards and highly recommend Elena to their friends and family. "I would tell them how easy Elena is to work with, how creative and personalized she would make their invitations look, and what a fantastic deal they would be getting."
Upcoming trends for the next wedding season are: bold, bright and fun colours, art deco themes, and floral patterns. Elena adds that a lot of flourish-style fonts complemented by a sans serif font will also be popular. Metallic/pearl papers will be a big hit among next year’s brides, too. “I try to incorporate these trends into my illustrations,” she says.
Details, details, details
• Call or email Paperboat Creations at least 8 months before your wedding to book an appointment.
• Customizable packages to fit most budgets are available; simple designs start at $3.25 and can go up from there. The average bride spends $500 to $2000 on all things stationery.
• HST is applicable on all quoted prices.
• Big orders receive freebies – like table numbers.
• A $150 design fee is due at the time of booking and will be deducted from your total order cost.
After being top of her class and freelancing her design work in Greece, Elena Sebekos has made herself at home in London Ontario, doing exactly what she wants to do, working with local brides and grooms who are all about putting their style on paper. Whether you’re a bride and groom who’s on the hunt for simple, modern wedding stationery, or you’re more traditional, looking for a classic, elegant design, Elena makes it her to job create stationery– several pieces or an entire collection - that is perfect for you and the style of your day. Through her company, Paperboat Creations, Elena combines her love for art and design with the most important events in life to create unique designs that stand out from the rest.
Custom designs for anything from invitations to seating charts to thank you cards come with sweet prices a London bride can love - especially considering that Elena takes your plans and dreams for your wedding and turns them into one-of-a-kind designs. Running on the philosophy that a happy client = a happy designer, Elena says she makes sure she builds a trustworthy relationship with all of her clients. The consensus we got from her brides was that you can relax and count on Elena to design your entire wedding stationery package. Let us tell you more…
Personally speaking…
Elena completed the three year Graphic Design program at Fanshawe College in the top of her class. When she worked as a Freelance Graphic Designer in Athens, Greece she plunged into invitation design and absolutely loved it. So, when she relocated back to Canada in December 2008 she decided to start her own business, which she did in September 2009.
“It wasn’t until I designed my own wedding invitations that it suddenly clicked inside me,” explained Elena. “Combining my love for design with the most important events of my life was exactly what I wanted to do.” Then came the compliments and she began to design wedding stationery for her friends in Athens and sister-in-law in London, Ontario. That spiralled into Christening/baptism invitations, showers, baby announcements, and before she knew it, Paperboat Creations was born.
Elena says that it’s her love for art and design, the passion to create unique designs that stand out from the rest, and the creative freedom she has in making all of this happen that keeps her inspired. “I love the way design can connect people together... from strangers to loved ones,” she adds. “It's what keeps me going.”
Couples put faith in Paperboat
Aside from obviously gorgeous designs, Elena says she makes service a priority. She believes that by going above and beyond, she’s better able to build trustworthy relationships with all of their clients. In doing that, Elena earns the ability to “create freely and deliver satisfying results.”
June 2009 couple, Victor and Sophia Teixeira, admit they would have been at a total loss if it wasn’t for Elena. They also admit to having no problem trusting Paperboat Creations to create their shower invitations, wedding invitations, menus, church pamphlets, table numbers, seating plan and thank you cards. Sophia remembers, "Elena said 'trust me' and I was able to let go and let her design my entire wedding package... It is so busy trying to plan a wedding and it was refreshing to know that I could count on Elena to take care of this for me."
Everyone has their own style
Elena has had the opportunity to work with brides with different styles and themes from a Hollywood movie theme to an elegant damask theme, and since everyone differs, she makes sure she gets to know all of her couples so that she can tailor the stationery design to their needs – from colour to style and elegant to modern.
Aurelia Valiulis used Paperboat for her invitations, table numbers and thank-you cards. She told The Ring, "I found that when looking through the overwhelmingly large number of albums at wedding shops, there was never anything that fit EXACTLY with my vision. When ordering from a big box company, I found that with most styles, I would have to make some sort of concession; I would have to be content with a colour that wasn't exactly right, or a style that wasn't quite that of the wedding...with Paperboat Creations, I was able to create exactly the look I wanted with no compromise whatsoever. Not only that, but I got the advice of an expert in graphic design, and someone with expansive experience in the invitation business to help guide my decisions!"
Amanda Gaspari and Paul Costella knew they wanted something different for their July 2011 wedding stationery. When the couple was referred to Paperboat Creations, one of the reasons they booked Elena was her willingness to work with them to create a personalized invitation. "I loved how many options Elena gave us," says Amanda. "We went to our first meeting not really knowing what we wanted so we just gave her our colours and the overall look we were going for and she said she would come up with a few things. We went back and she had three pages of monograms for us to choose from. It was really amazing knowing that she spent that much time working on something for us."
Elena knows that every bride has her own vision of what her wedding will be like. “… Every wedding has its own style and every design is different if it’s custom made… My job is to work with the bride to create a design that reflects her style and make it appear on paper.”
When Sophia came to Paperboat Creations, she remembers thinking that Elena really saw her as a person. “[She] really put herself in my shoes… She understood what I was asking and was very quick to paint a beautiful picture of her ideas... Elena is a designer and she will listen to your requests and put your description on paper."
While Elena does have a portfolio of past designs you can use for inspiration, she loves having the chance to take your ideas and theme and turn them into one-of-a-kind invitations. And, as she has lived in Greece on and off for her entire life, Elena sometimes adds bits and pieces from Greece (like beads, shells, and ribbons) for a truly unique design, and a bit of her personal touch.
Krista De Groot booked Elena for everything from reply cards to menus to church programs. She says her guests raved about everything from Paperboat Creations, "We wanted our wedding to be different and stand out from all the rest and that first impression of invitations is very important. They set the mood for the whole wedding and let your guests know what to expect. Paperboat Creations designed a different, personalized invitation that earned us so many compliments. Even a few "this is the best/nicest wedding invitation I have ever seen. I wanted something unique...all of the wedding invite catologues looked familiar and I could pick my friend's invites out of them. Working in marketing and communications makes me very picky when it comes to stationary and Elena was able to bring my vision to life and produce stationary that was unique to us. We received dozens of compliments on our invitations!"
Paperboat packages & pricing
Paperboat Creations offers all things wedding stationery from invitations to seating plans, custom made personalized monograms, programs, table numbers, and thank you cards.
Elena says she is able to work with any bride and her budget. Invitations start at $3.25 each for a simple invitation - no embellishment or ribbon and without RSVPs. Prices increase when coordinating pieces such as RSVPs & accommodations cards. Custom invitations start at $4.00.
Ceremony programs start at $2 each, and seating charts start at $100 and include rental fee and easel. All prices include printing, and the design process. Elena tells us that she only uses the best printers to ensure quality.
The average bride can spend anywhere from $500 to $2000 on all of her stationery from Paperboat Creations.
"I was very happy with the price," says Sophia. "Because Paperboat Creations is a custom design, a bride will get a custom quote." She adds that she and Elena were able to work together with her budget because Elena is very conscious of budgets and respects the value of a dollar.
Walking you through a Paperboat wedding…
Contacting Paperboat Creations about eight months before your wedding will ensure you’ve got enough time to find tune the details and get going on the design process so invitations can be sent six or more weeks before the big day. Elena requires an initial appointment with you to get things going, which you can set-up by email or phone. She's pretty easy going as far as where you meet - it could be at your place or a coffee shop. Sophia told us that "Elena was easy to talk to and she was very flexible with my busy schedule."
During the first consultation, she shows you the sample books, discusses specifics of your wedding and figures out what products you’re interested in. Stage two of the process is when Elena presents two to three different design samples with a price estimate. Once a design is chosen the design process for the rest of the stationery begins. Elena says this usually takes five to ten days.
After your final approval on the design layout, wording and wedding details, Elena sends you the final digital proof before printing so you can double check the grammar, spelling and any typography before the printing process begins. At this point, a 50% deposit is required before the design is sent to print.
Melissa Abercromby and Matthew Costella got Paperboat Creations to create all of their November 2010 wedding stationery, and they loved that Elena and her team took the time to listen to what they wanted, and then made it better. "Elena always checks in before finalizing anything and made our save the dates, invites, programs, table names and thank you cards all fit together as a set with a modern, personalized flair."
After the printing process is finished, Elena assembles the products and adds finishing touches. The remaining 50% is due at this point, when you receive the stationery.
If you’ve purchased a seating chart from Paperboat, Elena makes sure she’s the one who delivers it to, and picks it up from your hall - just another little something she does to add a more personalized touch.
Amanda and Paul feel that this personalized touch (at a very reasonable price) is something they couldn't find with other stationery vendors. They're using Paperboat Creations for their save the dates, invitations, table numbers, seating chart, and thank you cards and highly recommend Elena to their friends and family. "I would tell them how easy Elena is to work with, how creative and personalized she would make their invitations look, and what a fantastic deal they would be getting."
Upcoming trends for the next wedding season are: bold, bright and fun colours, art deco themes, and floral patterns. Elena adds that a lot of flourish-style fonts complemented by a sans serif font will also be popular. Metallic/pearl papers will be a big hit among next year’s brides, too. “I try to incorporate these trends into my illustrations,” she says.
Details, details, details
• Call or email Paperboat Creations at least 8 months before your wedding to book an appointment.
• Customizable packages to fit most budgets are available; simple designs start at $3.25 and can go up from there. The average bride spends $500 to $2000 on all things stationery.
• HST is applicable on all quoted prices.
• Big orders receive freebies – like table numbers.
• A $150 design fee is due at the time of booking and will be deducted from your total order cost.
