State College woman channels creativity, engineering background into wedding-related business

When Lourdes Bobbio began planning her wedding last year, she channeled her creative skills and engineering background to create her own wedding stationery. A full-time engineer, Bobbio said she’s always been into art, but the project was a rare opportunity to combine her career and her hobbies, thanks to the overlap in the skills needed for both.

“I think a lot of people really underestimate how much creativity and design goes into the engineering and STEM fields,” the State College woman said. “Everything’s almost like a puzzle. Being able to put these (stationery) pieces together in a way that’s aesthetically pleasing in a design aspect is similar to the way, in engineering ... you’re putting all these pieces together.”

Bobbio enjoyed her personal wedding project so much that she decided to make a business of it and, last month, launched Cardsmith Design Studio.

“As I was working on this stuff for my own wedding, I realized how much I enjoyed doing it. I decided, a little bit on a whim, at the end of last year, to turn it into a business. I found so much joy in doing it and loved the artistic process. It was something that had been missing from my life for so long and I wanted to get back to it,” she said.

Cardsmith Design Studio focuses primarily on weddings and wedding-related events, such as bridal showers and engagement parties. While the wedding and event industries continue to evolve in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bobbio plans to use this time to slowly grow her business and promote the Cardsmith Design Studio name.

She currently offers two options for clients, a collection of pre-made, customizable stationery suites and then a totally bespoke service.

For the former, she said, “I have the basic structure already there, but I can customize it for your wording. A lot of them also have different color aspects to match your wedding colors.”

For the bespoke service, things are a little more involved, with multiple meetings to talk wedding vision and vibe, and multiple rounds of stationery proofing and review. Regardless of which option a client chooses, Bobbio recommends couples plan to finalize all stationery decisions in time for invitations to send eight to 12 weeks before the wedding and, for those who want a totally bespoke stationery suite, it’s recommended they start shopping about six months in advance.

For those who are still planning weddings or smaller celebrations during the pandemic, Bobbio said having a professional stationer on your side can be helpful now more than ever.

“The real benefit of going to a professional stationer versus getting a mass-produced card is having that professional who knows the industry and the etiquette surrounding stationery. ... There are always questions as to, ‘Is this appropriate wording? Can I say this? How would I word this specific thing?’ Having someone that has that background and who really knows what the etiquette is can be really helpful in guiding the couple in what the best way to go around different situations is, especially now with a lot of postponements and cancellations. A lot of people are confused as to the best course of action. ... Having that professional guidance can really be useful,” she said.

Working directly with a stationer also allows for greater customization, even down to purchasing a certain number of individual stationery pieces, such as RSVP cards. For Bobbio, part of the joy of her new business is creating those custom details.

“I love designing the invitations ... I love playing around with the different elements you can include in wedding stationery — geometric elements, floral elements — and coming up with the design. When I start working with couples, it’s getting to know the unique visions for their weddings and incorporating those into a one-of-a-kind paper stationery suite. My hope for this is that when the guest opens the envelope, they don’t even need to see the couples’ names; they already know who it is by just looking at the design,” she said.

In the months ahead, Bobbio said she hopes to further connect with the wedding industry in central Pennsylvania and begin working more with local brides, but notes she’s not limited by geography and, at the end of the day, her work is all about adding to a couple’s happy day.

“The wedding industry in general is here to help couples. We really want them to have the best experience possible, regardless of what they end up doing,” she said. “We really want to be here to help the couple and make their day as special as possible.”