[Update: 30 September 2020]
Miraculove has pivoted from a wedding invite business to a Montessori blog.
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Founded in July 2015 by ‘miracle workers’ Yunnie Tan and Ong Li Min, Miraculove is a well-loved Singaporean brand that crafts stunning wedding stationery.
Miraculove has its beginnings when P&G marketer Yunnie was tasked to create wedding stationery for a close friend.
That one experience was all it took for her to realise that she had found her passion, and she never let go of it. Somewhere along the way came Li Min, a talented artist who shared her interest, and the person who would later also become Miraculove’s co-founder.
As a new brand, the pair understood that they needed to invest “disproportionate time and energy”, and so they did.
Now, with just a year under their belt, Miraculove has been awarded accolade of being one of the Top 10 Wedding Invitation Designers in Singapore.
They have also been featured on one-stop portal for married-couples-to-be The Wedding Scoop, as well as at glamorous showcases at the Pan Pacific Orchard and Raffles Town Club.
Illustrating Love Stories As A ‘Love Story Illustrator’
“We want to engage our customers at a personal level, keep up with their needs and wants, and grow with them.”
Miraculove brands itself as a ‘Love Story Illustrator’, and creates “compelling aesthetics inspired by the couple’s poignant story, their love language and personality.”
To create these illustrations, Yunnie and Li Min work closely with couples for periods that can last up to 6 months. Patient consulting enables them to do what they do best – to come up with a motif that best represents each couple.
But perhaps another reason why Miraculove is so endearing is their ursine mascot, who just like Miraculove, comes with his own backstory.
The bear who believed, Sir Matana’s is a tale imbued with the motivations and hardships faced by the founders, and just like Sir Matana, how both women had sought “greater meaning and fulfilment from [their] work.”
Thankfully, it is a happy ending for everyone.
But Sir Matana is also so much more than just his story.
In his design, he embodies the spirit animals of his founders – the bear for Li Min’s grounded dependability, and the eagle representing Yunnie’s ambitious and visionary outlook.
Couple-Unique Designs
The theme is only the first step to creating a Miraculove design.
Afterwards, Yunnie and Li Min turn to the abundant sources of inspiration all around them. This could be poetry, Mother Nature and architecture (especially of places significant to the couple).
As “[a place] teeming with concrete, diverse works of really talented artists“, Pinterest also serves as a boundless source of inspiration.
Miraculove’s designs range from ethereal forests to picture book proposals, namely, the bespoke Children’s Storybook “Flight of the Flightless Bird”.
A touching tale, it is not in the least surprising when Yunnie muses about it being the design they treasure the most. As a storybook, the design has also been given timelessness, and hopefully will become a bedtime staple for the couple’s children.
When The Going Gets Tough
It’s common to hear horror stories about Bridezillas and Groomonsters, a.k.a. the ones people in the wedding industry fear to work with.
Yunnie and Li Min however, prefer to approach it from another angle.
“Most couples don’t want to be overly demanding, micro-managing, high-tension and angsty. [But] they can’t help it when they’re continually put under stress and crushing expectations. It’s easy to give labels and find that work gets so much harder because of the bias.”
So what the pair does is simply listen.
Instead of getting frustrated, they make sure that the couple is clear on products and deadlines. This way, they have one less perfect wedding worry, and along the way Yunnie and Li Min are able to build trust, which is “surely a better way to start the relationship.“
On overcoming obstacles, Yunnie ruminates that all entrepreneurs should compile a bible, filling it with the best practices and pitfalls of the industry.
“You’ll see further if you stand on the shoulders of giants.”
All startups want to make a difference, but they cannot expect their ideas to be accepted just because they are new, Yunnie comments. It is especially pertinent to learn from those who have made it work.
And standing behind these two women on their quest to carve out their difference is Yunnie’s husband. The matchmaker of Miraculove’s founders, Yunnie reveals, he is also the biggest cheerleader of the brand.
And craftsman for showcases displays. And photographer for styled shoots… as well as site developer for their online store.
Perhaps it’s time to rethink the saying “Behind every great man there’s a great woman.”
Going Online
“We realised that increasingly there are couples who can’t afford the time for bespoke stationery and love the fuss-free idea of ordering in-house Miraculove invitations with charming and signature aesthetics that match their wedding look.”
Speaking to couples at 10 wedding showcases over a 6 month period, the founders reflect that not many can afford to spare the 4-6 months period bespoke wedding stationery usually entails.
Thus, with their online store of semi-custom wedding stationery, Yunnie and Li Min hope to bring Miraculove to more couples. In order to balance the website and delivering high quality designs, bespoke wedding stationery projects would be limited across the year.
“But [it] would still be [their] favourite work to happily slave over,” Yunnie teases.
You might hear the world laments the loss of true love, but the success of Miraculove is proving it otherwise.
Featured Image Credit: Miraculove
