DELEGATE: Tell us more about yourself
A customer once made a punny remark that we are ‘miracle workers’ from Miraculove because we tirelessly work to bring love stories to life. This phrase grew on us – and we now put it on our namecards.
D: How did you get the idea or concept for your business?
When Yunnie was still in the corporate world as a former brand marketer of Olay and Wella, a good friend asked her to design something personal and meaningful for his wedding. Always one who’s up for a creative challenge, she created her first wedding stationery suite with her best friend.
Yunnie fell in love with creating beauty and meaning from her hands and decided to pursue it her full-time love when she met Limin, a talented artist, who shared the same values and brought to the table a unique plethora of design and illustration skills.
D: What is your vision/mission for your company?
We’ve been very blessed to be recognised as one of Singapore’s top 10 wedding invitation designers in 2016 and will continue to live up to our brand promise of bringing more love stories to life. We’ll also create more iconic love story inspired paper goods for retail that inspire and empower the expression of love.
A big project we’re working on would be to grow Miraculove into Asia’s version of US-based Wedding Paper Divas as more couples reach out to us for hassle-free wedding stationery without the time commitment of bespoke. Exciting much?!
D: How did you start it? What were some adversities you faced when starting it?
There were two forms of adverse reactions from family and friends when we left our stable careers to become entrepreneurs – for as many “Live your dreams” encouragements, we received an equal share of “Are you sure your business will take off?” The doubt from others led to self-questioning and many struggles on the emotional and psychological fronts.
It was a humbling experience learning not to buckle under pressure and overcoming self-doubt – we’re glad we have emerged a surer version of ourselves.
D: What is something we might not know about the industry you’re in?
When we plan for your weddings, we feel like getting married (and re-married) ourselves. Such is your wedding vendor’s passion (understatement – the right word would be obsession) for weddings.
D: What has been the most memorable experience for you so far in running your business?
A client once contacted us for bespoke wedding stationery and said, “I know I’ll love the artwork you’re creating for me, even before I see it.” The faith she had in our capability was immense and it spurred us to take on her unique design vision of a realism landscape of dreamy morning skies.
It wasn’t quite smooth-sailing because our first draft met with “This doesn’t quite match up to my expectations”. We did two more renditions that progressed towards her vision but still didn’t quite make it. At that point, we were > < this close to giving up and even thought of contingency solutions like returning the non-refundable deposit and referring her to other wedding stationers.
For the last rendition, a miracle happened when we totally stretched our creative limits to introduce a breakthrough combination of graphic design, watercolour and illustration into the artwork. Her response of “This is truly magnificent” – the self-gratification we felt was probably equivalent to that of a mother cuddling her newborn in her arms after an agonising labour.
D: How do you define success? Who do you see as successful?
Success is tackling adversities with strength and perseverance. We look up to our affiliate business partner, Peiru, owner of La Belle Couture, who demonstrated this when she transformed a bridal company that was heavily in debt into one of the leading boutiques in Singapore.
D: Which habits of yours have gotten you to where you are today?
Being inquisitive about what makes people tick, understanding how things work and asking questions that help us learn and become better at what we do.
D: What is one thing you would like your customers to know about your company?
Storytelling is the key to bringing love stories to life in our wedding stationery.
We insist on soulful conversations (the longest record is 5 HOURS!) with our wedding couples to crystallise insights from their love stories. Subsequently, we conceptualise these details into big ideas before translating them into beautiful and extraordinarily meaningful aesthetics.
D: If you could give advice to fellow and budding entrepreneurs, what wold it be?
“Where there is great love, there are always miracles.” Pour love into what you do without expecting immediate returns, and extraordinary opportunities would present themselves.
Book Miraculove on Delegate today!
D: Where else can we find you online?
Facebook: www.fb.com/miraculove
Instagram : @miraculove_sg