Purveyor of singular missives

Owner of stationery store helps customers share their personal milestones

Listen to the first line of the song “Put Your Records On” by Corinne Bailey Rae and you’ll hear the inspiration for the name of Kristen Stewart’s stationery shop, Three Little Birds. 

Photos by Tiona Fuller Photography Kristen Stewart, owner of Three Little Birds

“I also love Bob Marley’s song that talks about three little birds,” Stewart gushes. “It’s all about enjoying life, making the most of every day and living out our dreams.” Through her shop, Stewart is, in fact, living out her dreams.

As the owner of Three Little Birds stationery store in Charlotte, Stewart gets to help people find unique and beautiful ways to communicate. “A huge part of our business involves wedding invitations,” Stewart says, “but we also help people with everything from birth announcements and birthday-party invitations to business cards, logos and brochures.”

Armed with a marketing degree from N.C. A&T State University and years of corporate experience, Stewart conducted thorough research when she opened her business in 2007.

“There is a national stationery show in New York every May. I went to that and came home with a list of over 100 companies I wanted to buy stuff from,” Stewart recalls. “I visited probably 25 stationery stores on the East Coast from New York to Atlanta.”

Announcing personal and professional highlights

Most of Stewart’s customers are preparing to get married. “Although we do a wide range of things, probably 85 percent of the work we do has to do with wedding invitations,” Stewart says. “I believe in love. I get to see great examples of it every day.” 

But, Stewart is privileged, she says, to have the opportunity to see the beauty in every life event for which she helps her customers prepare. Few people realize Three Little Birds even does funeral programs, says Stewart. “People have asked us if doing funeral programs makes us sad, but honestly,” Stewart explains, “it’s amazing to see how full and rich other people’s lives are and have been.”

Stewart’s company also provides business services.  

“We design logos, business cards and brochures. We offer our business customers real value. We sit down and talk with the customer. …We talk about the pros and cons of certain colors. When we create for our business customers we offer them tons of options – digital signatures, fast-loading graphics for the Web and even billboard art. We would love to work with more small to medium sized businesses.”

Brides and business owners alike are faced with a staggering array of options when they arrive at Three Little Birds (http://threelittlebirdsinc.com). Papers come in a huge range of colors, weights, textures and patterns. Combine that with the seemingly infinite printing options, from raised thermographic to debossed letter-pressed, and you might think you’d find Stewart’s customers wandering in the store dazed and confused, and possibly concerned about staying within their budgets. Not at all, Stewart says.  

“We have illustrators and graphic designers on staff so you can literally walk in not knowing what you want and walk out fully educated, with a purchase that gives you great value regardless of what your budget is.”   

Always a place for messages on paper

As technology has evolved, and texting and email have become commonly used forms of communication, some aspects of Stewart’s business have actually gained panache. 

“With things like Facebook messaging, email and text messaging, people don’t buy as much letter-writing paper or social-event stationery. It might take an hour to write a letter and you can send a text in two seconds. But a text message doesn’t have the heartfelt feeling a written letter has. The fact that it takes time to write a letter makes letters even more special,” Stewart believes. “Plus, people love to get something fun in the mail.

“I am so in love with stationery and this store that I literally cannot imagine doing anything else. But it’s not all peaches and roses,” Stewart says. “There have been many days where I’ve laughed and had the time of my life and other days when I have wanted to cry. When I worked in corporate America I made a good salary, had great health benefits and paid vacation time. My life has had to change since then, but I’m happier than I’ve ever been.”