Kristin Hazelwood of Hazelwood Paper Co
Kristin Hazelwood of Hazelwood Paper Co, a Dallas-based wedding stationer with 13 years in business, joins Kevin Cochran on the Texas Wedding Podcast as the show's first stationer, walking through what actually goes into wedding paper goods and why she caps herself at two weddings a weekend.
Kristin started Hazelwood Paper Co as an Etsy shop in 2013 after getting married straight out of college and getting bored at her corporate design job. She shares the early lesson that still shapes her pricing today, pad every estimate, because more than one early job left her making effectively minimum wage. She and Kevin also get into the materials that set her work apart, wood, linen, velvet, leather, and feathers among them, why 95 percent of her business comes through planners, and the hot takes she almost didn't want to say out loud.
Follow Hazelwood Paper Co on Instagram, and hear more from the people shaping the Texas wedding market on the Texas Wedding Podcast.
The Texas Wedding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Cochran of 718 Creative, a Texas wedding videographer.
Meet Kristin Hazelwood of Hazelwood Paper Co
Kevin: Kristin, do you want to introduce yourself?
Kristin Hazelwood: I'm Kristin Hazelwood, and my company is Hazelwood Paper Co. I do wedding stationery. Thirteen years come May, almost.
From Etsy Shop to Full-Service Stationer
Kristin Hazelwood: I got married straight out of college and did my own stationery for it. At the time I was working a corporate job as a graphic designer, blowing through a book a week at my desk out of boredom, on a new grad salary, with weddings fresh on the brain. So I started an Etsy shop doing weddings. It grew naturally at first, family and friends, and then I started advertising at local bridal shows, and it grew from there.
I met one of my best vendor friends, Shannon Rose of Shannon Rose Events, at one of those bridal shows. I just wandered up and down the aisles introducing myself to every vendor there, and we realized we lived fifteen minutes apart. Eleven years later we're still close. We like to go back and look at old invoices together just to see how far we've come. She still tells the story of a client she brought me back then who wanted a glittery cutout gate card, and I said I don't do that, hard pass. Now I'm the one asking if we can put pink feathers on something.
My strangest early request came during the Etsy days. I got an order with three names listed on it, a wedding invitation for three people getting married at once. I messaged back confused, and got an entire story about their relationship. My job was just to make it look pretty and print it, so that's what I did. I still think about that order sometimes and wonder how it all turned out.
Lessons From the Early Years
Kristin Hazelwood: One thing I learned early, and mostly avoid now, is to pad my estimates, especially on anything I've never done before. It bit me more than once in those first couple years, finishing a job and realizing I'd basically made minimum wage on it. Assume something's going to take longer, cost more, or need a reprint, and price accordingly.
The other hard lesson was about volume. The most I'll do in a single weekend now is two weddings, and even that I don't love, because while save-the-dates and invitations can be staggered out, day-of stationery can't, the guest lists and headcounts all land around the same time no matter how far apart the weddings are. I learned this in 2022, when I had four weddings one weekend in October and five the very next weekend. Everybody got their stuff, but I was not fine for a little bit. Never again.
More Than Paper: Materials and Texture
Kristin Hazelwood: Paper is 2D, so on every project I'm thinking about how to add another dimension to it. Favorites are wood, linen, velvet, leather, feathers, and fringe, anything that adds depth and texture, whether that's the material itself, the printing technique, or the paper stock. I also love miniature things, tiny embellishments. I once found a tiny fork and knife and stuck them to the top of every single menu on a project. I don't think I can trust someone who doesn't love tiny cute things.
One of my favorite techniques is sculpted embossing, a hand-sculpted die that presses a deep impression into the paper, expensive, but it stops paper from feeling flat. I've also done a fully textured, feather-covered suite with raised names, wild and fun. The planner passed along a story about that one afterward: the bride asked her fiance if it was too girly, and he told her they were well past that point, whatever makes her happy.
What Clients Misunderstand About Stationery
Kristin Hazelwood: The biggest misunderstanding is that I'm producing a thing, an invitation, and that's where the job starts and ends. The reality is the ideas take the most time, energy, and research, figuring out if what's in my head can become a physical reality, what it costs, who I need to partner with. I can spend a full work day, sometimes more, on a single client's design proposal for just one category, save the dates or invites or day-of. Clients focus on the end result, but there's so much creativity and brainpower going in before we're anywhere near a physical product.
Stationery also sets the tone before anyone even walks into the venue. A chartreuse envelope in the mail isn't a bill, it's the first signal that something's happening, and in a digital world where everything's instant, I think people are starting to appreciate that anticipation again.
Working With Planners
Kristin Hazelwood: About 95 percent of my work comes straight from planners. Every planner has a different workflow and personality, so it's different every time, but there's always a lot of back and forth on the planning team before the client ever sees a proposal. We're often coming up with five, six, seven ideas the client never sees, whittling it down to the right one. I think of the planner as the ring leader, they hold the full picture, so I lean on them hard for details, linen color, plate color, bar color, drapery material, all of which shapes what I design. I regularly see really thorough planner design decks run 30, 40, even 60 pages. My hot take about that is coming.
A Request for Photographers and Videographers
Kristin Hazelwood: I always tell photographers what my favorite reception shot is: directly overhead, straight down on the place setting and menu. I love the angle shots and the down-the-table shots too, those are going in the carousel, but the overhead boom shot is my hero image every time. Some photographers grab it naturally, some don't, so I've started just asking for it outright.
Looking Ahead: Fewer Clients, More Alignment
Kristin Hazelwood: A few years ago I thought I wanted to build a team of designers and become this design powerhouse. Since having my second kid, and getting further from the COVID years, I just want to do creative, fun work. Looking forward, that means finding the right clients, ones who value stationery as an experience and a form of thoughtfulness toward their guests, and honestly taking on fewer of them as the years go on so I can pour more into each one.
Hot Takes
Kristin Hazelwood: My hot take is that a one-page photo collage is not a design board. It's a vibe, not a plan. When I get a one-pager, I need to know if that's really the whole plan or just page one of something bigger, because if it's the whole plan, we have a problem. My personal, unfiltered opinion is that anything under 20 pages, I want to ask what you're getting paid for. Don't put that in there.
My client-facing hot take is that digital save the dates and RSVPs aren't as convenient as people think. They read as under-planned, especially for a formal wedding. I'm a paper person and biased, but I think the effort should match the formality of the event, or it just feels off.
My last one: lace, doodles, and chartreuse aren't as unique as people think, and they'll date a wedding fast. Arch-shaped paper pieces were everywhere from about 2015 to 2021, on invites, table numbers, signage, all of it, and at the time it felt modern. Now it just screams a specific half-decade. Honestly, I think every wedding ends up dated to its era eventually, so you might as well just do what you like.
Kevin: My hot take is that sometimes a DJ hits much harder than a band. Not talking down bands, but in the right setting a great DJ is the right choice, not the backup choice.
The Shout Out
Kristin Hazelwood: I want to shout out Cat Lauren of Cat Lauren Calligraphy. She recently moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and does incredible on-site calligraphy on things guests actually take home with them. The first time I met her in person, she'd personalized little barbecue sauce bottles with sayings and names for a wedding. She's new to Texas, genuinely talented, and a really sweet human.
Kevin: Mine goes to Peyton Frank, a videographer based in Austin who shoots all over the world. She's been an inspiration for how fast and how big a business can grow, and every time I've gotten real time with her, she's the most humble, kind, supportive person.
Connect with Kristin Hazelwood Paper Co: https://www.hazelwoodpaperco.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hazelwoodpaperco
Connect with Kevin // 718 Creative https://718creative.com | https://www.instagram.com/718.creative
Connect with the Podcast https://www.texasweddingpodcast.com | https://www.instagram.com/texasweddingpodcast
