Genu and Elena Berlo help couples and families celebrate weddings, anniversaries and celebrations in style. They started Once Upon a Paper in 2007 after ten years working in various architectural firms in New York, including the world-renowned Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill.

Genu is from Bucharest, and Elena was born and raised in Constanta by the Black Sea. They met in their first year of study for a Bachelor’s in Architecture at Ion Mincu Institute of Architecture in Bucharest, and they’ve been together ever since. Shortly after the completion of the program, they moved to New York and started a family.

In 2007, with the feeling of a more pressing creative impulse, they began to explore commercial venues for their artistic expression, and that’s when they started designing and selling ketubot. After they had received a request to give one of their trees a new purpose, that of a guest book, their business took off. Now, in addition to ketubot, they design guest books, guest book prints, baby celebration prints, albums, invitations, family trees, wedding gifts, and keepsakes.

Genu and Elena offer a broad range of ketubot: original artwork commission ketubah, where they work very closely with the couple to achieve both their vision and a modern style; painted ketubah watercolor, which is the most formal way of making a ketubah in a modern and artistic format; the ketubah giclée print, a very affordable, state-of-the-art giclée print; and the ketubah guestbook, which is basically a painted ketubah with the tree large enough for guests to be able to sign on the leaves. With their woodcut ketubah, the wood has a traditional quality, but the design is modern and sophisticated.

Be sure to check out The Once Upon a Paper Etsy shop to see more of their beautiful products and for more information.