While shopping for a wedding card for her aunt and female partner last year, Stefanie MacDonald (BMgmt’11) was dismayed by the lack of greeting cards celebrating same-sex couples. After designing her own card for the wedding, she decided she could become the solution to the problem she’d identified.

MacDonald has since combined her Dal degree in management with her passion for art to create her own business, along with her partner Lucas Rowe: Halifax Paper Hearts.

Their aim is to create cards that help all people celebrate love, whether LGBTQ or straight. Some of their cards feature “hers and hers” towels or “his and his” toothbrushes, while others do not specify the type of relationship, such as the “we’re better together” card, displaying peanut butter and jam on toast. MacDonald is working on a new fairytale line of cards which will feature two princesses and the classic slogan, “they lived happily ever after.” The company will also offer custom cards for trans or non-binary couples or families celebrating adoption, to name a few.

Halifax Paper Hearts is launching this September in stores including Biscuit and Duly Noted in Halifax, as well as in other stores around Nova Scotia. Many customers have already sent in requests for cards through the company’s website.

MacDonald can’t wait to help couples and families of all kinds express their love.

Loved photographing these adorable cards by Halifax Paper Hearts for their launch ? Just a few of many! #locallove pic.twitter.com/EU3SA3kTGw — TerriLynnWarrenPhoto (@TLWPhoto) August 5, 2015

Thanks to you we now have retailers in Wolfville, Parsborro, North Sydney, & Halifax, NS; as well as Saint John, NB! pic.twitter.com/i4sfSzrsr9

— Halifax Paper Hearts (@paperheartsHFX) August 15, 2015

Read more in “Sharing love the write way: Halifax Paper Hearts designs LGBTQ, diverse cards” on metronews.ca.

Photo credit: Jeff Harper via Metro News