From Deseret News archives:
Message firm creating waves
The magazine's October issue, which hit newsstands this week, features Utah-based Urbanity's "Message in a Bottle," along with a note from Oprah Winfrey about the product.
"I think I'm still in that fuzzy haze of 'Wow, this really is real,"' said Meghann Kopecky, president of Urbanity. "I can't believe that this happened so soon."
The Ogden native and University of Utah graduate launched Urbanity just over a year ago, inspired by the response to her wedding invitations, which she designed herself. Custom orders began flowing in, and Kopecky and her new husband decided to open the business, which sells interactive and innovative invitations, cards and stationery.
Kopecky initially dreamed up the Message in a Bottle as a custom-ordered wedding invitation, but feedback from the bride and her guests was so strong that Kopecky started selling it as a regular item.
Scrolls placed inside the plastic bottles, which can be mailed without additional packaging, come in five designs and can be used for a variety of purposes.
"My whole goal of what I had created was something that stands out in the mail, something that the recipient reaches for first," Kopecky said.
The clear bottles, whose messages are kept inside with a tightly placed cork, cost $1.30 to send.
In O Magazine, Winfrey praises the bottles as a "fun way to send an invitation, a thank-you, or a note announcing that you're currently shipwrecked."
Urbanity products can be purchased in more than 100 retail stores nationwide or online at www.urbanitystudios.com.
E-mail: awelling@desnews.com
