If you need the perfect card or the perfect gift - ephemera has what you need! But more importantly ephemera is a kind place in the world - a small business run with heart that cares about making their customers happy (with their stationery or invites) but also about the experience of working together. Such care and attention with wedding couples and party-havers of all kinds to make sure the paper they are sending out into the world announcing their big day or event is more than just a simple paper but something worth keeping. Letterpress business cards! Personalized stationery with lined envelopes! Zippy printing of a thing you bought online! The best!

I absolutely love this shop! It’s always been my go-to for cute and quirky cards. They have unique and fun gift items too. I did quite a bit of holiday shopping there for my nieces and nephew the past few years, they have the cutest selection of kids items! I’m also constantly treating myself to their awesome candles and candies. I cannot say enough good things!

For more than a decade, I have loved shopping at Ephemera, but I have appreciated the shop and its amazing owners even more during the COVID pandemic. As I found myself lacking the right words to extend care, concern, grief, and joy to my friends and family this year, Ephemera always had the perfect card or the best gift to send. I appreciated being able to shop safely online, and their Happy at Home boxes were absolute delights. I’m so glad this shop exists. It is a treasure!

As I think back to some of the most meaningful and memorable gatherings in my life, Ephemera was an integral part of so many of them. Theyve designed invitations for baby showers, milestone birthday parties, and a housewarming party.When my dear friend, January, passed away and I was organizing a celebration of life event in her honor, it was the ladies at Ephemera who suggested the perfect idea of creating a calendar with Januarys artwork prominently displayed. During another tough time when I needed to have a ceremony that invited others to mourn with me, Ephemera designed beautiful programs that flawlessly captured the essence of an unusual and heavy event.I count myself lucky to be able to look to a cute little local shop that knows my name and my needs, and can design something for both joyful occasions and sad, somber ones. Ephemera is a gem and it warms my heart to be able to support them throughout all the different seasons of life.

Ephemera is my go-to when I need a special gift for a friend. Walking into their shop just makes me smile- everything is so pretty and you can tell it was carefully and thoughtfully selected. The owners are SO sweet as well. Its a great little local gem.

Great selection of cards and paper and journals.

Ephemera is one of the best and cutest shops Des Moines has to offer. The owners are so friendly and always helpful when Im looking for that perfect card for the occasion. I love their selection of cards, from funny and cute to beautiful and heartwarming. Great spot to find gifts as well. Lots of wonderful smelling candles and fun calendars, notebooks and all kinds of thoughtful gift ideas.They also designed the Thank You cards for my wedding. The turn around time was quick, the cards were perfect and the price was great. Love this spot!

Popped in on a cold winter Saturday to warm up and browse around. Very nice shop and friendly service. We bought our daughter a mermaid necklace, and I got myself a new nib and some ink. The nib is great, and writes beautifully. Thanks! I cant wait to stop by again.

Well-curated collection of stationary, office supplies and gifts. Great selection of getting cards, too.

These provide amazing product! Its the only place I have purchased cards for every event for years! They are awesome!

Awesome service, owners love their store. Support a small business.

Karen and her team are great! She worked closely with my fiancé for our save the dates and allowed time for edits right up to the moment we went to print. The paper Karen suggested was perfect and she helped match the fonts for the addressed envelopes. Weve had so many compliments on them. We cant wait to work with them on all the rest of our wedding stationery! High quality stuff and we were so happy to work with a local business.

Always a great experience. Fun staff. Great service. Great cards. Its really a beautiful space. You wont regret visiting this shop.Weve started doing several print jobs for our chiropractic clinic with them and they have always done a great job.

My wedding invitations were custom designed by the ladies of Ephemera. Karen & Arin did an amazing job, and they were a lot of fun to work with. I love, love, loved the results! They were also willing to help me out with some other details for the wedding, so everything went well together. I definitely will use them for future events!I am also a frequent visitor to the retail shop. They have a great selection of greeting cards and lots of other cuteness!

We went to Ephemera for our save the date and wedding invitations. In the end, we were happy with the way both turned out. However, it was a very frustrating process to get there. I had an appointment with one of the designers over a year before my wedding date and we struggled to get both the save the dates and wedding invitations by the deadline that I wanted. In addition, I sent multiple emails and made many calls to check-in on where we were at in the process.After another appointment to discuss final details for the wedding invitations I was told that I would receive proofs within the next two weeks. I contacted them at the two week mark and was told they were still working on those proofs. I waited two more weeks before finally e-mailing them and asking about when we could get the proofs done so that we could submit our order. 5 weeks after our initial appointment we finally made the order.I had an upcoming shower and had arranged for the invitations to be done so that my mother could bring them over to Iowa City that weekend. To little surprise, we were told a few days before that the invitations would not be done. Actually, we were told that it would be a miracle if they were done in time. I understand that paper gets back ordered and what not, but had the proofs been sent in time we would have had an additional 2-3 weeks buffer.Again, our invitations turned out beautiful, but if I were to redo the process I would have gone elsewhere and saved myself unnecessary stress.

I just have to tell you how AMAZING the invitations, thank you notes, and bookmarks turned out! Oh my goodness, the bookmarks! Lady! They are so much better than what I ever would have come up with! And the calligraphy on the envelopes is stunning! You’ve literally made me regret eloping because I don’t get to send out more of your gorgeous invitations! You guys did a fantastic job; I’m telling everyone!

The most adorable shop in all of Des Moines! It’s been my go to spot for gifts and cards for a while and more recently their calligraphy classes. Everything is so adorable and personal!

We went to this studio today! What an amazing place. It was so much fun to shop and see all the stationery in the store. I wish they had a location in Denver. It was wonderful to meet Karen and the staff.

Karen and the people who work there are amazing! Just amazing!

Great spot for stationery, especially cards, and little gifts. Really enjoyed both of my experiences there and loved chatting with the two ladies, one which I think was the owner, who helped me find a notebook when I went in last week.

So great, they helped me out with my wedding stationery and it came out beautifully. To top it off, theyre a lot of fun to work with as well!

Theres no one better than the Ephemera gang. They produce incredible Stationery in addition to the most amazing collection of amazing finds. A Des Moines must see.

Great place to get custom wedding invitations that are adoreable and competitively priced with online invitations. The final product looks so amazing that I would highly recommend you check out Arin at Ephemera in Des Moines!

Just stopped in to see if they could do one small single piece job, and they were the most helpful and did it while i waited, and was a reasonable price.

Best stationery store in des moines

Love the products and people!