Walking into Marie Castiglione’s Buffalo apartment, you’re immediately greeted by the sight of cards: boxes of cards ready to be mailed, racks of cards against the wall, proofs of soon-to-be-released cards spread over the workstation. Post Its scrawled with notes and ideas, and mood boards for new projects cover the walls alongside framed art prints.
It makes sense, once you meet Marie: She’s the founder and head of Spaghetti & Meatballs, a “home-cooked” greeting card and stationery company, and her apartment serves double duty as its headquarters. A big order or a stroke of inspiration could—and does—strike at any moment, and she’s ready to go when it happens.
“I believe in celebrating the big and small moments of life,” she says. “I love to make people feel seen and appreciated, and a handwritten card can really make someone’s day.”
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Owner and founder Marie Castiglione describes Spaghetti & Meatballs as "home-cooked greeting cards and watercolor art, made with love and a pinch of sass."
Burnt out after 10 years as an art director at Bloomingdale’s in New York City, Castiglione, a Lewiston native, moved home in 2019 to regroup. Prompted by her love of creating elaborate custom birthday cards for her coworkers, she’d been making and selling cards in an Etsy shop as a side hustle for several years.
“I always knew I wanted to work for myself, but it was just getting the wheels in motion,” she says. “I just knew that if I had the time, I could like take it to the next level.”
And that’s just what happened. Armed with the skills from her decade of corporate work but freed from the high pressure and stress, Castiglione finally had the mental capacity to put her unique creative vision to work and pursue Spaghetti & Meatballs full-time. Within a year, she attended her first trade show, was discovered by T.J. Maxx, and the business exploded from there.
Now, her cards can be purchased not only on her website but also in more than 1,000 brick-and-mortar stores, from independent boutiques to national retailers like Marshalls, Macy’s and Barnes & Noble. She’s expanded her offerings to include gift bags and wrapping paper, and in 2024, she’s collaborating with American Greetings on a line of holiday cards that will appear exclusively in Target, starting with Galentine’s Day in February.
Castiglione is quick to credit her sister Teresa, who she describes as Spaghetti & Meatballs’ copywriting queen, and her large, close Italian family, who all pitch in as needed to get orders out the door. She also employs a small-but-growing, all-women team of illustrators and freelance copywriters that handle the heavy lifting on the initial design work while she focuses on other aspects of the business.
“I love having a girl gang,” she says. “It’s been me and Teresa since the beginning, but I like expanding because we get other ideas, a little fresh twist.”
However large the business gets, Castiglione wants Spaghetti & Meatballs to stay nimble enough to capture the cultural moment and instantly turn it into something fresh and funny. Because they work with a local printer in Buffalo, orders can be turned around in record time.
Remember that infinitely meme-able image of Senator Bernie Sanders sitting at the 2021 presidential inauguration on Capitol Hill wearing mittens and a winter coat? Spaghetti & Meatballs had a card called “Big Bernie Energy” designed and ready to sell 24 hours after it surfaced.
“I hope it always feels like ‘now,’ ” Castiglione says of her brand. “When things happen in pop culture, I love being able to respond immediately and make a joke or a pun or a product that’s of the moment.”
