It all started in 2016, in a workshop for people with disabilities
I'm Tobi, and I founded Meine-Holzbox in 2016.
Before Meine-Holzbox existed, I had two jobs.
During the week I was a group leader in a workshop for people with disabilities.
At weekends I photographed weddings. Two worlds that had nothing to do with each other – at first.
Until something started to bother me.
I had just photographed a wedding. Months of preparation, hundreds of images edited – and then? I sent a link. That was it. The most beautiful day in a couple's life, summed up in an email that disappears into the inbox after three weeks.
It felt wrong.
So I walked over to the joinery and talked to the group leader there. We built the first box together, the two of us, with our own hands. Fairly clumsy, but it existed.
For the next couple I printed the photos, put them in the box and handed it over in person.
The look I got back was a different one.
Why workshops for people with disabilities
The question never really came up for me. I was already there. I worked with those people every day and saw the calm and the precision they work with – and how much it means when your work is genuinely needed.
So when the first enquiries from other photographers arrived, it was completely obvious where the boxes would be made.
Today we work with three Bavarian workshops. Almost a hundred supported jobs depend on it. This isn't a story we came up with afterwards – it's the place where everything started in 2016.
After that the boxes come to us in the Allgäu. Here we stain, engrave and pack every single one. Everything around our wooden boxes stays in Germany, from the first step to your front door.
What we do today
That one box has turned into wooden boxes in five colours. Plus SoftTouch boxes, USB sticks, envelopes, album boxes and quite a bit more.
What hasn't changed:
We engrave from a single piece. You don't have to order a hundred boxes to get your logo on one. That mattered to me, because I've been at the point myself where a minimum order simply wasn't possible.
And I'm still a photographer. Every box we sell, I use at my own weddings. If something doesn't work, I'm the first to notice.
How it began
This is what shipping looked like in 2016. The living room table, hand-written shipping labels, a printed list and a biro.
What this is really about
A wooden box isn't a cardboard box.
It sits in your couple's living room. It gets taken out when visitors come. And on its lid is your name.
A download link is forgotten after three weeks. A box with your logo on it is still there in ten years. That's the difference this is all about.
A tree for every order
We work with wood. So we give something back: for every order we plant a tree, right here in Germany.
Get in touch
If you have questions, just write to us. By email at Mail@Meine-Holzbox.de or directly via WhatsApp – we're reachable and we answer ourselves.
