Lake Minnetonka residents Gerilyn Giel and Mary Perlich may not yet have found Mr. Right via online dating sites, but their experiences led to the hilarious greeting card line, Matchless Greetings.
Gerilyn Giel (G): Since we were young, Mary and I have always been in each other’s lives and we’ve shared our online dating experience with one another. Last August, we created a humorous line of greeting cards.
Mary Perlich (P): The idea came from something basic and standard: It’s human nature to want to connect with someone. It’s scary and hysterical when you read profiles like, “I’m fresh out of jail.”
G: It might explain, though, why your date would show up with an ankle bracelet or look good in orange!
P: Or stripes!
G: We do tweak our cards a little.
P: The hardest part of our job is no one can spell ... or punctuate.
G: You’ll see a profile for a highly educated man and he spelled “educated” wrong.
P: Some things I’ve learned are that “athletic and toned” is subjective and divorce is a gray area.
G: You really have to read profiles.
P: Like height! People can be 6 to 8 inches off.
G: You’re waiting in a coffee shop for a 6-foot man, and your date comes and he’s no taller than the table! We look at profiles of women and men from all across the U.S. The cards are not about slamming people, just sharing humor.
P: We get together, chatting and reading profiles, and banter to create the inside copy and usernames.
G: We translate the copy into birthday and get-well cards, and soon anniversary cards.
P: And maybe “sorry about the loss of your relationship” cards.
-As told to Katie Rucke
Cards sell for $2.99 each.
