At Tapestry, we frame our wedding planning services as support packages. We’re clear that you are capable of handling as much of the wedding planning process as you please, especially given ample time resources and research tools. We want to give you the space to own as much of this experience as you like in a way that feels good (read: not overwhelming or joy-zapping) to you and your partner. Our role is to support the pieces of the process that need leadership, organization, expertise, and tools that live outside of your bandwidth, ability, and energy. We meet you where you’re at for your perfect planning fit.

DISCUSSING YOUR PACKAGE.

When we consult with couples, we often get asked to recommend the wedding planning support package that is the best fit for your needs. After getting to know you, your vision, and your values, we often recommend a package or pair of packages for you. But our recommendations are more effective if you come in having discussed the options with your partner in advance, and if you have a clear sense of the support you want from us. To help you choose your own planning adventure confidently, we’ve laid out your options in an extended metaphor about music festivals. It’s a little silly, but it will create a point of common culture for anyone who isn’t clear about the work behind wedding planning.

THE EXTENDED MUSIC FESTIVAL METAPHOR.

Imagine that your wedding planning journey is a music festival. You are the festival producer and you own the entire concept, just like you own the direction and scope of your wedding plans. You may have an interest in being involved with some of the key roles within the festival, like the lineup and branding (deciding on a specific location, vendors, design, or guest experiences), or you may just be interested in overseeing the operation as a whole while letting your staff handle the details (setting the general direction and letting someone else build the event with your inspiration).

Here are how the elements in your festival break down: You have a general manager and their staff, a stage manager, and a lineup of sick bands and performers. Your general manager is your planning strategy, deciding how to bring people into the spirit of your event and tackle building an epic planning process for your big celebration. Your stage manager is the coordinator for your day and the bands, calling shots the day-of and getting it done in partnership with our vendor team. And your bands and performers are your vendor team, working as one to make a flawless, coordinated performance experience in the spirit of the festival. Your goal over the next year is to build, organize, and coordinate a festival that is a once a lifetime experience — your wedding. 

Choosing your general manager, or your planning support team, is an important first step. You want planners who are going to help you create a cohesive music experience, who are going to offer the stage manager and bands support when they need it throughout the shows, and who are going to bring in a strategic management infrastructure that everyone can follow to know what to expect on the opening day. You also want to have confidence that this strategy will result in getting tickets sold and creating the experience you want for your festival attendees. 

IDENTIFYING YOUR PACKAGE.

If you want a general manager to step in and leverage a tried-and-true strategy that will carry your festival from inception to execution, then full planning services is the support package you want.

You may or may not have a location (venue) on board, a branding and business plan (Pinterest and adapted spreadsheets), a completed performance lineup (vendor team), or a number of other resources and decisions in your pocket. Full planning celebrations come in all shapes and sizes, just like festivals. The common thread is your desire to have a cohesive music experience that brings people together according to your vision. With a full planning package, we are your general manager who shows up with a complete business strategy and coordinates monthly meetings with you, while also staying in touch with the bands scheduled. We have years of festival and music event experience that we know make for a successful weekend experience. We have connections with lots of labels to draw performers (vendors) from and only recommend the ones that are the best fit for the vibe of your festival. We make sure that the budget stays balanced, that the event plans adapt to what we see on the horizon, and that the musicians show up with full energy to blow all the festival-goers’ minds out of the water. 

If you want to call in a general manager that will bring the architecture for the festival, while you retain ownership over pieces of the planning process as an assistant manager, then partial planning services are your best fit.

Partial planning is a great fit for couples who have a clear sense of direction and are self-motivated to get planning objectives done at regular intervals. Do you have a pre-researched and pre-vetted lineup of performers (vendors) you want to invite to your show? Do you have a clear and defined head start on how you want your festival experience to be (your celebration values)? Do you schedule and show up for company meetings and 1:1 check-ins with the crew (regular planning meetings between you, your partner, and your vendors) without the general manager being present? Do you feel confident taking ownership over entire aspects of the festival (managing your own guest list, getting tasks done on time, and conducting over half of your own vendor hires) and receiving only high-level support from your general manager? If your answer to all three questions was an enthusiastic “YES!” then you’ve found your support package. We meet with our partial planning clients three times before opening weekend (during the planning phase of your wedding celebration) to help guide the use of our planning tools and lend a little TLC to your strategy. We recommend three key vendors to help round out your lineups in areas where you may feel a little less confident. Then we step in as the stage manager in the final months with some intense performance rehearsals to co-create your opening day as you envision it.

If you want to be your own general manager through-and-through, then calling in a day-of coordinator to be the stage manager to your performance lineup is your move.

Please note that we no longer offer day-of coordination services, but if what’s written below is speaking to you, let us know! We are more than happy to recommend some kick-ass day-of coordinators who will fit your needs.

Consider this service like calling up a new stage manager to the mainstage the week before you open. You typically spend months architecting the lineup, grounding down into your values, and making why-based decisions together. All those small details and shared experiences help flesh out the relationship between festival management and performers. The goal in the rehearsals, when you’re prepping for the opening weekend (or event) of your life, is to already be in the groove with your crew, experience the fruits of your labor, and trust in the identity you’ve developed as a festival over the year. The managers, staff, and lineup feel more confident when you’ve had a year-long relationship, to know and trust one another.

What we want to avoid is having couples overestimate their energy resources, become overwhelmed by the planning process, but not have a management infrastructure to turn to. So for that reason, very few Tapestry clients fall into the bucket of coordination-only support. It’s not impossible, but it takes a confident, resourceful, and grounded couple with stellar communication skills and vigilant organization to make a successful rehearsal-week hand-off. And if you fit this mold, more power to ya!

After discussing with your partner what your needs are for your huge music festival weekend experience, you'll have a good idea of where you fit in our support packages. We will be able to have a cohesive conversation about our recommendations when you are clear about your needs. We are so excited to connect with you face-to-face and learn all about your vision!

— Kate, Tapestry Creative Director + Founder