Emergence Dinner Spring 2021 | Peterloon Estates
Our new Emergence Dinner series came out of a passion for educating and supporting wedding professionals. My friend and colleague Kaytee and I have been kicking around the idea of hosting a vendor-focused event for some time. Having spent years growing our business in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky market, we noticed there wasn’t a huge culture of collaboration among wedding professionals. Sure vendors were friendly and supportive, but pulling off large-scale productions requires a certain kind of collaborative spirit. And as we talked with vendors in other markets, we heard similar stories.
The Emergence Dinner series is part workshop, part retreat, and part networking opportunity. It is a chance to have real and vulnerable conversations with other vendors about how to best push the industry forward, support one another, and foster profitable businesses. Wedding professionals have a unique setup - they are individual business owners who rely heavily on other businesses for their success. A successful, full-scale event requires each vendor to execute their role flawlessly. But there are few opportunities outside of an event day to discuss creative processes or build relationships with other vendors.
Additionally, many of these vendors don’t get the time to rest, refuel, and feed their own creativity. And while we work day in and day out in the event industry, we rarely get to enjoy the event industry! With that in mind, the Emergence Dinner aims not just to move the industry forward but fuel the creative minds that love it so much. After all, you can’t service your clients if you have never experienced the type of events they are wanting you to produce.
Our first Emergence dinner was co-hosted by myself of Samantha Joy Events and partner Kaytee Sice of Roots Floral Design alongside our guest hosts Tracy Burch of Tracy Burch Photography (who also captured the amazing images for the evening)and Kayla Jackson Southard of Jackson Southard Events. We choose Peterloon as our backdrop, a historic Georgian-Style home with elegant gardens reminiscent of a European estate. Wanting to focus on the title of our series, we decided to play with the idea of emerging. We designed the event around the idea of a seedling that starts small but grows into a strong and flourishing tree. The beautiful outdoor space at Peterloon was the perfect inspiration for our natural theme. The table linens were a muted green velvet linen and Roots Floral Design created a stunning centerpiece that seemed as if they were growing up from the table. To complete the look, Ashley Fry of Paper Love Club created seeded paper menu cards that were literally pulled straight from the earth.
This Emergence Dinner is truly an immersive experience. Each detail was chosen to help you see, taste, feel, and experience our theme. This is what I love about event design! When executed well, you create a memorable event that takes guests on a specific journey. This is also why I take such care to get to know my client’s personal and family history, cultural traditions, and personal beliefs. Each of these things impacts the way we design an event. Good design is rooted in meaning. It creates depth and creates a memorable experience for everyone in attendance.
I absolutely loved pulling this look together with our talented co-hosts and vendor team. While we stayed way beyond our end time we are refueled for the future. I can’t wait to see what inspires our next Emergence Dinner Series and how our community of vendors continues to develop and grow. We already have dates on our calendar for 2021-2022.
If you have interest in joining us at an upcoming Emergence Dinner, fill out our application at bit.ly/emergencewaitlist. If you are interested in hosting us or being a guest host please email us at emergencedinner@gmail.com or follow us on socials for upcoming date announcements.
