The Love Union 2024

The Love Union is a wedding industry conference that takes place at the iconic 501 Union in Brooklyn. When the team reached out to me about planning this event, I was truly floored. It was such an honor to get to design this incredible conference and give back to my community. Every piece of the design was so thoughtfully planned and I’m excited to share a little behind the scenes info!

Making Networking Fun

If you’ve ever been to a networking event, you know that they are typically not fun. It feels a lot like walking into the school cafeteria at a new school on the first day. You don’t know anyone, there’s so many people, and it’s a bit intimidating. I know for me personally, I can get really anxious at networking events and I wanted to try to alleviate that feeling through the design. The first thing I did was bring in light and bright colors into a naturally darker venue. The event took place in March, so I wanted to showcase spring tones with a modern edge.

We needed to have enough seating for all of the attendees during the co-working hours and lunch, but again, I wanted to avoid the whole “first day of school” feeling. I used a mix of table sizes and shapes to allow for both larger, communal groups and smaller, more intimate groups to connect. The round tables allow for groups engaging in conversation together. Whereas the longer tables gave opportunities for smaller groups to break off as needed. In the middle of the room, I brought in two long serpentine tables. I LOVE these tables aesthetically, but I also felt that the curved design allowed for easier and more inviting conversation as you are able to see more people at once.

Bringing in “The Vibes”

As the pieces all started falling into place, I partnered with Little Sister Creative to bring us across the finish line. I told Julie I imagined a modern, funky, fresh vibe and she RAN with it. I loved all of the quirky shapes, textures, and details the team brought in. She hand painted these acrylic sheets for the tables to add in more interest while still leaving room for laptops and snacking. And of course, we needed an epic backdrop for our fabulous panelists to speak on. We rented a round stage from RentQuest and the LSC team created these beautiful panels and podiums to compliment.

I really wanted to make this event feel as non-stuffy and un-corporate as possible. To me, the obvious answer was to bring in a shit ton of disco balls. This massive installation from Universal Light and Sound looked amazing in the space and reflected light all over the room so nicely. I also was able to utilize these mirror edge dining tables from RentQuest to tie in the mirror theme. We also worked with Paper Love Spell to design the signage and networking “bingo” cards that attendees loved.

In addition to designing the event, I also had the privilege of participating in a talk back with my former client turned friend, Bri Scalesse! We discussed accessibility in weddings and how important it is to keep disabilities in mind when planning events. It was such a special conversation and I loved getting to bring this important topic to the Love Union schedule. You can see her wedding here!

A huge thank you to the entire vendor team for bringing this vision to life and for making this event a success! I’m so excited for the next one and thankful for this amazing community.