Meet a Wedding Vendor: The Secret Life of Daydreams
Photo by: The Grays
We hope that you’ve enjoyed our Meet a Wedding Vendor Series! We figured that it was about time that you met us, the team behind Daydreams. We’ll tell you about how we met, why we love what we do, what working with us is like, and how Daydreams got its name.
Tell us about Daydreams
Jessica: Daydreams is a boutique events company based in Washington, D.C. We’ve been in business now for four years, we work in three areas: planning events for clients, hosting events for the public, work with venues on the venue event planner side.
What Inspired the Daydreams name?
Jessica: I’m a big fan of Jane Austen, and her adaptations, especially Pride & Prejudice 2005, and I love the score for that film by Dario Marianelli. One of the pieces on that score is The Secret Life of Daydreams. I used to listen to it and feel so calm and peaceful, and that’s what I wanted to create with the clients that we work with at Daydreams. Whether they’re coming to craft with us for two hours or we’re working with them for up to two years on their wedding, that’s how we want them to feel.
Photo by: Stacy Smith Evans Photography
How did you two meet each other?
Sara: We immediately clicked over ten years ago and go working an environmental non-profit. We bonded over event disasters, and even after working 14 plus hour days, we still find time to explore the city were we in to reflect, decompression, and talk about our future dreams.
What do you love about what you do?
Sara: The process of having this vision and concept and seeing that grow and be implemented on the physical event. The other part is seeing the effect that events have on people and seeing how much joy it brings to them. The experience of seeing the effect that your work has on people.
Jessica: We both have a background in theatre and so we have a lot experience in working on something for a long time and preparing for an audience – for better or worse – and seeing their reaction. It’s extremely fruitful to bring your knowledge and skills to something and work together as a team.
Tell us about your process with clients
Jessica: We want to hear about their event – weddings or corporate clients – and hear about what their vision is for their event, and then sharing more about Daydreams services. A big part of that meeting is figuring our chemistry. We’re going to be spending a lot of time together, event planning can be very stressful so it’s important to make sure that we can move cohesively as a team.
For full planning wedding services we take an intense amount of time understanding their vision so that the client can feel comfortable with us being their representative and making decision and recommendations on their behalf and for them to feel comfortable with it. We provide a well-laid out process, so that they can feel comfortable that we’re the ones guiding the ship of the event planning process.
For month of, we’re contracted six to nine months out from the wedding. About six weeks out, we have a meeting to understand where everything stands for their wedding. Before that, the couple would have sent us the contracts for their wedding vendors, so that we can review and make sure that we understand what’s going on with their wedding. We also provide recommendations for vendors. In the meeting that happens six weeks out, we go through a full download of their wedding. We take the information and put it in the format that we’ll use onsite, and that we’ll send to wedding vendors. We’ll have many questions for the couple to help us with one of our last steps which is to touch base with all of the vendors to make sure they have the information they need before the wedding and go through our full run of show which is a minute-by-minute document. On the day of, we’re the captains of the ship, so that the couple doesn’t have to worry about anything.
Tell us about your design process
Sara: While Jessica and I work well together, we have completely different esthetics. We purposely split up and create designs separately. We ideate over concepts, then we have a little presentation for each other where we share what we’ve come up with, and example what that is. We take feedback from each other and refine that into what is the manifestation of that is. What would the décor look like? What furniture would we use? And then come back and present again. From there were decide which one is the best fit for the event, and what is able to be implemented.
Then we take the selected design and build it out. What does floor plan look like, what do the furnishings look like, etc. Then we pull that together and present it to the client. Once it’s signed off by the client, we then go forward and make the design happen.
What’s a memorable experience you’ve had in your work?
Jessica: At the environmental non-profit we were tasked with making an appreciation event for our membership. It was very clear that we didn’t just want this to be a reception, but something special. We had this completely blank canvas of this warehouse space in New Orleans. We had to figure out where we wanted to start from. How do you create an environment that shows people that you appreciate them, and that they are welcome? The idea that we came to do is the idea of building a home. One of the most intimate things you can do is welcome people into a home.
So, we split this massive space until into different areas. People walked into a foyer, we had this massively long communal table where people could eat dinner, we had a library space with previous publications. We had a beautiful kitchen space with action stations, and chef’s station. Remarks were given from on this little stage that had mantle on it. It had a huge flat panel television that had a roaring fire. Usually at these events people come, get their drink, and leave. People stayed the whole night.
As soon as we settled on the idea, it just felt right and everything came out of that.
Photo by: Stacy Smith Evans Photography
Photo by: Stacy Smith Evans Photography
Sara, tell us your favorite about your wedding
Sara: It might be cliché, but my favorite part of my wedding was being surrounded by the people that we love the most. Looking back at the photos and seeing the view, especially from the officiant, and seeing the smiles on the faces and their love for us was one of the best feelings that you can have as a way to kick off your marriage and your life together.
And also, scooters. My husband emailed every scooter company in the city, and eventually found Spin, who agreed to drop off a bunch of scooters. Our guests all hopped on the scooters to scoot to our reception. (Sara’s wedding was featured in Washingtonian – check it out)
What does the future hold for Daydreams?
Jessica: The ultimate goal of Daydreams, always, is to help bring people to a place of peace. So, whether they’re spending a few hours crafting with us, or their trusting us with one of the most important days of their lives, that will always be the foundation of the work that we do.
One day, I’d love to open an event venue, I would love to open a book shop, I would love to grow and expand our team.
That is one of the things that I love about the name of our company. There are no limits to what we’re able to create. We’ve already been able to bring to fruition things that already seemed like a mere Daydreams. So, for me, the sky is the limit, and I cannot wait to see where we end up going in the future.