VENDOR NIGHT
DISCOVER. DREAM. COLLABORATE.
Brand Experience + Event Strategy
When we took over Mountain Field Farm, I didn’t want to introduce its next chapter with a traditional industry mixer—or build a preferred-vendor list from exchanged names and business cards.
After nearly 15 years working in the wedding industry, I had seen how often referral relationships were built without much relationship at all. I wanted to start differently: create the relationships first, let people experience one another’s work, and invite the people who understood this industry to help us imagine what the farm could become.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Mountain Field Farm was already an established wedding venue, but new ownership opened the door to something much bigger. Across 22 acres were spaces, amenities and ideas with potential well beyond what was already being offered.
We needed to introduce ourselves to the wedding and event community, build genuine industry relationships, understand what planners and vendors needed from the property, explore new uses for underutilized spaces, and begin building a preferred-vendor network we could confidently recommend to future clients.
Rather than treat those as separate marketing initiatives, I saw an opportunity to design one experience around all of them.
What if the launch itself could help us learn what should come next?
FROM AUDIENCE TO PARTICIPANTS
Vendor Night was designed around participation and presentation.
Nearly 150 wedding and event professionals—including approximately 125 invited guests and 25 contributing vendors—came together at the farm. Instead of simply walking them through the property and telling them what we planned to do, we gave them a way to experience it, respond to it and contribute to its future.
Each guest received a property map, a clipboard and feedback survey, and an empty swag bag. From there, they followed a scavenger hunt across the farm.
Each stop introduced a different space, offering or possibility. Guests encountered contributing vendors along the way, experienced their work, answered questions about the property and collected a small gift as a thank-you for their time and insight.
Instead of giving people a tour and asking what they thought afterward, I built the questions into the experience itself.
The property became both something to discover and something to respond to.
RECIPROCITY WAS BUILT IN
If we were asking people for their attention, ideas, feedback and participation, I wanted the experience to give something meaningful back.
Gifts were placed throughout the property as a thank-you for guests’ insight and time. Contributing vendors were given opportunities to showcase their work in context. Professional photographers documented the night, captured participating businesses and their offerings, and created lifestyle portraits vendors could use themselves.
Guests were invited to discover. Vendors were invited to demonstrate. We were given valuable feedback. And everyone left with something more useful than a stack of business cards.
The exchange was part of the design.
ONE EXPERIENCE. MULTIPLE LIVES.
Vendor Night was never intended to stop working when the evening ended.
The same experience created new industry relationships, direct feedback about the property and future offerings, a more meaningful foundation for our preferred-vendor network, professional photography, vendor content, lifestyle portraits and two brand films.
It also gave us the material and relationships to create something much more permanent. Here is a cut of the video sharing us as the new owners for promoting the ownership change.
THE PROPERTY + PREFERRED VENDOR GUIDE
The experience ultimately extended into a 67-page digital-first Property Guide + Preferred Vendor List.
Rather than hand future couples a page of names, the guide became a planning resource—combining detailed information about Mountain Field Farm with direct connections to wedding professionals and businesses within the surrounding industry.
The guide could be shared digitally with couples throughout their planning process, while a physical copy could be available during wedding tours or on request.
It gave the relationships built through Vendor Night somewhere to keep living. And you can explore the whole thing below!
BUILT TO KEEP WORKING
Vendor Night wasn’t designed to make one evening memorable.
It was designed to make one evening useful.
The relationships informed the referral network.
The feedback informed the property.
The collaborations demonstrated what the farm could become.
The photography and films became marketing assets.
The guide turned those relationships into a resource for future clients.
The event ended.
The value didn’t.
MY ROLE
Concept + Strategy
Brand Experience
Experience Design
Qualitative Discovery + Feedback
Creative Direction + Implementation
Vendor Collaboration
Content Strategy
Property + Customer Experience
Preferred Vendor Strategy
Marketing + Launch
MOUNTAIN FIELD FARM
Vendor Night / Discover. Dream. Collaborate.