Unveiled Series: How Serendipity Events Used Aisle Planner to Plan a Night at the Museum

Laura Schwandt, Founder of Serendipity Events transformed the San Diego Natural History Museum into a lush prehistoric garden. This unique venue came with its own set of challenges, but with the help of Aisle Planner, Laura was able to execute an extraordinary experience from start to finish. In this second installment of the Unveiled series, learn how Laura used Aisle Planner tools to work with her clients Amaya & Peter to make the planning process easy and seamless! See how each step looked on Aisle Planner vs. how the final product turned out in real life!

But first, check out our first blog in the series, Unveiled Real Weddings with AP Pros: Serendipity Events + Amaya & Peter’s Night at the Museum to meet the planner and couple, and see the full gallery at The Aisle Guide!

It was absolutely imperative that we use Aisle Planner for planning this event. I love Aisle Planner! It is my lifeline for planning any wedding or event but in particular this one. We got to use every single tool that Aisle Planner has to offer. From the very beginning when we started working with the couple as a full-service client, we did their design, their timeline, and inspiration, got all of their initial details within the system, and then worked with all of the different vendors in the project.

Timeline

The venue is very particular as far as the timeline perspective goes. We started cocktail hour at 5:00 p.m. and were able to get access to the cocktail space at 5:00 p.m. So, it was really important that we have every logistic in place, we had the back of the house ready to go, and all of the vendors dialed in. We also reused florals and decor so we had an incredibly quick turnaround time from the ceremony to the reception.

My favorite Aisle Planner tool that allowed me to get through the day and slow down time was the timeline feature. The timeline was ten pages long and not a detail went unnoticed or unnoted.

“Serendipity Events made the process shockingly stress-free and kept it all extremely organized with the checklist, assignments, and timeline. We were able to keep our focus on high-level design, creative brainstorming, and getting excited about being married! We were expecting so much more stress from all the horror stories we’ve heard, and we feel very fortunate that we found Laura and Aisle Planner so we could have a wonderful experience both planning and executing the wedding.” - Amaya & Peter

Checklist & Assignments 

Notes

The note section was super important as well because we had so many design elements. We created spreadsheets within the notes, we had details about the couple and their VIPs and so much more to ensure that everything was taken care of in a timely and organized manner.

Contacts & Vendors

We have over fifteen vendors we worked with and it was amazing to be able to use the timeline tool and the layout tool to really speak to every single role of the team that was contributing to the success of this event. All of the creatives were dialed in because we were able to add them to Aisle Planner and share information that was important to them. Together we created a beautiful, seamless, and stress-free experience because we had all of the tools we needed. Aisle Planner has been fantastic!

“Aisle Planner was at the center of our design and planning process. We found a way to use every feature, but our favorite was definitely the vendor list and how we could keep everything organized. The ability to comment and update on each individual vendor while keeping them all in one place made it incredibly easy to multitask and keep everything on schedule.” - Amaya & Peter

Design Studio

My favorite part of this wedding was seeing their style guide come to life in the reception room, at the ceremony site on the rooftop, and every detail has been so intricate.

Amaya and Peter wanted a head table instead of a sweetheart table so we made it happen! This tablescape was all about texture, color, and fun design elements. The first thing I found was the runner. I absolutely adore these runners and everything was built off of it. We got some really amazing and different flatware and glassware, as well as some gold bee napkin rings to tie back in the bug + garden theme.

We also always love to do something special for our little friends attending our weddings. So we provided dinosaur plushes and chalkboard chargers so they can color! And we also used dinosaur motifs all through the event, like on the dessert table!

Inspiration

Color Palette

The color palette creator on Aisle Planner is an incredible feature of the Design Studio. Each inspiration picture for each day was loaded to a Style Guide and the most prominent colors of the images were pulled to create an original palette. Since the wedding was in November, the autumnal palette was a rich burnt orange and burgundy.  Laura selected and saved individual swatches to create custom palettes for every aspect of the event—from the plate settings, florals, cocktail tables, escort walls, and every other detail.

Layout & Seating 

One thing we love so much about the Natural History Museum was that we got to use multiple levels within the space—three floors to be exact. So we really got to take guests on an immersive experience. We started on the rooftop for the ceremony, we went down to level two for cocktail hour and the reception was on the ground level. This is where the Layout Tool and Guest List came into play and saved us!

I loved welcoming guests, taking them up to the rooftop for stunning San Diego views, and giving them a different experience at each level—each time completely transforming the space. Achieving this transformation was so easy with the Aisle Planner Layouts! 

Hero photo courtesy of Emily Arnold Photo