Dolan's Run of Show

Showcase · One wedding

From brief to banquet.

The complete story of one wedding — from the first conversation to the last guest.

The garden venue at golden hour, hours before guests arrived — the moment everything we'd planned was about to meet weather, timing, and people.

The venue

A historic Japanese garden.

A National Historic Landmark with strict preservation rules and an 11 PM hard cleanup deadline.

The Brief

Two months out

Date

April 25

Guests

150

Vendors

13

The hosts came to Dolan's and shared the vision in person — together we walked through every detail. Date. Venue. Guest count. Vendors. Menu. Dietary considerations. Brand colors. The things they were nervous about.

By the end of the conversation we had a one-page brief, a fixed delivery date, and a commitment: by event day, every detail would live in one place — and every stakeholder would see the same version.

The Build

Week of the event

Internal

Dashboard

Vendor

Coordination

Guest

Menu

From the brief we generated everything — the internal team dashboard, the password-gated vendor coordination page, and the public guest microsite accessed by QR.

All three drew from the same data. As the brief evolved, every surface updated in lockstep — no stakeholder ever saw a stale version.

The Day

2:00 PM → 11:00 PM

Nine hours, accounted for to the minute.

By the day of, every vendor had the same timeline open on their phone. The dashboard updated as things shifted. Below is what actually happened.

I. Arrival & Setup 2:00 — 3:00 PM
2:00Catering unloads 2:30Setup begins 3:00Service staff arrive
II. Final Prep 4:30 — 5:00 PM
4:30Lamb pulled · stations live · service in 30
III. Ceremony & Cocktail 5:00 — 7:00 PM
5:00Guests arrive 5:30Ceremony 6:00Cocktail hour
IV. Dinner & Speeches 7:00 — 9:00 PM
7:05Buffet opens · live carving 7:45Speeches 8:00Cake cutting
V. Strike & Cleanup 9:00 — 11:00 PM
9:00Coordinator departs · breakdown begins 10:00Reception ends · full strike 10:58All vendors off property — two min early

The Result

After the last guest

150

Guests

13

Vendors

3

Sites

0

Failures

Every guest fed. Every vendor aligned. Zero failures. No allergen incidents. Cleanup completed two minutes before the deadline. The venue's site manager asked who built the system.

Whole lamb being carved table-side at the wedding reception under string lights

The whole lamb · the centerpiece moment.

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