WEDDING PLANNER | Cygnet Events And Design

Cygnet Events And Design is a wedding planning and design firm based in Chicago, serving destination events. Founded in 2012, the team are firmly established as top wedding planners due to their high standards in taste, organisation and communication. Cygnet Events And Design focuses exclusively on weddings and wedding-adjacent events. They understand the demand for excellence and focus that our work entails, and are focused on delivering above expectations for each and every couple.

Tell us about your business!

With an experienced, passionate team of planners and designers in house, there is no event that is too large or too small. We love a challenge: give us your tented weddings, your multi-day events, your international elopements, your blended cultures, your avant-garde designs and your elegant restaurant gatherings. Every single event we plan has our signature touch of warmth and creativity, always with client and guest needs at top of mind. Flawless execution isn’t just the goal but the standard: our lead planners are present for every moment of the day from set up until long after the music stops. More than that, we are there for our couples as soon as we become their planning partners. 

Cygnet’s thorough, proprietary approach is informed by decades of collective experience and there is nothing else like it. 

What would you like couples to know about you?

We strive for a relationship with our clients that blends professionalism and personality. We’re responsive, proactive, thorough and warm. We believe that we excel in the three most important pillars of planning: logistics, budgeting and design. We take our work very seriously but always make sure we’re making things feel effortless for our couples. Since we only plan weddings, we are uniquely focused on those unique needs and demands.

Aside from the work itself, we are a company with progressive values that gives back to environmental and social justice causes. We are inclusive and enthusiastically serve clients with all identities and from all walks of life.

Where are you based?

Chicago.

Do you travel for weddings?

Yes! We most frequently travel to the East Coast but are available domestically and internationally. We particularly enjoy working in France. Destination events are limited to 1-2 per year.

How would you describe your style?

Warm, unexpected and a little avant-garde. We stay on the cutting edge of what is trending in the industry, but approach each design concept with a unique perspective that prioritizes the couple’s taste. Moody, romantic events are a particular love of ours. We love the design challenge of working a darker event space, which is a necessity in a city like Chicago! Tented weddings and lush estates also get our creative juices flowing. When couples observe our body of work, we hope that they will observe the variety in what we do and how we are able to realize each couple’s unique vision.

What inspires you?

Our clients inspire us more than anything, as we pull through their inspiration, logistics, budgets and spaces to curate a cohesive, boundary-pushing aesthetic. Blending timelessness with updated style is always the goal.

We find inspiration in interior and graphic design as well as the nautural world. Art history and natural history are some of our teams’ passions, and this inspiration constantly flows through our work. Another source of creative inspiration is 1950s and 1960s technicolor film sets: they’re elegant, playful, have a flair for the dramatic and are just the right amount of over-the-top! The immersive experience of watching these scenes is something we want to evoke for everyone on site at our events.

How would you describe your working style?

Our working style is highly organized and more defined by scope than time. We find it stifling of the creative process and personal connection to track time. Instead, we define the scope of our work and then we simply put in the amount of time that is required. If we were to track, most of our full service planning events would have 300+ hours of time invested by the lead planner.

We are huge proponents of spreadsheets and use a highly customized, detailed spreadsheet that we have developed over more than 10 years to help keep our clients on track. We love email and Zoom, and of course there is always a healthy mix of in-person meetings including site visits. 

Since we limit the number of clients booked each year, we always aim for our planning team to have a close connection to each couple. Finding the right personality match is so important; we want to feel like a creative partner from day one.

What is a favourite product or service that you offer and why?

Complete design management is included for all of our full service clients and it is such a joy! Being able to touch every part of a design and the design process is crucial to ensure a high quality product. We offer so much value being able to do this and we thoroughly enjoy every aspect of developing designs alongside our clients and vendor teams.

Who is your dream client?

Cygnet’s dream couple is one who takes risks; who doesn’t fixate on tradition or trend; who wants to make the most of their budget whatever the size; and who values creative collaboration with their planner. More than anything, a Cygnet couple is a couple who wants to host the celebration of a lifetime.

Cygnet Events and Design

Website: cygneteventsanddesign.com

Instagram: @cygneteventsanddesign

Images by Hannah Conti, Melody Joy Co., Alisha Tova, Kayleigh Taylor & Morgan McIntire