Six weeks is the comfortable runway for a booth done right — enough time for design rounds and garment lead times without anything getting rushed. Here is the sequence we run with every couple, week by week.
Week 6 — Book the slot, start the lockup
Confirm the date and which event gets the booth (the slot comparison helps here). Kick off design: send us your names, date, venue, palette, and any inside material. You will have first lockup concepts within the week. Decisions to make now: hosted or for-purchase, and which two designs make the cut.
Week 5 — Approve design, lock the menu
Second-round revisions, then sign-off on mockups shown on real garments — not flat art, which always lies. Lock the product menu: which pieces, which colorways. Tees on Bella+Canvas 3001 and Richardson 112 truckers are the backbone; add hoodies if your event runs past ten.
Week 4 — Garment order goes in
We place the blank order against your estimated headcount with a size curve weighted to mediums and larges. This is the true deadline in the process — blanks in your specific colorways need lead time, and week four keeps us clear of substitutions.
Week 3 — Venue logistics
We send your venue or coordinator the one-page spec: 10×10 footprint, one 120V/20A circuit, load-in path and timing, COI if required. Rooftops, historic estates, and hotel ballrooms each have quirks; three weeks out is when they surface harmlessly instead of at load-in.
Week 2 — Final counts and personalization list
RSVP math lands. We true up the garment order, finalize backstock, and collect the personalization list if the wedding party is getting named pieces — names and roles, spelled the way they should press.
Week 1 — The run sheet
You get the day-of plan: arrival time (ninety minutes before doors), booth placement on the floor plan, open and close times, and the strike plan for leftovers. Your only remaining job is to enjoy the show.
Show day — the booth’s own run of show
For the couple who wants to know what actually happens while they are busy getting married: the crew arrives during the flip, builds the wall, and runs one test press per design under the room’s real lighting — ballroom amber lies about ink colors, and we would rather catch it at 4pm than argue with it at 9. Doors open with cocktail hour and the first wave is browsers; the first real rush lands when the dance floor opens and somebody’s cousin walks past in the set-list tee. From there the booth runs in sets: surges when the DJ breathes, lulls during toasts and cake. The last thirty minutes are the encore — the guests who said “maybe later” all remember at once, which is exactly why the run sheet closes the line before it closes the press. Strike starts after the last piece is claimed and takes under an hour; at venues with hard curfews we can break the wall down quietly while the final presses run, and nobody in the room ever notices the show packing itself up behind the encore.
Which night deserves the booth
When the budget covers one appearance, the answer follows your weekend’s shape. The reception is the default headline slot — biggest room, longest window, every guest present. The welcome party wins for destination weekends, because pieces pressed Friday get worn all weekend and turn Saturday’s crowd into a walking lookbook. The after-party is the cult pick: smaller crowd, zero formality, and the highest per-guest take rate we see anywhere — nobody at 11:30pm says no to a hoodie. What we counsel against is splitting one small run across two nights; a booth with a thin wall reads like a show that undersold. One night, full menu, no apologies. If the budget genuinely stretches to two appearances, the welcome-party-plus-reception pairing is the one that earns it — same rig, same crew, one extra set.
The strike, and what happens to the leftovers
Backstock is planned, not accidental — the size curve carries spares so the 10pm guest is not stuck choosing between a small and an apology. Whatever survives the night gets counted, boxed, and handed off per the run sheet, and the good couples have a plan for it before the wedding: a labeled box for the guests who left early, a stack for the photographer and DJ and coordinator (crew gets merch — it is the oldest rule in touring), and a few archived pieces put away unworn. More than one couple has mailed a leftover tee with a thank-you card and reported it landed harder than the card. The counted handoff takes five minutes; deciding what the box means is yours.
Inside six weeks? Ask anyway — short-runway weddings are often workable with an in-stock garment menu. Send the date and we will tell you straight.