KINGSTON, N.Y.—When Whitney Headen was knee-deep in planning her own wedding, she described herself as being in “full activation mode.” “My friends and family joked that I completely forgot I was the bride. I’d say things about the ‘consumer experience,’” she remembered with a laugh.
That type of experiential mindset comes naturally to Headen, who is the co-founder and CEO of creative agency 19th & Park, where she’s worked on events and marketing campaigns for brands like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Samsung. So when she set out to plan her own wedding to Siya Madikane—a former IMG events and sponsorship executive—Headen knew she wanted to bring the same level of creativity and attention to detail she would for the big-name brands and celebrities the couple normally works with.
The result was “Camp Madikane,” a three-day gathering at Hutton Brickyards in Kingston, N.Y., a sprawling retreat with luxury cabins and waterfront views. “We have so many people coming from all over the world, as well as tons of industry professionals and people that experience events all the time,” Headen explained. “So we wanted something really experiential and unique.” 
The wedding, which was planned by Tricia Smith Brown of TSB Planning & Design, took on a “Camp Madikane” theme, inspired by the venue and by Headen’s desire to give her attendees an environment where they’d want to stay for three days. “How do we recreate that feeling of a summer camp?" she said of her inspiration. "It was all about love and happiness and family and togetherness, and really introducing people to new faces and things that they've never seen before.”Photo: Stanley Babb/Stanlo Photography
BizBash caught up with Headen to learn how she drew from her background to create something unique—and the valuable takeaways that she’ll take back to her day job. Here are some key pieces of advice she shared for event professionals of all types.
1. Start with a cohesive narrative.
Headen thinks that the most memorable events tell a clear story, and her wedding was no different. “As any event planner knows, everything starts with that overarching theme—and then you weave in the different touchpoints throughout,” she explained. “For us, it was really this theme of our love story, which I think is really unique.”
Drawing from their marketing backgrounds, Headen and Madikane focused on branding from the very beginning, using the same color palette, patterns, and logos for everything from their wedding website to their wedding decor to the guest dress code. “We stuck with that theme and that color palette throughout the whole weekend, so everything felt really cohesive,” Headen said.
Different components also tied into the “Camp Madikane” theme, which was inspired by the venue and by Headen’s desire to give her attendees an environment where they’d want to stay for three days. “How do we recreate that feeling of a summer camp?" she said of her inspiration. "It was all about love and happiness and family and togetherness, and really introducing people to new faces and things that they've never seen before.”
A custom bar adorned with the Camp Madikane logo served as a signal point during the weekend’s three events. “It served as its own photo moment without having one,” Headen explained. “We steered away from a traditional photo moment. We just wanted to catch natural photos of everybody, and then let them serve as their own content creators.” 
The first day included an evening welcome carnival, an ode to Headen’s Caribbean heritage and her late grandparents. Highlights included carnival dancers, a Bahamian steel drum band, and stilt walkers, plus specialty rum punch cocktails.Photo: Stanley Babb/Stanlo Photography
"These were things I grew up seeing and playing with and dancing to my whole life," Headen said of the opening event's entertainment. "This was the kickoff for people to really get to know each other and to set the tone for the weekend.”Photo: Stanley Babb/Stanlo Photography
2. Celebrate culture in an authentic way.
Recognition and celebration of the couple's unique cultures were also incorporated into every aspect of the three-day wedding. Headen is of Caribbean descent and grew up in Virginia, while Madikane is from South Africa and grew up in New York after being adopted.
“We wanted to make sure that those touchpoints were interwoven into everything,” Headen noted. The opening event, for example, was meant as an ode to a Caribbean carnival, whereas the second day’s reception was “all about New York glam."
Through it all, Headen and her team—which included minority-owned vendors like wedding planner Tricia Smith Brown, florist Javier Valentino, and caterer Tiffani Janelle—worked to incorporate the cultures of Africa, the American south, and the Caribbean through the florals, aesthetics, food, and decor.
“Where culture played a big part was with our food experience as a whole—it was really about understanding certain flavors and touchpoints,” said Headen, adding that music was also a key component. “We made sure we had music that was traditional to South Africa and the Caribbean, as well as to the U.S."
The team tied it all together on the third day, which Headen referred to as a “family day." Inspired by a Southern cookout, the gathering focused on bringing family together through food that evoked both the southern U.S. and the groom's home country of South Africa. 
The wedding ceremony itself had a custom-built stage, archways, and spiral aisle. To create an immersive experience that tied into the weekend’s color scheme, most guests were asked to wear black attire. The couple selected a group of 50 people to be considered “friends of honor,” who were asked to wear colors and patterns that followed the event's custom color palette.Photo: Stanley Babb/Stanlo Photography
“I always knew that I wanted to do something that was really experiential and unique, especially since we had so many people coming from all over the world, as well as like tons of industry professionals and people that experience events all the time," Headen explained.Photo: Stanley Babb/Stanlo Photography
3. Incorporate technology to extend the experience.
Like she does with her own experiential events, Headen saw technology as a way to extend the experience beyond the actual weekend. Instead of paper save-the-dates and invitations, for example, Camp Madikane kicked off with a branded website and digital love story, which quickly set the tone for the event.
For the video intro, Headen was going for a “hip-hop fairy tale” vibe, she explained. Her notes to the narrator? Make it sound like “Method Man reading a children’s book, with some of the dramatics of Bridgerton where they interweave the modern day and the classical,” she added with a laugh, noting that the modern-meets-classical approach—with a dose of humor—informed much of the event itself.
“People spend so much money on these elaborate invitations, and they just go in the trash. And on a practical note, we had so many guests from all over, and during COVID people have just relocated so much,” Headen said about the wedding website. “It was important to have something that people could refer back to all the time.”
During the weekend, instead of a traditional photo booth or guest book, a videographer from Bricks Group Media served as something of a “roaming video booth,” where guests could leave messages for the couple. “These video testimonials were interwoven into the content that we were receiving from the overall wedding,” Headen said.
She saw the website, video testimonials, and other technology as a way to tap into the senses, build community, and preserve things for years to come. “The website can be a place where people can reference their memories of the weekend and rehash our story," Headen said. "And maybe we'll build on it—maybe this will be where we announce our first child or other milestones in our life. Who knows?” 
The reception, which Headen described as "New York glam," featured a custom bar and DJ booth, along with oversized floral arrangements from Javier Valentino. Southern, Caribbean, and South African-infused menus were served alongside a dry ice food experience, which consisted of collard green salad, lamb lollipops, vegan rasta pasta, crab and rice, fried shrimp, and more. At midnight, snack chicken sandwiches were served with the couple’s logo printed on the boxes.Photo: Stanley Babb/Stanlo Photography
The custom logo and the color scheme carried throughout the space, and a round dance floor featured the bride and groom’s names.Photo: Stanley Babb/Stanlo Photography
4. Offer personalized takeaways.
Unique swag was also an important event component for Headen—and she was eager to go well beyond the traditional small wedding favors. “We wanted to make sure that each touchpoint offered something to take home that was personalized. We did custom hoodies that had our branding on them,” she said, adding that at the end of the reception, the couple offered mini chicken sandwiches that were also adorned with their logo.
“So everyone had something to take home that was edible, as well as something they could wear. I think the coolest thing about it was by the next day, everybody was wearing their hoodies,” she remembered. “You were really getting that camp feel.” 
Custom, branded hoodies, along with small branded tokens, were given out to all the guests as wedding favors.Photo: Stanley Babb/Stanlo Photography
5. Focus on how you want your attendees to feel.
For many experiential events, Headen finds that brands and marketers can get tied up in doing one thing that’s cool—and not focusing on incorporating technology, takeaways, and content that can extend an event's value.
“The consumer experience is always important, but it’s not always personal,” she explained. “But the biggest thing about weddings is that it’s so personal—every intricate detail matters in a way to express who that couple is or what they stand for.”
Headen hopes to incorporate some of those lessons into her future experiential work. “I’ll be thinking a bit deeper into what exactly I want the consumers to feel leaving an event,” she said. “I’d been thinking about what I want them to do, of course, but not as much about feeling. It’s really thinking, ‘If this brand was a person, what do I want people to think about them?’” 
Closing out the weekend was a gospel brunch featuring Kanye West’s Sunday Service Gospel Choir.Photo: Stanley Babb/Stanlo Photography
The indoor event had picnic tables, a custom-built stage, and Southern cookout and South African brail-themed food stations from chef Tiffani Janelle.Photo: Stanley Babb/Stanlo Photography
One fun highlight? Hamburger buns branded with the Camp Madikane logo.Photo: Stanley Babb/Stanlo Photography
Headen’s biggest piece of advice to event professionals, no matter what type of gatherings they plan? Think outside the box.
“Weddings, in particular, have a playbook that people get really caught up in—but you don’t have to do that. You don't have to do anything,” said Headen, who advised both wedding and corporate planners to study the event industry as a whole, beyond just their own sections of it.
She also encourages planners to expand outside the box of traditional wedding vendors. “As the personal event industry grows, people are operating like brands, and they’re going to understand what things and elements brands are doing to keep audiences engaged.”
Headen finds this to be particularly true of millennials and Gen Z. “They’re known for shaking the table a bit with what they deem to be traditional and cool," predicting that more clients are going to start leaning into true experiential producers to activate their weddings and personal events. "So event planners need to start to learn how the two worlds can merge to create an even better, more organized, and seamless experience.”
VENDORS:
Planner: Tricia Smith Brown
Florals: Javier Valentino
Caterer: Chef Tiffani Janelle
Fabrication: Evolution Event Rentals
Photographer: Stanley Babb
Videographer: Bricks Group Media
