Event Designer David DiCicco Plans Weddings from Boston to Miami

Photo by Sasha Israel

After six years at another event design company in Boston, David DiCicco launched DiCicco Design, his very own event design and production company he’d been dreaming of for years, in October 2019. “I always knew I wanted my own firm,” DiCicco says. “It was just a matter of timing.” After the pandemic hit, a resourceful DiCicco moved to Provincetown and began building a new part of his business called DiCicco Destinations, a luxury event and travel service. Since its launch, DiCicco has designed weddings in Boston, Cape Cod, Miami, and New York.

How did your love for event planning start?

I’ve always loved design, and I’ve always been creative. My mother’s a creative, and I think I’ve always carried that with me. I’m also a math guy, which translates so much into event design when you’re talking about luxury spaces and how to make a space feel comfortable. There’s a lot of engineering behind it. For me, it was the perfect marriage of both sides of my brain. I celebrate love for a living. I enjoy being able to translate a client’s emotion and their vision into my work.

Can you walk me through the event design and production process?

We do full-service holistic design in-house; we do floral, lighting, rentals, floor plans. One of the things that I really focus on is not just the static design and the tangibles, like what you see on the table, but how you design an experience for a client. I look at a wedding as a theatrical production that lasts for a five- or six-hour period: using the music and the lighting to make changes that are creating the mood and the vibe, and changing what people are looking at and what they are feeling throughout the night. What’s important to us is when a client walks away, what are they left thinking? What are they left feeling?

How far in advance should a couple start planning a wedding with DiCicco Design?

Most of our clients sign on with us within five to seven months of their event. We’ve done some weddings recently with a three-week turnaround. We’re totally able to handle it. One of the reasons why is we just streamline our process in such a way [that] we do a lot of fact-finding and [ask] questions. We figure out their objective, and they give us creative freedom to take those ideas and come up with something that they probably weren’t even thinking about. With that said, we also have clients signing on with us for November 2023.

How did you curate the list of vendors that you work with?

What’s important to me with the vendors we partner with is two things: that the [vendors] know how I operate from a creative standpoint, and that I’m partnering with people who bring new ideas to the table. Ideas change and evolve very quickly and at different times—and even sometimes the day of. We could be setting something up, but then I decide, “Hey, I actually think we should do this, and here’s why.” So working with creative partners that are flexible in terms of our execution is important. [Secondly], I don’t necessarily know everything when it comes to design, and I love getting to work with people who say, “I love your idea. Why don’t we try this?” It becomes very collaborative with my design team, and I like to think of it as a space for all of us to grow and all of us to bring our ideas to the table. The base design comes from me, but being able to elaborate on it with my partners is really fun.

What’s the most unique wedding you have designed?

We had a wedding in New York’s Hudson Valley where I found a branch on the venue’s property, and we cut it and hung it on the wall in different pieces and created a tree. There were multiple events—it was an Indian wedding—and the first night the tree was bare, and it was just the branches. Overnight we added flowers to it, so it looked like it grew. The idea was that it was growing like their relationship and blossoming throughout the event. By the end of the last night there was so much product on it you could see how the design evolved. That’s one of the most fun aspects. As much as I’m a business guy, I like getting down and dirty and really getting into the design.

617-947-9985, diciccodesign.com.

Tips

Make the day uniquely yours by following David DiCicco’s event-design advice for an unforgettable wedding.

Prioritize Good Lighting

Lighting is one of the most important elements to have at a wedding. It can change the vibe or the mood, and focus your guests on what you want them to look at.

Forage for Décor Pieces

Anyone can go to the flower market. I’m big on foraging and finding local product wherever I go. I always try to bring in some forage element so that it’s unique.

Create a One-of-a-Kind Playlist

Chatting through what type of music experience you want to have at what time—for example, maybe you want more of a club feel after dinner—really helps curate the vibe for the night.

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