M&Co. at Green City Market
Every Wednesday and Saturday from May until October, rain or shine, you'll find Lincoln Park's Green City Market. Tents and tables dot the path from Clark Street to Stockton Drive, and vendors have bins piled high with sweet summer tomatoes, husks of fresh corn, blooms in every color, and even fresh-baked pies. Saturdays are especially busy, with thousands of residents descending on the market with their grocery bags in tow.
GCM is the place to be, and we wanted to be there, too!
When we found out that Melanie Everett & Company could be a sponsor of GCM, my team and I went full-speed ahead on plans and preparation. The date was set in stone, and M&Co. x GCM was officially happening. There was so much to do, but we could pull it off in a few weeks' time, right?
- First off, we needed a tent. Through some research, it became very clear that a tent was really an investment item. Weighing our options, we ended up moving forward with a custom French Blue tent, complete with our logo on every side.
- Once the tent was on order, we had to figure out how to actually get GCM shoppers to come up to our tent. We brainstormed for quite a while before landing on free stickers. And not just any stickers! We dreamed up a cute phrase -- Chicago Summer Forever -- and Sarah created sticker designs in 3 colorways with a happy, nostalgic font. Totally custom, totally fun.
- Of course, our mission was to connect with the community, but we also wanted to be remembered. Sarah put together a gorgeous postcard, and my mom gave us the brilliant idea of sticking the postcard and sticker in a clear sleeve -- this way, anyone who brought home a sticker would also wind up with one of our M&Co. postcards.
- We also wanted to raffle off a gift basket, and for that, we of course turned to our friends at Happy Cabbage for a GCM-inspired basket filled with goodies: cookbook, candle, cocktail napkins, the works!
- There were even more details to figure out: signage, M&Co. shirts and hats, table accessories, set-up and tear-down, and more. Whew!
The tent came in the mail, the stickers and postcards went into the clear sleeves, and just like that, it was 6 a.m. on August 12th -- showtime!
The pop-up was a massive success. We gave away upwards of 900 stickers, collected 150+ entries for our raffle, and met too many kind residents to count. As a bonus, my team and I had such a blast hanging out with one another. We had some special visitors, too! Andrew, Holly and Annie, my dad, my brothers, my sister-in-law, our family dog, and friends.
Thank you, Green City Market, for having us -- we will be back. Thank you to our generous sponsor, JCM Law Group, who made this entire event possible. Thank you to my brother, Sam, for snapping these photos!