Reinforcing Reliability: How BBJ La Tavola Stays Successful
Learn the secret behind their 40+ years of success.
For more than 40 years, BBJ La Tavola has built its reputation one event at a time, helping shape weddings, social celebrations, corporate gatherings, and experiential activations, all with the same level of care. The company offers an extensive, curated collection of design-forward table linens spanning refined neutrals, layered textures, and statement patterns, complemented by chargers, placemats, napkin rings, and accessories.
With showrooms nationwide, custom design and fabrication through Atelier by BBJ La Tavola, and white-glove event support services, BBJ La Tavola has become a trusted resource for event professionals across the country. Today, the company continues to inspire gatherings through thoughtful design, exceptional quality, and a commitment to service.
Their VP of Sales and Marketing, Erin Ollendike, gave us even more clarity on what makes BBJ La Tavola so special:
From Inspiration Through Execution
When asked what they've done to elevate the client experience over the past year, BBJ La Tavola points to investment across the entire journey, from inspiration through execution. That's meant refining and expanding their showroom environments across the country, including a newest location opening in Boston, designed to feel both inspiring and highly functional for the planners, designers, and hosts who use them.
It's also meant evolving their customer portal, giving clients more independence with real-time inventory visibility and streamlined account management, a level of transparency they believe is genuinely unique in their category.
“That level of transparency and accessibility allows clients to move more confidently and efficiently as they design events.”
The Atelier Difference
A major part of that experience is BBJ La Tavola's Production and Atelier capabilities, built to make everything from order through event execution feel seamless. Atelier continues to evolve in directions that clearly excite the team, with offerings spanning custom lighting elements, area rugs, intricate embroidery, and specialty fabric details.
What they emphasize most is approachability.
“We love being able to help clients bring highly customized ideas to life in a way that still feels approachable and well supported.”
Reliability Is the Real Marketing Strategy
When it comes to attracting clients who share their values, BBJ La Tavola's answer isn't about technical marketing tactics. It's about being collaborative and reliable. They're acutely aware that clients stake part of their own reputation on the vendors they choose, which makes reliability, responsiveness, and consistency part of the product itself.
The result is growth driven by word of mouth and long-term relationships, because in this industry, trust travels fast.
“When you regularly show up for your partners, communicate clearly, and execute at a high level, people talk about it.”
Where the Event Begins
For BBJ La Tavola, social media is equally an inspirational channel as it is a promotional one. As they put it, it's where an event often begins long before the planning does, where a bride saves her first tablescape, where a planner discovers a palette, where ideas start to take shape.
Their content goal goes beyond showcasing beautiful product. They want to help people understand why something works, why a texture reads as elevated, how layered details create dimension, how an unexpected combination can open a whole new direction. Some of their favorite content comes from seeing the inventive ways clients use their products.
“By sharing work that feels intentional, elevated, and genuinely useful, we help clients refine their vision while naturally reinforcing our brand as part of the creative process.”
AI as Support
BBJ La Tavola is thoughtful about where AI fits. Their interest centers on tools that streamline communication, organization, and internal workflows, things like digital asset organization, content workflows, and simplifying operational processes, so their teams can stay focused on the client experience.
But they're clear about the boundary. The business remains deeply relationship- and design-driven, and they see AI as something that supports the experience rather than replacing the human creativity and collaboration at the center of what they do.
“We view AI as something that supports the experience rather than replacing the human creativity and collaboration that are central to what we do.”
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Millennial Cohesion, Gen Z Expression
BBJ La Tavola notes that both Millennial and Gen Z clients are highly design-aware, but they engage with inspiration differently.
Millennial clients tend to approach planning with a strong sense of cohesion, gravitating toward ideas that feel refined, timeless, and thoughtfully composed. Gen Z clients bring a different energy, more visual, more comfortable experimenting with contrast and mixing influences to create something expressive and personal, and they expect faster, more streamlined digital access to information.
“[Millenials] lean toward enduring elegance, [Gen Z] toward creative self-expression, and together they continue to push the industry in exciting new directions.”
A Platform That Celebrates the Whole Process
BBJ La Tavola calls Style Me Pretty one of the most influential voices in the wedding industry and credit us as one of the first places that made weddings feel editorial and deeply personal rather than transactional. They especially value that we celebrate the full creative process behind an event, creating visibility for the creative community as a whole.
“That continued investment in the creative community is a big part of why Style Me Pretty remains such an important and respected voice today.”
Across every answer, BBJ La Tavola returns to the same idea: get the experience right, support the people doing the creative work, and let the relationships carry the rest.
Additional Credits:
- Videography: West and Oak Media | Florals: El Petros Floral
- Videography: West and Oak Media | Florals: El Petros Floral
- Venue: Trademark Venues
- Photo: Holtz Photography | Venue: Rockefeller Center & 620 Loft & Garden | Florist: Privet Flowers | Furniture: Luxe Event Rentals
- Venue: Private Residence (VacoraStays) | Videography: 309 Productions | Florist: Beach Plum Floral
- Venue: Trademark Venues
- Videography: West and Oak Media | Florals: El Petros Floral
- Venue: Private Residence (VacoraStays) | Videography: 309 Productions | Florist: Beach Plum Floral
