Today we’d like to introduce you to Christie Zangrilli.
Party at the Moontower is a boutique event rental house specializing in modern-eclectic furniture and decor. Based in Austin, but traveling all over Texas for events of all kinds, they are a friendly, design-loving bunch, here to help make events more memorable. From chic to casual, their distinctive fun and modern style will help tell your story and infuse soul into any gathering.
Christie has always had a love for design in a variety of forms. Her core inspiration stems from growing up in a very DIY household. Her dad is a restaurant entrepreneur and her mom wears the titles of artist, maker, and builder who was able to make her husband’s restaurant visions come to life. Whatever they needed her mom simply created, from the menus to the art on the walls.
Whether it is innate or learned through watching her parents, the instinct to create and seek solutions inside of herself has continued as a driving force. That instinct carried her first into a career in graphic design where she ran her own studio for 12 years before starting Party at the Moontower alongside one of her closest friends, Tenaya Hills.
The beginnings of Party at the Moontower are a classic tale of two friends who, while searching for event furnishings for one of their weddings, saw a need for more contemporary, design-forward rentals. So, as true lovers of cool furniture (and partying), they set out to create an event rental house that captures the Austin vibe—modern but with warmth and plenty of personality!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone… You have to be ok with the fact that you can never really “go home” and leave your work behind. That is just an overall struggle—or rather lifestyle—that you have to get used to. Once you do, it’s mostly good days over bad.
As for specific struggles, I wasn’t an even planner or anything before getting into this business, so I’ve had to teach myself everything about the event industry. Luckily there are always other vendors also getting into the business at the same time and you end up doing a lot of initial self-promo events together where you can connect and learn a lot.
Party at the Moontower Event Rentals – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My business, Party at the Moontower, is an event furniture rental company. We rent design-forward chairs, tables and lounge furniture and decor for any type of event. Right now our main clients are corporate events and weddings. We also have rented our furniture for home staging and film sets.
Our guiding philosophy is to buy or custom build pieces that are artful and well designed—items you would want to see in your own home—but that are also useful for events. From weddings and holiday parties, festivals and conference stage sets, if it involves making a space look more intimate and welcoming we’re all over it.
I can’t say that other event rental owners don’t equally love design, but we’re coming at this business from a lens of wanting to truly bring good design to events. We have also developed a style that sets us apart. From the beginning we wanted to offer a style that embodied Austin. We call it Austin modern, which we see as modern, clean lined furniture but with warmth, paired with eclectic pieces—from Moroccan rugs to Mexican Acapulco chairs. We also tend to choose furniture that works well outdoors since being outside is such a big part of our local culture.
This style could also simply be called “fun”, which works for any event where more personality, color and flavor is wanted.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment so far was sitting in a meeting with my CPA reviewing the year and doing some projections for the future. She stopped in the middle and said, “Wow! You guys are doing so well!” Of course, I knew we were steadily winning more business and growing, but to hear a finance professional tell me this felt like a real win in our short three years.
Contact Info:
- Website: moontowerrentals.com
- Phone: 512-522-4982
- Email: info@moontowerrentals.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/moontowerrentals
- Facebook: facebook.com/moontowerrentals
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/party-at-the-moontower-event-rentals-austin
- Other: https://goo.gl/maps/Bj6h3DZn5UA9soew8
Image Credit:
PartyattheMoontower 800Congress Christna Carroll Photography; PartyattheMoontower BOA SpringdaleStation 2018 April Mae Creative; PartyattheMoontower BOA StyledShoot WildOnionRanch 2018 1 Caitlin Rose Photography; PartyattheMoontower BridesOfAustin StyledShoot 2018 Captivating Weddings; PartyattheMoontower TexasPlayboys 2017 Kristina Gonzalez Photography; Partyatthemoontower TheVaugn SXSW2017 Jessica-Frey Photography; PartyattheMoontower WhereInnTents 2018 1 Nicole-Ryan-Photography
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