Planners usually arrive holding a guest count and a budget cap, and the tier decision is where those two numbers meet. Here's the comparison we walk through on calls, in table form first:
| Tier | Caps | Open hours | Patch wall | Sweet spot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Setlist | 100 | up to 3 | 24 designs | 120–180 invite-list guests |
| The Double Rack | 200 | up to 4 | 36 designs | 250–400 guests |
| The Full Wall | 400 | up to 6 | 48 + custom run | Conferences, festivals, multi-day |
Why hours and caps are paired
Each tier is sized so the press lane can genuinely finish the rack inside the window — 100 caps across three hours is a comfortable single-lane pace, 400 across six assumes added pressing capacity at peak. Buying more caps than your hours can press just strands inventory at teardown; the pairing protects you from that.
Case one where the obvious tier is wrong: the compressed window
A 350-guest gala says Double Rack — until you learn the bar only opens during a 90-minute cocktail hour. Ninety minutes on one lane is ~75–90 caps, period. The fix isn't a bigger package; it's a second press lane inside the same tier, which costs less than jumping to Full Wall and actually solves the constraint.
Case two: the open-gate event
Street fairs and fan zones have no guest list, so tiers stop being forecasts and become budget ceilings. Here the right move is often to buy the tier you can afford, post "while supplies last," and let scarcity end the activation on schedule. The festival playbook covers the layout that keeps the final hour orderly.
What moves the price inside a tier
Local staffed packages start around $5,000 in the OC/LA/SD core. From there the levers are crew hours ($250/hr across your approved schedule), a flat $900 travel adder beyond Southern California, and optional lines like custom patch runs or a live tee lane. Full inclusion detail sits on the pricing page.
Paste your guest count and schedule into the date checker and we'll return the tier call with reasoning, not just a number.