A Winter Tabletop

Recently I hosted a large dinner party at my home. I've done a number of parties here, but never a sit-down dinner. As the numbers grew in the last week I knew I wasn't going to be able to cope with all the china, glassware and flatware needs. So I turned to my friends in the industry to help me create the perfect dinner table.

I wanted everyone at one table but it soon became apparent that the table in my dining room wouldn't do. So I removed the furniture in the living room, made furniture groups in the dining room, and then placed this huge table in the living room.

PRO TIP: When created a tabletop look, consider the dominant colors in the room and create the table to compliment those. I believe a table is simply an extension of the room design whether you are doing a dinner in your home or an off-premise location.

Doing the table this way felt better for the space and was unexpected for my guests who had been here before. It added to making dinner more special. And since the dinner table was warm and inviting, it's where everyone ended up hanging most of the night, so why not the living room?



The antique gold chargers helped to define each place setting. We used Fanfair chairs by Chameleon Chair, The table, china, glassware and flatware were from Town and Country Event Rentals and the linen was by Wildflower.


Justin created a fantastic centerpiece for the large table. I asked him to make numerous pieces and then we added tons of candles to fill the table. He used an unusual combination of roses, protea, James Story orchids, liquid amber leaves. The antique mirror table top reflected the warmth of the colors and the flickering candles.

This was a true living room -- a place where friends and family could, and did, spend hours of lively conversation and memorable moments. It almost ... almost... made me want to keep the table there year-round!

GUEST BLOG by Patty Randall

As someone who is all about three-dimensional design and visual expression as an event designer and producer, I still have a very deep affection for the written word as you can see by this blog. When done right, the well-turned sentence, the right font, targeted content, an image – all are still very much an important piece of the puzzle in marketing and branding a concept.

Dave Merrell, Creative Director and Lead designdawg

THE PRINTED WORD

By Patty Randall

In today’s economic climate, it’s critical for planners to not only produce beautiful events, but to show the value events will bring to their clients. Events are business tools. They promote a product. They re-enforce a brand. They are an opportunity to say thank you. Before a client steps foot into the venue, or even confirms attendance, the invitation sets the tone and leaves the first and most important (and lasting) impression.

Beautifully designed invitations and other printed support materials (i.e. menu cards, place cards and programs) are better than an advertisement. They are reviewed and responded to, keeping your client at the forefront of a guests mind for weeks, even months, leading up to, and possibly even after, the actual event.

With this in mind, sisters Deborah and Holly Hefter started creating custom invitations out of their retail store, Elements, in Irvine, California. Then, in the early 1990s, Deborah developed an innovative, dimensional set of paper enclosures to accommodate all the information her customers wanted in their invitations and Envelopments was born.

It’s all about working with to help them communicate in a way that gets noticed and makes the right impression. The PGA Tour is one such client that understands the power of creating something unique and they do so annually for their event. It never looks the same way twice. A recent example is shown above. They are always looking for the newest way to package their message and make an impact with their recipients.

We’ve also helped companies create stand-out marketing materials and last year created a fun invitation for the Anaheim Ducks Hockey Club for one of their many community events (shown above). The Ducks told us, “The invitations were a hit! We sold out with a bunch of new people coming this year and I know it is because of the invitations.”

In today’s digital world it is getting more and more difficult to get messages into the hands of clients. Sure it is fast and easy to send e-blasts and e-vites, but do you know with certainty that your message will make it through your clients spam filter? And if it does, is it sitting with 50 other e-blasts just waiting to be deleted? By mailing something unique, made with paper, your message has a much better chance of standing out in the mailbox. What do you open first: The electric bill, the supermarket ad, or something bright and addressed directly to you?!

About Patty Randall

Starting with a job riding a unicycle in a Disneyland parade, Patty’s 21-year history with The Walt Disney Company allowed me to hold numerous special events positions specializing in the recognition, retention and motivation of 15,000 Disneyland employees. From there she began an events and promotions consulting firm through which she and her partners created ongoing incentive campaigns, leadership development programs and travel experiences for their clients. Through the years they depended on Envelopments as the base of all of our company self-promotions. The product line also offered an additional revenue stream and was used in virtually all of our event productions. As a longtime fan of the brand, Patty finally joined their team in 2009. Her goal was to introduce the product line to the business world which she has successfully done and continues to do.

A Full Deck = An Amazing Event

A party aboard the USS Midway in San Diego was a stunning kickoff to a year of events celebrating naval aviation.


Welcoming remarks, cocktails for 700 VIPs, a 200-plane flyover -- the largest in aviation history, fireworks and then ...

We'd tell you more, but it's top secret for now.


You'll just have to check back, but suffice it to say that what happened BELOW DECK will make the waiting worthwhile!

Event Design Inspiration from the Ground Up

One of the most asked questions when I do seminars is "Where do you get your inspiration?" The answer is both easy and difficult -- everywhere. Easy, for obvious reasons; difficult because you have to know how to "see," and to translate what you see into something that works in the event format. It's about always being aware, keeping a mental log of great ideas or even a physical log such as a book or a place on your computer where you store photos and thoughts.

But other times, inspiration is simply handed to you. This event was one of those times. It was a launch party for the very high-end SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, a Phillip Stark-designed, signature hotel.

The event was on the pool deck and was for the launch of a new edition of The Luxury Collection, a publication published by Starwood properties featuring high-end hotels around the world, the SLS being one. This party was for the Spanish Luxury Collection.

We received a booklet from our client, Mission US, early on in the planning stages. It was filled with photos by Andrea Fazarri, a brilliant photographer whose work is featured in The Luxury Collection. She is considered the Starwood's "global explorer" and was a huge inspiration to me for this event.

One of the photos in the book was that of the bougainvillea around a doorway in Spain (above). When I walked onto the property for the first time and saw a doorway leading into the pool deck, I took the inspiration literally.

Working with Green Set, a plant rental house in Los Angeles, we created this ...


What took Mother Nature years to grow in that very first photo of this post, took us three hours to install and make it look like it had been there forever.

Another photo in the inspiration book was of this bullfighter.

Spain is one of my favorite countries to visit and I've actually been to two bullfights in Barcelona. This picture instantly drew me in. The embroidery on the Toreador's jacket is stunning and was my inspiration for how to dress the tabletops. I didn't have to look much further than Wildflower Linen to find this cloth. The orchid provided simple elegance against the intricate beauty of the tabletops.

And of course, the SLS Hotel itself was inspiration. The pool deck features a series of over-sized frames, each different, as you see in the photo below. The idea was to blow up some of the iconic pictures from the inspiration book of Spanish landscapes and landmarks and insert them into the frames. Such an effective look and so easy!


Another shot of one of these enlarged photos behind furniture that was already at the SLS Hotel.

A few couture pillows for accent and some more well-placed orchids completed the look.

We also created this custom bar with fabric discovered at our downtown fabric market. We are so lucky to have this at our fingertips. It allows us to create completely unique looks appropriate for the event.

Even the weather was a decorative element. The sunset just after the rain made the sky as beautiful as, well, a sunset in Spain. Now THAT is inspiring!

Mobile Event in Los Angeles: Stoked for Snow

While the rest of the country is neck-deep in it, Los Angeles was actually Stoked for Snow. That's the name of this mobile experiential marketing event that took to the streets of LA last weekend giving away skiing trips to Alberta, Canada. You may have seen a Tweet or two from it!


The concept, created by the Calgary-based event planning firm E=MC2, was to take the mobile bus to various destinations in the city such at The Grove, Santa Monica Pier and Newport and Huntington Beaches (here it is at Hollywood & Highland) and post its location on Twitter and Facebook. People who followed and found the bus were invited in for more information on skiing in Canada as well as give aways worth $70,000 of ski vacations complete with airfare, hotel, lift tickets and rentals.

The event's brand was created by Karo Graphic Design, also out of Calgary, Alberta. Working with them and E=MC2 for four weeks before the event, AOO Events' producer Jahon Pilichowski helped execute the event that ended with 15 lucky people heading to Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper and Whistler during the next year.

The viral aspect of the event was exciting, as well as a little stressful. It's hard to have an event and not know who or how many will show.

"At many of the locations the bus itself attracted people," Jahon says. "But at the last location, the tweets and posts caught on and we had a slew of people show up because of them. Had this gone on for more than a day, it would've been truly wicked -- a Canadian term for cool that I picked up during the day."

The other challenge was simply getting people on the bus. "People are just naturally apprehensive about getting on a bus for a 20-minute ride," Jahon continues, "But when they actually saw people winning $5,000 ski vacations, well, needless to say, they were instantly STOKED FOR SNOW!"

And here's a video that shows you just how much!