Ines' Funky and Fun Birthday Surprise

This gig was just plain fun. When a great client calls and tells me that I can pick a cool place for a cool party and it just needs to look and feel cool, well.... that's just cool. It was a special birthday for long time client Ines, and her husband Augusto wanted to surprise her with a birthday bash (check out their wedding here). The only requirement is that it needed to be a venue with a view. With that in mind, there was only one choice for me - SoHi at the new Trump SoHo Hotel has the sickest view of New York that I have ever seen, so it was a shoo-in.



We put together a station-style menu for this relaxed party which means that tables would not be fully set with china, silver and glassware. This makes for a very important decor challenge: how to still make the table look interesting and full when, indeed, it is not full. The answer? A patterned tablecloth! A plain, solid cloth can look empty when there is not a charger plate, silverware, etc. so bringing in a cloth with pattern or texture provides visual interest in lieu of the other elements.



Since Ines and Augusto have small children (see one of their birthday celebrations here), they wanted to include their own kids as well as the children of their guests. To give them a little something to do while the adults were eating, we created a kids' craft table with stickers, crayons, pipe cleaners, wax sticks and other fun goodies. I also used a lower table and kids' chairs so that they would feel extra comfortable.



SoHi has very cool little nooks in the walls opposite the windows so we carried the floral concept through to add more color around the room. One of the greatest features of this space, though, is the honeycomb ceiling with color changing LED's which provides both color and texture.





You know it is not a party without a cake - and this cake rocked! My buds Leslie and Mark at Mark Joseph Cakes worked with me to translate the style of this party into this modern, square cake that was one of the biggest "wows" of the night.



All photos by Sharon Schuster

How do you feel about all the pink? It was definitely the color of the season at LLE, so stay tuned for more!