Pow! Diego's 5th Birthday Bash

I can't lie... I am pretty much mortified that I have a backlog of awesome events from nearly a YEAR ago.  I can make excuses (busiest year ever! sold my house! new business projects in development! launching an industry charity!) but there really is no excuse except that I haven't carved out the time. I'm trying to change my ways... really.

So, here it goes! Let's turn back the clock to last August when I did yet another spectacular party for one of my long-standing clients.  You've seen Ines and Augusto's wedding, Ines' birthday party, Diego's 4th birthday, and now... his 5th!  Diego had not lost his love for all things superhero, so my challenge was to do a superhero party, but one that looks totally different than the one we did the year before. Spiderman was the star for birthday number 4, so I thought I'd mix it up a little bit by going retro. We didn't focus on any one particular superhero, but instead channeled a little bit of my inner Lichtenstein for a funky comic book inspired look.

There aren't too many instances in which a polka dot tablecloth and yellow chairs will do the trick, but this hot summer day was the one!  The combo made the party feel youthful and fun and it was engaging for kids and adults alike. Colorful, funky flowers in lime green vases were accented with comic book exclamations for added whimsy.

We did a killer dessert/favor station at Diego's 4th birthday, so we had to top ourselves with this one while not repeating the same components. So, I created a lollipop tree display with the birthday cake as the centerpiece.  I used a Martha Stewart tutorial to create the ribbon covered cones (kinda harder than it looks!) and inserted all sorts of pops (cake, lolli, cookie, etc.) into each of the cones on the table.  I once again called upon Cakes by Mona to create the world's cutest birthday cake for the world's luckiest kid.

There was tons to do to keep busy on this gorgeous summer day... swimming, bounce house, climbing wall - you name it! While the guests enjoyed the activities, they munched on popcorn and cheese puffs from these cute customized bags. Below: you can't go wrong with a pinata - and my favorite part of the day - a craft station at which the kids could make their own superhero capes and masks!

All photos by Sharon Schuster

I'm looking forward to more great celebrations with this wonderful family.  What else can we do for birthday number 6??

Thanks for reading!

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!

Emily's Fashionable Fete

For me, Bar and Bat Mitzvah design is always a unique challenge. It involves balancing the needs and desires of both an adult and a teenage client, and, more importantly, it usually involves convincing someone that a party with a theme need not have either foam core centerpieces or anything that lights up and flashes. This lovely New York City Bat Mitzvah at the Central Park Boathouse was no different, however it didn't take too much negotiation to get both the parents and the Bat Mitzvah girl on board with a unique twist on a fashion design theme.

Emily is a budding fashion illustrator - it is one of her hobbies and I must say that I was blown away by the caliber of her sketches. So, while many girls her age want a Bat Mitzvah theme that has to do with fashion magazines, shopping or popular brands, Emily had something much more elevated in mind (yay for me!). We didn't focus at all on fashion as an outcome, but instead on fashion as a process. One thing was non-negotiable though... PINK! Emily loves pink and wouldn't consider straying from it for a minute.

The first thing my design team worked on was establishing a logo that was both elegant and youthful and that tied into the theme without being too blatant. We decided on a hand illustrated bust form with Emily's name draping around the neck like a tape measure. Talented stationer Ana Dolan used this motif to create a variety of printed pieces for the party.



Next, I wanted to have a creative way to display the escort cards that tied into the theme, so after a lot of thought, I decided to use Emily's sketches as inspiration to create 3-D moodboards. We worked backwards from some of Emily's best sketches and added fabric swatches, ribbons and beads to frame the cards themselves.





For me, the flowers were a no-brainer. Emily's parents wanted to have elegant, tasteful centerpieces that were seasonal and simple, but Emily wanted to be sure the theme carried through. So, on half of the tables, we created lush trios of peonies, roses, hydrangea, orchids and calla lilies in varying shades of pink. On the other half of the tables, though, I sourced beautiful painted wire dress forms, set them on a base of full flowers coordinating with the other tables and accented them with a "belt" of pink roses so that the wire wouldn't feel too harsh.





In the lounge area for the kids, we needed just a few small floral accents, so I pounded the pavement for days to find pink high heels to use as vases for these sweet cocktail pieces.



Finally, since everyone in NYC is crunched for space, I wanted to help Emily's family avoid the problem of the huge sign-in board that often needs to find a permanent home in a small apartment. I purchased a pink (of course) cocktail dress and accessorized it with a brooch and a necklace on my trusty mannequin (affectionately nicknamed Violetta by my staff!) and allowed the guests to offer their congratulations to Emily by signing the dress! This way she can still keep it forever, but neatly hung in her closet or folded in a drawer.


All photos by Sharon Schuster

Another fun party for another great family. Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky...

Happy fall!

*Thanks to Lenox Hill Florist for acting as my floral production partner for this event.