Sabrina and Max: Glimmer, Sparkle and Shine

I think it is about time you got to see this amazing wedding! We worked with Sabrina and Max for more than a year to fine tune this beauty... he is an artist (posing as a dentist) and she is a performer (posing as an ad sales rep) so between all of us, there were some seriously creative juices flowing throughout!

All that glitters is not gold, but it could be mirrors or sequins... at least at this wedding. Sabrina loves anything with sparkle, so we used custom mirrored tabletops, gold and sequin linens, mirrored vases and even glitter paper to layer the menus so there was not a dull surface to be had. I think that in another venue all of these different materials could have been too much, but in this dramatic space, it was just right to show off Sabrina's style and reflect all of the gorgeous details inherent to the venue.

This wedding was originally scheduled to take place in a garden venue, so when we moved the location to Capitale (which is pretty much the opposite of a garden!) Sabrina and Max wanted to keep the fresh feel of the outdoors alive. Since there were no blooming branches to be found in the fall, we decided on building camellia trees with a white birch trunk and a floral base - just the kind of nature that is right up my alley - hand crafted and perfectly tailored!

You know I am a sucker for a great escort display, and boy do I love this one. We painted the frames of those Ikea (yes - Ikea!) floor mirrors gold and had the amazingly talented Joanne Day hand calligraph every name.  It was fun to watch guests admire themselves and the artistry of the display simultaneously, not to mention the super cool reflection the mirrors created on the floor.

I think we designed 20 different bars before the couple decided on this one - a GIANT square bar with a mirrored top and center console which was detailed with their specialty cocktail recipes as well as their monogram.

Every decision made for this wedding was made with passion and conviction, which made for more than a few multi-hour design sessions, but in the end, I really see this couple - not just in the mirrors - but in every aspect of the design. I believe that every guest that attended this wedding felt like it looked just like what Sabrina and Max would have chosen, and they would be absolutely right. Every wedding should look and feel just like a reflection of the couple who planned it - and when it really does, I feel like it was a design job well done.

Want to see more? The full album is on our Facebook page!

Designer's Quest

It’s been radio silence on the blog for exactly 6 months now. Six long, long months.  I often start my entries, when they are few and far between, with an apology for not having written sooner or more often. But today, instead of an apology, I’ll go with an explanation.

These past six months have been a time of development and re-imagination at LLE. Much of this has been living inside my head and finally some of it is just starting to appear in the light of day, so I’d like to start to share more of it in this forum.

I love the work that I do every day and I am proud of it. I am also remarkably gratified when clients tell me how much they love the work my team and I have done for them or when Googlers from around the world email me to compliment a photo they found online that linked back to this blog, Pinterest or Facebook.  And, there is no greater compliment than when a fellow designer contacts me to ask how I created something or where I sourced something. It makes me feel like I am contributing something not just to an individual client but to the bigger picture of events.  So, if things are going so well, why not keep on keepin’ on and stay on course?

Well, here’s what you may not know…. When you see a beautiful centerpiece or escort table from a wedding or a party, it was likely something I thought of up to two years before the photo appeared. Two years! Now, we rarely work with clients for two years on their events, however my job as a designer is to log snippets of ideas in my mind until the right moment, client, venue, etc. comes to unlock the idea and fill in the details.  I’ll admit that sometimes I have a pretty great, fully detailed idea or vision on the fly, but mostly it is like Legos, slowly stacking in my brain until the full tower is ready for play.  Why this matters – and there’s no way to sugar coat this – is that often when something looks new and exciting to you, I’m already over it.

So, I’ve been on a quest for the last six months for what feels truly new to me, and I suspect this is just the beginning. I’m not looking for one big idea or one “a ha” of inspiration. Instead, I am looking for new ways to think, new ways to regenerate my own creativity.  Therefore, instead of reporting to you on this blog about what I’ve already done, I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do next.  I wish I could do both at the same time, but, well, you know…

My journey has taken me to the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) where I started my formal education in interior design, a subject I’ve been passionate about for many years. It has also taken me to FINALLY start to learn how to use the Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.) on my own so that I can better communicate with my graphic artists and printers and so that I can spend less time telling them what is in my head and more time showing them.  I’ve been to more art exhibitions in these past 6 months than I’ve been to in the last 3 years combined (I know… bad New Yorker!!) to re-ignite how I learned to think about art when I studied it in college. I have also been revisiting my creative writing projects that have sat dormant for the last three “boom” years at LLE. 

Finally, and most externally relevant, I am putting my quest for new ideas and inspiration in the hands of new clientele. Beyond all art, fashion, architecture and the like, I am most often and most profoundly inspired by my clients – what they love, what inspires them, what their stories are that led them to me.  So it was finally time to move from a “less is more” mentality to a “more is more” frame of mind. For years, we have offered our design and production services almost exclusively to our clients for whom we were producing an entire event, but now we are armed and ready to expand our reach and offer both full service eventdesign and a la carte floral design to anyone who loves the LLE style, regardless of whether or not we are involved in the planning of their special day. This opens me up to collaborations not only with new clients but event planners, venues and other event pros in New York and well beyond.

I’m excited about where I am and where I’m going. And I promise to try and keep you looped in on my journey along the way!

From the vault: Tina and Joe's Gorgeous Gotham Wedding

I actually cannot fathom that I never blogged about this wedding before because it was one of our most spectacular weddings of all time! It is hard to believe that it was in the Fall of 2008, but I suppose time flies when you're having fun!

There were a million things that made this wedding awesome, but paramount was this couple's strong, unified vision for their wedding. Tina and Joe wanted a truly intimate ceremony with only family, and then a "badass*," blow-out, no-holds-barred party to celebrate with all of their friends.  Pretty much everything else, they left up to me! [*Badass was Joe's favorite word - you don't forget stuff like this, even after 4 years!]

So, we created a two-day event: Day 1 (Thursday) was their private wedding ceremony followed by an intimate dinner at the Park Avenue Townhouse with just about 25 of their family members; Day 2 (Saturday) was a fun and fabulous party at Gotham Hall. Tina also got to rock two different dresses and two different hair/makeup styles, which is pretty much every girl's dream.

It is a little hard to tell what the escort card setup was, but it was super cool.  Black acrylic cards were calligraphed in white and set atop a lucite table that was filled with water and tons of dahlias. Surrounding the table were clear lucite pedestals of varying heights loaded with jewel toned candles.

The seating area at Gotham Hall is an oval framed by the original teller walls from its days as a bank.  We enveloped the area with sheer drape, and then washed it with colored and patterned light to create a warm and magical environment.

Dinner tables were a mix of long feast style tables and square elevated tables (guest sat on bar stools) which gave the room great dimension and interest.  To this day, these centerpieces are still one of my favorite things we've ever created. Instead of using a traditional vase, I bought black crystal 4-arm chandeliers and then removed all of the electric components so that each arm could hold a pillar candle and the top could be the flower base. It took hours to un-assemble and re-assemble each one, but it was so worth it!

 

A black and white dancefloor really never looked so good as it did in this room. Also, looking back at these photos, I am remembering that this wedding was the first time we ever made our own linens because I couldn't find what I wanted (now we make linens for almost every event!).  I searched the world over for that exact fabric... and only months later black and white damask dominated the wedding scene and could be found everywhere. That's what you get for trying to be a step ahead of the game!

Photos by Barnaby Draper

I now need to dig around and see what other treasures are still hidden in my "vault" from weddings pre-dating this blog (or any blog for that matter!).  Glad I uncovered this beauty to start off the new year!

Happy 2013!

Carolyn and Jeff: Sophisticated City Wedding

This, my friends, was a great wedding! Loads of cool details, a truly creative layout and a couple who wanted a wedding that was, let's say, ALL IN. No stone left unturned.  

Carolyn and Jeff wanted a wedding that screamed NYC from every angle, so the selection of the venue was paramount. After checking out almost every venue in the City and changing their wedding date to accommodate the venue's availability, they selected the sleek and modern Trump Soho Hotel for all of their wedding events - from a Friday evening welcome cocktail party to a Sunday morning farewell brunch. 

The ceremony was the bride's terrain... she had the strongest vision for this atmosphere, so we knocked it out of the park from the first rendering. Carolyn wanted it to be both modern and warm so we used lots of minimalistic elements like ghost chairs and a slim fabric chuppah, but then created tons of glow with a pair of candle walls and candles down the aisle. The lighting was set like a theater - really dark except for the "stage" so the photos don't show the whole essence... I included our initial rendering so you can see some more!

Cocktail hour was set to be a divergence from the romantic ceremony with a lively, fresh summer atmosphere. We used lounge pieces for most of the seating as well as a huge bar detailed with the mod pattern that we introduced with the custom invitations we designed for Carolyn and Jeff. 

For the escort card table, we built another candle wall as the backdrop and then used grass green cards with white calligraphy by Michael Weinstein on a gorgeous brown ostrich table from Party Rental, Ltd.

The dining room was, I must admit, one of our biggest challenges - and one of our biggest successes. As it happens with many events, the couple's guest list grew significantly throughout the planning process, so we were faced with the challenge of fitting the room to its capacity without sacrificing all of the creative layout and design concepts we had been working toward. The most economical way to use a space is to fill it with round tables (which is why they are the standard at most venues), but Carolyn and Jeff didn't want a traditional dining environment or a traditional sit-down menu. So, we designed a supper club style dining room with a mix of some long feast tables along with some tall bar style tables, banquette tables and lounge groupings. On top of that, we had 3 huge food stations in the room. In short, the least space efficient design possible. But... we used every inch and made it work. And it was pretty fabulous if I may say so myself!

Each table type had different floral collections. Long tables had lush bouquets of lavender roses, green orchids and white tulips mixed with architectural arrangements of white calla lilies, whereas the bar and banquette tables had collections of singular blooms including purple callas, green hydrangea and white orchids. The circle was a common theme throughout the design so we used circle patterned votives and even a dot patterned gobo to cast an ethereal, sparkly glow over the entire room.

Many tables in the room were white lacquer rather than covered with linen, so to warm up the surfaces and give them greater connectivity to the darker elements in the room, we designed wooden table runners and adhered them to the white tables, giving the look that the wood was inlayed in the white table. These were crazy-cool... hopefully you can get a little taste of it.

2012 was such an amazing year for LLE... our events were bigger, better, more creative and more exciting than ever before. I am unendingly grateful to every client who put their trust in me to make the most special days of their lives even more unique and beautiful.  And, I am infinitely indebted to my outstanding team of designers, planners, interns and producers, without whom not one event this year would have been possible. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I have the absolute best people in the event biz on my crew, and they faithfully stand behind me and enthusiastically support my crazy ideas, all in the name of making pretty parties. 

So, on this final day of 2012, thank you, thank you, thank you. Wishing you health, happiness and many celebrations of joy in the new year!

xo,

Noah's Bar Mitzvah: Made for Movies

I love when my job allows me the opportunity to visit New York's best/coolest/most unusual cultural spots that ordinarily I don't get a chance to see. I didn't even know that the Museum of the Moving Image existed until we were looking for the perfect venue for a movie-buff teen with film biz parents. What could be a better fit than this unbelievably sleek space with something for everyone who has ever liked any kind of movie - ever. Star Wars gallery? Check. Silent film theater? Check. Animation studio? Check. Retro video arcade ('cuz who didn't play arcade games while you were waiting for your parents to pick you up from the movies!)? Check!

Noah's family didn't want a traditional, sit down meal with a lot of program formalities for their celebration, so we created a cocktail environment in the MMI foyer and cafe which provided lots of seating and food stations, but allowed guests to move and mosey throughout the night. Cocktail hour was in the galleries so guests could experience all of the cool stuff that the museum has to offer and the kids loved having a second opportunity to hit that arcade later in the night while the adults enjoyed a little "grown up" time. 

 For a Bar Mitzvah, I always like to use unusual, funkier flowers so that they don't feel too feminine. Here we used green antherium, dendrobium orchids and cymbidium orchids along with green and white parrot tulips and steel grass.  This fun vase was slightly reminiscent of a film reel - or so we thought!

 

Smaller tables had cocktail-sized arrangements with cymbidiums and spider mums. We were fortunate that the museum was furnished with these cute triangular white tables that looked a bit like "play" buttons and fit right into our design! All vases were detailed with vinyl film strip appliques. 

The cocktail bar was in a totally white space, so we kept it super-sleek with only a film reel vinyl applique that we custom designed for Noah.  

 Ottomans were enhanced with custom pillows for extra seating.

 Long communal tables detailed with black vinyl film strips allowed guests to hang out together in a relaxed setting. 

All photos by Gustavo Campos

This innovative video wall exhibit really set the scene and added the flavor of the museum to the party as it changed throughout the night. 

What I can't show you here (mostly because I am somewhat technically inept) is the absolutely unbelievable films that Noah and his parents created for both the video save the date and for the night of the party which premiered in the Museum of the Moving Image's stunning theater. When I think about this family and this venue, I cannot fathom a more perfect match. Boy, do I love it when a plan comes together...

 Happy Thanksgiving!

Checkerboard Fusion Album: Inspired by Invitations, Part 3

This next design for the Fusion shoot was just plain fun... instead of putting together a traditional wedding dinner setting, we designed a rustic dessert table inspired by the "Entwine" collection from the Checkerboard Fusion Album. 

I wanted to incorporate as much texture as possible so we used bushels of hay for the benches (covered with pashminas), burlap ribbon and fabric on the table and wrought iron trays and lanterns. 

 We featured more tote bags accented with the Love logo and personalized tags along with monogram favor boxes from the Fusion album. 

 When creating a great dessert table or any type of food station, I think it is important to use varied containers and trays on various levels, but to maintain some symmetry in the design so that it doesn't feel busy and haphazard. Treading the fine line between interesting and chaotic is sometimes a challenge!

 

 I loved these "canoe" bowls from Mikasa!

Checkerboard introduced these adorable cookie cutter favors - and what better place to display them than amongst the desserts!

 

 Throw pillows can have a place at a wedding or special event and then you can continue to use them at home. If your venue has existing furniture - even if it doesn't match your color scheme - you can accessorize it with your own pillows and throws (pashminas are always easy and inexpensive) to give a personalized touch.

 Also available in the Fusion album is event signage and gorgeous framed wall art so you can have a piece of your wedding beauty at home.

After the shoot, we got to stock the Checkerboard breakroom with all of these amazing goodies, so have no fear - not a morsel went to waste!