Lauren and Nick: Romantic Blue and White Wedding

Lauren and Nick's wedding at The Woodlands Inn and Resort in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania was a great opportunity for me to flex more of my "StyleFile" muscles as Lauren came to me with an assembled in-house team of vendors who needed just a little direction to boost this event from lovely to fabulous. Lauren's personal style is feminine, but simple and clean and she wanted her wedding style to reflect just that. It was her amazing Vera Wang wedding dress that inspired much of the wedding design: the white on white stripes with bow detailing said everything Lauren wanted to say.

My pride and joy from this wedding design is the escort card display. During one phone consultation, Lauren mentioned that she wanted to include some sort of floating flower component in the design. Since just flowers in a bowl were not stylized enough for what we were trying to accomplish, I dreamed up (by the way, until this very moment of spell-check clarity, I totally thought that word was dreamt, but evidently not! Who knew?) this gigantic water table as the focal point of the cocktail space. The total size of this table was about 7 feet square, with the center "pool" at 4 feet square. The beautifully calligraphed escort cards with custom designed monogram on top were arranged on a pave of white carnations surrounding the entire pool. Hydrangeas, gardenias and candles floating in the water were highlighted with soft blue light for some extra glimmer. It was pretty fabulous. I loved watching all of the guests explore this table, gently touching the flowers and the water to see if everything was real. It was spectacular!





Inside the ballroom, we channeled a little bit of Old Hollywood and a lot of classic elegance to create two styles of table designs: long ovals with a landscape of low centerpieces and traditional rounds with high arrangements. Accents of pearls, bows and tons of candlelight tied the design together with the dress inspiration and a sweet, romantic glow.



I was faced with a huge challenge in this particular ballroom because these ceilings were LOW. I mean lower-than-your-traditional-studio-apartment-LOW. So... some of the lighting and draping techniques that I often rely on and that drew Lauren to my work initially were out of the question. As a result, I needed to create focal points in a different way. The first thing we did was bring in an all-white dance floor and finish it with Lauren and Nick's custom insignia that I created as part of the StyleFile. I used a vinyl transfer to apply their logo and it looked amazing on the white floor. I had done it many times on traditional parquet floors, but never on white. Yum! It looked hand painted!



Also, my amazing lighting team installed 150 iridescent glass globes and candleholders into the ceiling tracks and then lit them with color changing LEDs to give the low ceiling an amazing glow all night long.



This project was a true delight because even though Lauren had a team of vendors already on board before she met me, she was so open to exploring new ideas and pushing the limits of what she had seen before and what these vendors had done before. The experience certainly helped me to better convey my concepts to vendors who had not tried some of these techniques in the past and I believe that it helped them to look beyond their comfort zones to see what is possible. I love jobs where I can teach a little and learn a little, and this definitely fit that bill!


The stripes and bows on the cake mimicked Lauren's gown; the design is also a great simple choice for an in-house baker to do when a specialty baker isn't in the cards.

All photos by Gustavo Campos

Wanna learn more about the "StyleFile" and how I can work with your team of vendors anywhere in the world to bring your wedding vision to the next level? Email me at lindsay[at]lindsaylandmanevents[dot]com.

'Til next time...

Inspired by: Kelly Wearstler

I have found my design soul mate. There's no one else I want to be with for the rest of my days. Kelly Wearstler: you are THE ONE.



I have long been an admirer of Kelly's work, but it was not until my darling clients Katie and James gave me the world's most thoughtful gift of a big ol' pile of design books (inspiring many more posts, I'm sure!) that I got to spend two uninterrupted hours with Kelly and her work. Page after page of Modern Glamour: The Art of Unexpected Style spoke to me... and in many ways echoed me. I heard myself in Kelly's words and saw my visions in the photos of her work. So, just like when you meet that special someone who can complete your sentences, I knew that my love for Kelly was here to stay.



By now you must know that I am endlessly charmed by language, so Kelly's crystal clear way in which she defines some of her basic design principles is amazing. I could list every pull quote from the book because so many of them are brilliant, but it is her focus on the key principle of unexpected style from so many different angles that I think is captivating:
"Eclecticism produces excitement through creative tension. Eclectic interiors may startle you at first, but its that surprising quality that hold you there and calls you back again." Two sentences that perfectly state what it took me two posts to convey (See: Unlikely Pairs and Mixed Media).

Now - I am going to say something bold here - and you are just going to have to live with it: every outfit, room, piece of stationery... you name it... is better with black. I thought that maybe I had been in New York too long because my love for black is so sincere, but after pouring over Kelly's images, I have found both a kindred spirit and a sense of validation. There is black in every room. Maybe a little or maybe a lot, but always black. I know it is not for everyone or every party (settle down, brides, I won't put black in your design if you don't want it!) but it excites me every time I see black in a good design and I never tire of it.



I could go on and on, but I'll just point out one more thing about my kindred spirit: Kelly says in her chapter on Color and Texture that "Living without color is like living without love." It seems overly dramatic, particularly in reference to event design, but her bold mantra spoke to me because of my daily interaction between color and love... weddings. Since Katie picked out this book for me, I will use her as my example (hope you don't mind, Katie!): early on when she and I were working on the design for her wedding and I had proposed a few color palettes, Katie called me one evening to say that she thought maybe she should just go with all white for her wedding. It was too hard to decide on a color palette and maybe going with white would be easier and safer so she wouldn't have to over-commit to just one shade. Katie was certainly not the first and will definitely not be the last to sing the song of white's safety to me... picking a color and using it as the main stamp on the key event of your lifetime is a BIG DEAL. Huge. Like picking your mate. You are saying to the world that you have one day to show off the essence of your life and this is the person you are picking, and this is the dress you are picking and this is the color you are picking. But here's the thing: the greater the risk, the greater the reward, in design, in life and in love. If you don't grab your chance, it will pass you by and you'll be sorry you played it safe. Please, take it from me... my wedding was white. My dining room is purple, though, so I worked it out in the end.


All photos courtesy of www.kwid.com

In the forward of the book, famed editor Marian McEvoy says of Wearstler: "You can't enter a Wearstler environment without being challenged to inspect, touch, and wonder where she came up with her ideas." This moves me in a powerful way because when I think about the greatest compliment someone can pay me, it is to be asked "how did you think of that?" It implies that I have been creative, that I have imagined something that no one else has. And it makes me feel like I am at least a fraction of the designer I hope to be.

Get this book. It will not disappoint.

Katie and James: Beautiful Pennsylvania Wedding

I worked with Katie and James for more than a year on every detail of their amazing wedding in Katie's hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania (which is my hometown too!). This is not my first Scranton-area event so I am getting a little reputation back home for coming in and shaking things up a bit. Depending on who you ask, that may be a good thing or a bad thing...



My goal with the decor was to create a "wow factor" while remaining cognizant of the slightly more tailored sensibility of my clients and their guests. Katie picked this fabulous color palette of plum, raspberry and pewter from some paint chip strips I stole from the paint department at Home Depot (shhh!) and so that there would be a little something for everyone, I created three different tabletop looks on both square and rectangular tables. I just loved using these custom upholstered lampshades atop tall, shapely vases instead of a room full of flowers (non-floral decor at its best!) and to keep costs in check, I used tap lights (yes, from the info-mercials) to illuminate inside the shades. Peonies were in full bloom for this June wedding, but to give the lamps a lift, a pave'd box of hot pink carnations did the trick.

There were dozens of fun details at this Scranton Cultural Center wedding from the illuminated escort table to the monogrammed chair caps and the sweet drink straws to the surprise zeppole station at the exit. Here's just a peek at some of my favorite accents...






All photos by Rob Lettieri

It was a thrill to be part of a wedding day with so much life and exuberance. This room was exploding with energy, but also with love and warmth. Katie and James' wedding was a true collaboration with the bride, the groom and both families and it was amazing to see and feel how the end result was a reflection of all of them and their amazing connection to one another.

A special thanks goes out to Dorian and Eloise Butovich of Central Park Flowers in Olyphant, PA who were crucial to the production of this event and who helped make it a success.

Enjoy,

Non-floral decor

Hello, again! Yes, I am still alive and well despite my complete disappearance from the blogosphere. So sorry... hope you missed me just a little.

So, non-floral decor. What on earth does that mean and why, oh, why would a designer who focuses much of her work on weddings always be telling people it is her specialty? Well, because if I have said it once I have said it a thousand times: people put too much pressure on their flowers to create their decor! If you rely solely on flowers, your only option to make your decor more impactful is to keep making your flowers bigger and bigger and bigger. Not only does that look often become heavy and overwhelming, but it becomes expensive. And I mean EX-PEN-SIVE.

Non-floral decor refers to all of the elements that contribute to the overall design that are not flowers. This includes, but is not limited to, linens, tableware, lighting, candles, printed materials - even food. All of these items, if thought through properly, can contribute to the overall impression of your decor. Some of these things are even event necessities - so if you have to have them, why not make them work a little harder and really change the aesthetics of your celebration?

Please don't misunderstand me. I love flowers and I think they are gorgeous. I also think that EVERY social event should have at least one fresh floral element as this is what tells your guests that the decor atmosphere was made fresh for your celebration. I just don't think flowers are the end-all-and-be-all of decoration.



I came across this photo on Apartment Therapy blog and it just took my breath away. It is elegant, dramatic, unique and just simply gorgeous. It could be a table for a wedding, a new year's eve dinner, a glamorous birthday party - just about anything. Now, take a close look at the flowers. Yes, they are there - single white roses propped in small glass vases - but they are just 1% of this look. It is a big look, but with the smallest amount of fresh flowers possible. The "wow" of this is certainly the chandeliers, but what I love most is how every element on the table contributes to the overall aesthetic. Notice how the glassware mimics the shapes of the light fixtures and how the varying candleholders and candles add movement to the landscape. If you have to have glasses (which of course you do!) why not make them do double duty and contribute to your decor? That is the essence of non-floral decor - making every element share the work-load of creating gorgeousness.

Cheers,

Allison's Beautiful Birthday Bash

While I cannot disclose what birthday was celebrated at this elegant soiree (I was told that if the "number" got out, heads would roll!), I can tell you what a special, intimate evening this was for Allison, a former mother-of-the-bride (we did daughter Ashley's wedding in July 2008), and 25 of her closest friends. The private room at Del Posto was just the right setting for this multi-course meal with wine pairings as it was secluded from the bustling main dining room, but still thrived on the energy of this Mario Batali/Lydia Bastianich hotspot.





I remembered that when we designed her daughter's wedding years ago, Allison said her favorite flower was sweet pea, so it was a no-brainer to include it in the centerpieces. Completing the lovely spring mix was yellow freesia, ivory garden roses and white ranunculus.



This menu folder, along with all of the other stationery pieces, was created by Bella Figura.



At each guest's place, miniature cakes by Chocolate Blossom Cakes served as both the place card and the favor. They alternated between yellow and green with the guest's initial in the opposite color on the top of each cake.



It wouldn't be a birthday party without a cake, and there is no cake like a Sylvia Weinstock cake!

All photos by Sofia Negron

Hope you enjoy!

Josh's Vintage Baseball Bar Mitzvah: Part Two

Tappan Hill in Tarrytown, New York was the site of this beautiful celebration. The venue is the most perfect example of the value of my Design Consulting services (if I may say so!) for two reasons: First and foremost, Tappan Hill has an exclusive list of florists with whom their clients must work. This is somewhat common with venues that do high volume or that have historic status as they tend to be more protective of their environment and want to reduce the risk of having different florists coming in every day who may not be respectful of their house rules and limitations. Therefore, I am not permitted to produce my designs in this space. I can design parties (brainpower), but I can't produce them (manpower). [For more info on the difference, click here].

Second: Tappan Hill, an Abigail Kirsch property, has amongst the most stellar event managers in the business. I have worked primarily with Kathy Policastro over the years and she manages the intricate details of every event with unparalleled precision. It is a most unusual situation in which the venue contact is as good as a great event planner, but Kathy is that good, so I feel 100% confident that the event will be as fabulous as the decor I designed and I can rest easy even if my planning team is not on-site. It may surprise you that someone who has a company which plans events would highlight an instance in which our services are not required, but, as always, I call it like I see it, and there are a few locations lurking out there at which, when there is a client who is doing a very straightforward or repeat event (second Bar Mitzvah, for example), our planning services are not required. Gasp!

So, in short, it was my job to come up with all of the creative ideas for this event and then to put them in a format that I could hand over to another florist to bring to life. That format is what I call the Style File. The Style File has every detail that is required (down to the inch) to produce the design including the floor plan, materials, flowers, art and lighting. It is my goal to make the Style File so comprehensive and specific that truly any professional can produce every part of the design just as I would if I were the producer on the job. This particular event was relatively close to home for me, so I knew the vendors and could come to the venue to oversee the production, but, the Style File is strong enough that a bride planning a destination wedding or a client based thousands of miles away could take this "book" to their local producers and make a design just as fabulous come to life!

The previous post detailed a few of the thematic elements of this party, but I also wanted to share with you the elegant, beautiful dinner tables and lounge environment we designed for Josh and his guests. Because this party was for equal parts children and adults, one of our goals was to create an environment that was equally appropriate for both. Thus, with my intention to leave the theme-y elements to the bar, the escort table and the sign-in area, I used the color, conceptual and textural elements to convey the Vintage Baseball feel.

One of the many documents from the Style File that I gave to the required production team was this illustration of my complete vision for the tablescape.



Dark wooden farm tables, walnut chairs and amber tinted glasses from Classic Party Rentals were a perfect fit for this event style. Chargers from Party Rental, Ltd. and runners from my personal collection finished off the tabletop. My flower and candle designs were produced with precision by House of Flowers, one of Tappan Hill's required vendors, and those killer wooden table numbers, like the escort cards, were designed and produced by ModernPress.





For the kids' area, I added club-style lounge pieces from Designer8 (part of Classic Party Rentals), and those cutey red ottomans are from the perennial favorite, Target. The distressed baseball lamps? eBay, of course! Oh, internet, how I love thee...


Photos by Gustavo Campos

My mission to abolish all glittered foam core from every Bar/Bat Mitzvah in America continues on... one party at a time. If you looked at these photos and thought to yourself, "this doesn't look like a Bar Mitzvah," well, then, my work here is done.

As always, I welcome your thoughts, feedback and questions, so bring it on!

Happy summer!

Josh's Vintage Baseball Bar Mitzvah: Part One

I had such a great time working on this amazing Design Consulting project. I had produced a Bar Mitzvah for this family's older son three years ago so I was already familiar with their aesthetic and the more sophisticated vibe they like, so when Josh's mom said he liked baseball, but didn't want to go "over the top," I knew just where I wanted to go with the design.

I started the Style Story by offering two different theme choices: Vintage Baseball and Pinstripe Prep. The family flipped for the Vintage Baseball concept because it encompassed all of the key baseball elements that Josh loves but without being too overt with the theme. I wanted to style the party with color and texture rather than images as is most common with Bar/Bat Mitzvah decor so I picked tones that had an antique feel and materials with a rustic finish.

I'll start with the most thematic elements. My client had a great monogram from their save the date card that they gave to me to work with. The first thing was taking the monogram and finding the "kid friendly" manifestation of it so we could print it on favors and the like. My idea was putting the monogram as the insignia on a distressed baseball cap. So, my talented illustrator Heather came up with just the right hand-drawn image.

Next, my plan for keeping the party thematic, but not too "in your face" was to theme the escort card table, the bar and the sign-in area so that we could just make the dinner tables beautiful and elegant without too much theme-y stuff. First up was finding just the right vintage baseball imagery to use as a jumping off point for these areas. One of my great design assistants, Amanda, found a photo of an old-fashioned baseball scoreboard and immediately all of the pieces of the puzzle fell into place in my head. The icing on the cake was my discovery of brilliant stationery designer Carolina Della Valle of ModernPress's collection of wood escort cards, menus and table numbers.

This is the image that originated the idea, followed by my translation.




And.... the real thing.

For the sign-in area, I couldn't stop thinking about the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It took me a while to put all of the elements in place, but once I found these Hall of Fame World Series plaques at a good price online, my vision finally worked itself out. The production team was not too happy about the wood paneling, but it had to be done! Guests signed the copper plaque featuring the Bar Mitvah boy, giving him a keepsake he'll actually want to keep.



The bar came together when I saw an image of a baseball dugout in which the batting helmets were stored in wooden cubbies while the players were in the field. I became obsessed with this image for some strange reason and couldn't sleep until I figured out what to do with it. Building this cubbie contraption onsite was no party, but the end result was exactly how I imagined it.




All event photos by Gustavo Campos

These thematic elements set the tone for the party without hitting guests over the head with BASEBALL!!! and JOSH!!! AHHH!!! Stay tuned for more images from this amazing celebration and see how the dining environment turned out.