Part of our list of New York's Top 10 Event Designers.
Company: David Beahm Designs
What He Does: In a word, whimsy. Beahm works with big, dramatic decor elements, like ostrich feathers set in trumpet-shaped vases and chairs draped with boas for the Jazz at Lincoln Center gala opening. And he put an eight-foot palm tree wrapped with oranges in the center of the dance floor at the Copacabana for the Diffa casino benefit.
What He Doesn't Do: Minimalism. His floral arrangements tend to be big and lush, often with giant branches sticking out and swirling around them to give them sense of movement. (“Flowers shouldn’t be staid,” he says. “They should be a celebration.”) And he likes to show off: He once hung a complete garden of tulips and daffodils upside down above a table at the Horticultural Society’s annual benefit.
Who He Does It For: Beahm got a PR boost from doing the Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas merger, and his gig as the wedding expert at Marshall Field’s makes him a bridal favorite (he also did the retailer’s trippy 2004 flower show). He has worked on high-profile fund-raisers for the Whitney Museum of American Art and Saks Fifth Avenue’s Key to the Cure, and he gave the Fragrance Foundation’s Fifi awards an appropriately froufrou pink-and-peach look last year.
His M.O.: “We really try to spend time to get in the client’s head. My main goal is to never have someone walk in a room and say, ‘David did this,’” Beahm says. “I just try to keep pushing myself.”
—Chad Kaydo
Posted 04.06.05
This story originally appeared in the February/March 2005 issue of the BiZBash Event Style Reporter.
