The indoor-outdoor event, overseen by HBO’s Cindy Tenner and designed by Billy Butchkavitz, filled the pool deck and adjoining restaurant space with decor Butchkavitz said was inspired by an early 1930s movie set design by Cedric Gibbons. The Old Hollywood musical’s look inspired the party’s topaz and gold color palette.
Draping lent a luxe look to the room, regarded as the night's hottest ticket: Jennifer Aniston, Patricia Arquette, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Taylor Swift, and Lorde were among the A-list attendees.
A dramatic golden staircase descended from a 24-foot-high upholstered perimeter wall. In front of it was a grand piano, where Stephen Limbaugh played piano and Katie Welch sang for the crowd. Daisy O’Dell also used the piano as her DJ booth. Special Event Contractors built the wall and staircase, as well as covered the hotel's pool. Emerging Entertainment handled the sound, and Agile Eye Solutions was behind the party's large decor pieces.
Tables were topped with flowers authentic to the 1930s design period trends: gardenias, cream roses, China mums, and white amaryllis. Town & Country provided rentals, and lighting, including swirled patterns on the staircase, was provided by Images by Lighting.
Tufted lounge furniture groupings dotted the space, as did greenery, including trees strewn with lanterns. Fiji Water, Moët, Marie Claire, and Lexus were among the event's many additional sponsors.
Paramount's party in the hotel's Stardust Lounge, also produced by 15/40, had a glamorous classic Hollywood look with glittering orbs hanging overhead and tufted white seating groups.
Audi hosted its annual Golden Globes party at Cecconi's on Thursday. DJ Michelle Pesce spun for the crowd, and celebrities arrived in Audi vehicles including its fuel-efficient A8 L TDI sedan.
For the massive gala's 2014 iteration, planners chose a "Bridge to Possibility" theme. Held at the cavernous Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the event featured screens printed with the New York City skyline and bridges. The screens enclosed the entry hallway that led to the reception space. David Stark Design designed the event.
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation celebrated with its annual Breath of Life gala at the National Building Museum in Washington in 2011. Streamers divided the National Building Museum atrium into three spaces.
To kick off the 2013 N.F.L. season, the league hosted a free outdoor concert by Keith Urban and a V.I.P. party in Baltimore. In keeping with the music theme, producers PEDG and Production Glue placed guitars with the Baltimore Ravens logos behind the bars at the Maryland Science Center.
Sponsor Acura provided vehicles to transport people between event venues at the New Yorker Festival in October. Festivalgoers and guests alike knew which vehicles to look for: the ones with the festival's logo emblazoned on the side of the car.
On December 4, the Chicago Botanic Garden hosted its "All Aboard" fund-raiser. After viewing the garden's elaborate, indoor miniature train set, guests had dinner in one of three dining rooms decorated by Event Creative. One room, with a "Frozen Radiance" theme, used glossy all-white furniture and frosty blue lighting to create an icy look.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay hosted its annual “Big Night” fund-raiser at the House of Blues on February 7. This year's event had a brand-new—yet throwback—theme: the 1990s. Guests, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay's C.E.O, Wendy Foster (pictured), posed in front of a graffiti-decked step-and-repeat.
The Miami institution hosted its annual gala on February 7. While raising funds, the affair also served as a celebration of the 70th birthday of co-founding artistic director Michael Tilson Thomas. The evening's decor from Shiraz Events incorporated the guest of honor's favorite color—blue—and Tilson Thomas's image was shown in illuminated boxes that appeared on tabletops.
The space technology firm SpaceX embraced its mission at an outer-space-theme reception for clients and partners at Washington’s Carnegie Library on March 16. A hexagon-shaped bar was studded with LED lights and served dry-ice specialty cocktails. Evoke DC planned and designed the event. Atmosphere Lighting designed the lighting for the space.
At PopSugar and ShopStyle's Cabana Club, which took over the Avalon hotel, an open step-and-repeat wall trailed with succulents and greenery. The geometric moif also allowed for organizers to swap out logos for the various events that took place in the space over the course of the weekend.
A floating logo in the pool cast a subtle shadow that echoed the brand message.
Fox hosted a Television Critics Association event in Los Angeles in January, produced by YourBash, where logos in frames got the look of dressed-up wall art.
Logo pillows at the event matched the room's refined look and feel.
A smart-looking three-dimensional version of the hashtag served a decor piece as well as a call to action for guests.
Flowers from Shawna Yamamoto decorated tabletop centerpieces that marked the conference's 35th anniversary.
Marquee letters spelled out "cheers" at the welcome reception.
On April 26, Safe Kids Worldwide hosted a day devoted to safety tips for kids at the Lot in West Hollywood. Presented by Nationwide, the event included a photo op with a Lassie lookalike and an arrivals wall that featured sponsors' names in front of trimmed hedges.
Academy governor Jeffrey Kurland worked with longtime producer Cheryl Cecchetto and Sequoia Productions to produce and design the Governors Ball, which drew 1,500 invited guests to a room that was decorated in a blush-colored palette.
The look for this year's Governors Ball was influenced by the caricature-decked walls of Sardi’s and Brown Derby restaurants. Decor included more than 170 commissioned pieces showcasing present-day and historic Hollywood icons rendered in black and white drawings, which were displayed gallery style.
Mark Held of Mark’s Garden returned as the ball's floral vendor, designing highly stylized sculptures using white flowers like calla lilies, gardenias, ranunculus, phalaenopsis orchids, and succulents. He used about 10,000 blooms in total, flying them in from Holland, South America, and Mexico at the last minute for freshness.
The circular dining room included wood-paneled walls installed with large flat screens for viewing the broadcast and suede banquettes around the perimeter. Lighting came from an oculus-like fixture in the center of the ceiling, as well as from candlelight, wall sconces, and table lamps fitted with custom shades showcasing photographs from the Vanity Fair archives—including several of this year’s nominated actors. More than 1,400 lighting fixtures were installed over seven days; it was the party’s biggest lighting designs ever.
For the third year in a row, Mark Seliger took portraits of guests exclusively for Instagram. The magazine partnered with Carol production designer Judy Beckett to design the studio.
Chef Thomas Keller created the event’s menu. After dinner, the tables were removed from the dining room and a central bar was installed to transform the space into a cocktail area, presented by American Airlines.
A floor-to-ceiling light box lent the illusion of a picture window with a panoramic view of Los Angeles.
After dinner at the Unicef Hope Gala, which was held April 9 at the Geraghty in Chicago, guests hit the dance floor under a canopy of neon Slinkies as the Ken Arlen Evolution Orchestra played.
At this year’s gala, which was held May 9 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, guests entered by walking through an oversize keyhole, a visualization of the evening's theme of "Unlock the Future." The keyholes then gave way to a series of large neon-painted unlocked doors that continued throughout the cocktail space.
For the March 12 event at the New World Symphony in Miami, Shiraz Events designed a gold, black, and white color scheme. The Miami-based event company celebrated the symphony’s alumni members by creating the NWS logo using all 1,000 of their names on a step-and-repeat.
#1 Benefit
More than 1,200 attendees gathered at the Bill Graham Civic Center Auditorium for the 2016 block-party style event, raising $13.3 million to fight poverty and homelessness in the Bay Area. Thanks to a partnership with Another Planet Entertainment, the entertainment is always a highlight: In 2016, Alabama Shakes performed. Next: Spring 2017
#13 Benefit
The benefit brings authors, actors, and musicians together to raise money for UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland. More than 2,000 people gathered for the 2016 event at Oakland’s Fox Theatre to see Stone Foxes and Chris Martin of Coldplay with authors BJ Novak, Dave Eggers, and Kelly Corrigan. By the end of the night, they had raised $1.5 million for the hospital. Next: Spring 2017
A threesided set up gives attendees a sense of proximity to the speakers.
For the City of Hope’s Spirit of Life gala, which was held in November, Natalie McAdams of Namevents designed a night under the stars—inside a tent in the parking lot below the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles. To recreate the outdoor evening look, the production team built a stage that resembled the moon's surface and used fiber-optic panels to resemble stars.
The dance floor is an obvious place to make an impact. For a private event, designer Preston Bailey created a unique dance floor that served as the evening's focal point. Hundreds of flowers were covered in Plexiglas, creating a massive floral carpet. "The result was a statement piece that allowed guests to dance on air," said Bailey.
Energy Floors offers human-powered, interactive dance floors for event rentals worldwide. The eight-inch-deep tiles each house small generators; the tiles compress when stepped on, activating the generators to convert the kinetic energy produced by the dancers into electricity. The power can be used to activate the colorful LED light tubes inside the tiles that respond to the movement of dancers or nearby electrical systems.
At Lucky Lounge Presents: Desert Jam at the Ingleside Inn in Palm Springs, produced by BMF Media, an eye-catching three-dimensional press wall included such all-American items as a flag and denim—placed in front of the mountain and palm tree natural backdrop.
At Pandora’s fourth annual Indio Invasion, a three-dimensional press wall included graphic logos and shelving bearing desert-appropriate succulents.
Univision's upfront took place May 16 at the Lyric Theatre in New York. Greeters outfitted in the event’s green-and-blue color palette were on hand at the check-in kiosks.
The Governors Ball, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center after the Primetime Emmys telecast, drew more than 4,000 winners, nominees, and members of the entertainment industry. For their 20th year designing and producing the largest seated dinner in North America, Cheryl Cecchetto and her team at Sequoia Productions chose a “golden grandeur” theme. The streamlined aesthetic emphasized recurring architectural shapes in monochromatic gold, and the event’s 350 rectangular tables and 4,000 chairs were complemented by tall, modern table lamps. The night’s most eye-catching detail, however, was a ceiling installation made from 5,000 paper cylinders painted with biodegradable gold coloring.
The same decor was used for the Creative Arts Emmys dinners, which were held on September 9 and 10.
Floral centerpieces by L.A. Premier featured more than 20,000 stems of large calla lilies, and 350 guest tables were topped with 7,500 yards of custom-woven, textured metallic fabric. Tables and tabletop items were designed to complement the ceiling installation.
“Featuring a sweeping, seemingly endless expanse of vertical tubes suspended in the air, the grand ceiling is complemented by linear seating placement, mirroring and emulating the symmetry up above—and all inspired by signature Emmy gold,” explained Cecchetto.
Tablescapes at the Governors Ball featured a unique, curved floral display, and the candles, linens, and cutlery were a monochromatic gold, to tie into the “golden grandeur” theme.
Following the Emmys, HBO hosted its annual star-studded bash at the Pacific Design Center’s fountain plaza. HBO’s vice president of special events, Cindy Tenner, once again enlisted designer Billy Butchkavitz; this was Butchkavitz’s 19th consecutive HBO Emmy party. (Butchkavitz’s brother, Brian, and sister, Peggy, also helped with event creation and installation.)
Design inspiration was taken from the intricate Royal Pavilion in Brighton, England, and Butchkavitz used custom textiles, furniture, tabletop decor, and carpeting that matched the pavilion’s bold chinoiserie interiors. Animated projections from Bart Kresa Design and lighting from Images by Lighting created a dramatic effect inside the tent.
A series of 12-foot Chinese guardian lions stood in the main dining pavilion, and a 30-foot tiered chinoiserie pagoda surrounded by a garden of giant jade trees served as the entertainment hub. Agile Eye Solutions handled all large-scale decor pieces, pagodas, custom tent skin embellishments, and the step-and-repeat.
Hanging overhead was a 20-foot replica of the Royal Pavilion’s banquet-room chandelier. Sixteen-foot-long chinoiserie bridges enabled guests to cross the exterior garden pond. Special Event Contractors handled the elevated subfloors, perimeter walls, elevated walkways, and decorative railings.
During the evening, Wolfgang Puck Catering served a buffet supper, while 24 Seven Productions provided a dinner band, and DJ J. Bray performed.
The event's step-and-repeat kept with the elegant, simple theme, giving the appearance of ripples.
The party also took over the venue’s outdoor space for a similarly understated cocktail area.
Kicking off award season on August 16, The Hollywood Reporter teamed up with the Beverly Center to host a panel discussion dubbed Candidly Costumes. The event took place in the newly renovated, soon-to-be Michael Mina food hall of the center, and featured a discussion with Emmy-nominated costume designers. Stoelt Productions handled production and decor, creating photo galleries for each show that was nominated and filling the space with sleek, white furniture and white flowers. The stage featured a greenery backdrop branded with the hosts’ logos.
