The New York Botanical Garden’s annual Orchid Dinner brings together designers from the worlds of fashion, interior, and floral design to decorate dinner tables while showcasing the beautiful flower species. This year's event had designs that ran the gamut, with a mixture of elaborate, elegant, and artsy pieces, and signaled the upcoming exhibition which runs from February 26 to March 27 in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
Jennifer Rominiecki, the garden’s associate vice president for special events, oversaw the benefit, and Gotham Gardens’ Dan Dahl acted as the coordinator and liaison with the designers. Sponsor House & Garden’s garden editor Charlotte Frieze also took on an active role in the planning.
The event began on the 64th floor of the Rainbow Room, where guests gathered for cocktails and could peruse a selection of orchids for sale. David Beahm draped a wall behind the place-card table with fabric and adorned it with pink feathers, and designed a series of hanging decorative glass vials holding a variety of orchids. Under the table surface were clear compartments that held alternating displays of feathers and orchids.
Dramatic in its own right, the 65th floor was the site of 30 tables topped with striking orchid centerpieces. Gotham Gardens designed a towering piece that supported a tire-shaped form fashioned with green orchids and embellished with small crystal pendants for one of the tables. And John Laubach of event design firm Laubach & Company whipped up a fanciful look that integrated willow branches and yellow orchids, taking on a tropical feel with pots decorated with South American patterns. Bamboo matting covered the table and backs of chairs. Each chair also had a red orchid laced upon the bamboo.
Antony Todd went with a classic look, using black and white striped chair covers to accompany a grouping of large Baccarat footed vases filled with bamboo and white orchids. Interior designer Ernest de la Torre combined yellow orchids with white lights to fabricate a piece reminiscent of a constellation. Other unusual pieces included one designed by Jacqueline Coumans at Le Decor Francais, who positioned a rectangular vase of orchids under a white chair that was placed on the table, with stems rising through the chair’s wicker caning bottom. And Bronson van Wyck integrated a neon sign that read “Orchid Lounge” with an arrangement of orange flowers.
—Mark Mavrigian
Jennifer Rominiecki, the garden’s associate vice president for special events, oversaw the benefit, and Gotham Gardens’ Dan Dahl acted as the coordinator and liaison with the designers. Sponsor House & Garden’s garden editor Charlotte Frieze also took on an active role in the planning.
The event began on the 64th floor of the Rainbow Room, where guests gathered for cocktails and could peruse a selection of orchids for sale. David Beahm draped a wall behind the place-card table with fabric and adorned it with pink feathers, and designed a series of hanging decorative glass vials holding a variety of orchids. Under the table surface were clear compartments that held alternating displays of feathers and orchids.
Dramatic in its own right, the 65th floor was the site of 30 tables topped with striking orchid centerpieces. Gotham Gardens designed a towering piece that supported a tire-shaped form fashioned with green orchids and embellished with small crystal pendants for one of the tables. And John Laubach of event design firm Laubach & Company whipped up a fanciful look that integrated willow branches and yellow orchids, taking on a tropical feel with pots decorated with South American patterns. Bamboo matting covered the table and backs of chairs. Each chair also had a red orchid laced upon the bamboo.
Antony Todd went with a classic look, using black and white striped chair covers to accompany a grouping of large Baccarat footed vases filled with bamboo and white orchids. Interior designer Ernest de la Torre combined yellow orchids with white lights to fabricate a piece reminiscent of a constellation. Other unusual pieces included one designed by Jacqueline Coumans at Le Decor Francais, who positioned a rectangular vase of orchids under a white chair that was placed on the table, with stems rising through the chair’s wicker caning bottom. And Bronson van Wyck integrated a neon sign that read “Orchid Lounge” with an arrangement of orange flowers.
—Mark Mavrigian
At the New York Botanical Garden’s Orchid Dinner, interior designer Ernest de la Torre created a constellation-like centerpiece, with an illuminated sculpture of yellow orchids rising from a neutral-colored pedestal.
Connie Plaissay of Plaza Flowers designed a canopy of white orchids that covered much of his table. The piece was evocative of a tree, with moss-covered trunks and a base composed of a mound of small stones and greenery.
Gotham Gardens’ table featured a tall metal structure topped off with a round form decorated with a swath of green orchids and adorned with hanging crystal pendants.
Guests encountered David Beahm’s place-card table as they approached the cocktail and sale area. Draped fabric behind the table was framed by feathers and decorated with delicate glass vials holding orchid blossoms.
