Lighting, Audiovisual Production: “I’ve worked with John Newlander at Blackburst Productions for four years now. He is on top of his game and stays current with technology. Once, I was working with someone else and I had to call Newlander to correct that person’s mistakes. Everything he does is flawless."
DJ: “A year ago, I was invited to a party and saw everyone reacting to the music in a different way than usual. Sean Patrick happened to be the DJ, and I’ve worked with him ever since. He remixes so many different songs from different eras. He’s the only DJ that I’ve ever worked with who keeps people dancing till the end of the party.”Security: “Damon Burnley and his guys at Corporate Compliance are always extremely professional and dressed to kill—but not really to kill! There are always crashers to parties; Corporate Compliance knows how to politely weed them out and ask them to leave. They handle celebrities with ease and work the V.I.P.s smoothly.”
Event Production, Design, Catering: “Along Came Mary Productions is a one-stop shop; that’s precisely why I like them. Last year, we did a premiere for Weeds at Red Mark Studios on the set of the show. The vision that I thought of for the event was surpassed by Along Came Mary’s creation. In the invitation, the actress Mary Louise Parker was sitting in a bed of sunflowers, so the theme of the party was sunflowers. Along Came Mary created a rustic, natural feel with a lot of foliage and flowers. They provided the decor and organized for a Jamaican band that had also appeared in the show to perform.”
Invitations: “Russell Holmes of Praxis Integrated Communications designs all of our invitations. We often let him watch the shows first and he draws from them to create cool invitations. For the Dexter premiere party’s invitation, Russell came up with the idea to make a slide with a blood splat on it. He is really classy in his designs and gives great attention to detail. Everything he talks about translates into the finished product.”
Rentals: “Classic Party Rentals is a household name in the industry. They are so incredibly reliable. With [the premiere party for] The Tudors, we had to wait until the last minute to decide whether to set up tenting because we weren’t sure if it was going to rain. At 11 a.m., they were out there tenting for the outdoor space. This is a company that is on-call anytime you need them; with other companies, that’s not always the case. By the time I got to the site, it looked like the tents had been up for days.”
Event Planner: “Wendy Creed of Wendy Creed Productions is the most particular event planner I’ve ever met. She is very good at reading her clients and anticipating their needs. For the Tudors event, she was there every step of the way for long hours, and she made sure everything looked perfect. When I was taking care of last-minute details, she created an additional space, and it was perfect—she did it the way I would have wanted. She is very reliable, flexible, detail-oriented, and organized. She’ll work until the job is perfect."
