Grand Opening & VIP

At a 40th birthday party, Susan Holland Events filled the Stephan Weiss Studio in New York with disco ball lights and projected French surrealist films, while a swing hung near the dance floor.

Todd Events made a wedding held inside a large barn in Aspen seem more intimate with two tall signature bars and scattered seating and food station vignettes. Hanging glass globes appeared to lower the ceilings.

Inspired by the family’s love of candy, David Monn used ring pops, gummy frogs, lollipops, and sour apple gummy rings to create the centerpieces at a recent bat mitzvah.

Ritzy Bee Events used craft paper and chalk to label the passed appetizers for a rehearsal dinner at the Decatur House in Washington so guests wouldn’t be left guessing.

For a donut-themed bridal shower put together by blogger Elsie Larson, a giant chalkboard filled with descriptive doodles served as the backdrop of the food spread.

For an upscale dinner party, Fête presented a clambake menu in a formal, modern setting by having waiters serve custom Plexiglas trays filled with seafood.

At a casual outdoor wedding in California planned by Kate Miller Events, gingham flags displaying table numbers were tucked into vintage soda bottles filled with flowers.

Guests created custom perfumes at a scent bar set up by Ka-Mil-Yin, a Los Angeles-based fragrance company that specializes in perfume parties, to take home as a favor from a bridal shower.

For a dandy-themed graduation party in Hollywood, Canvas & Canopy designed a dessert buffet that eschewed the twee look in favor of a sophisticated display of treats on cake stands made from vintage candlesticks and shelves built using industrial pipes.

For a New York couple marrying at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando, Heather Snively of Weddings Unique recreated the newlyweds’ hometown with a hand-painted backdrop of Central Park from Greenery Productions. Lighting and real trees helped the scene come to life.

Marcy Blum Associates built a bakery-style display case to offer guests breakfast-to-go treats from New York bakeries at the end of a wedding reception.

Jes Gordon/Proper Fun created a supper club atmosphere at Gotham Hall in New York for a recent bar mitzvah. Four-hundred luminaries filled with LED candles were hung from a large oval truss on the ceiling.

Matthew Parker Events crafted lighting fixtures for a speakeasy-themed wedding using hats from a party supply store, decorative ribbon, corded wire, and filament bulbs.

For a wedding at the King Plow Event Gallery in Atlanta, Bold American Events & Catering designed an upside-down centerpiece of yellow tulips and glass globes that hung above the head table.

David Beahm Design put together a farm cart filled with Israeli market-inspired treats, like jars of honey, nuts, and dried apricots, which was displayed at the wedding of a couple looking to tie in their Israeli roots. Guests filled small burlap bags to take home.

At a wedding designed by Triton Productions, the focal point of the pre- and post-ceremony cocktail area at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach was a custom-designed 360-degree bar made of corrugated mirror.

Bryn Chernoff of Paperfinger created custom calligraphy stamps of each guest’s name, which doubled as place cards and favors at a private dinner party held at the Foundry in New York.

The tables at a graffiti-themed bar mitzvah designed by David Stark Design and Production, held at Center 548 in New York, displayed arrangements of daffodils and ranunculuses sprouting from cinder block planters.

Bathroom amenity baskets are a staple at social events, sometimes tying to the event’s motif, like this one created by State of the Art Enterprises for a bar mitzvah with a graphic pattern theme.

Jeffrey Foster of Event Creative designed custom-built tables and props, including glowing baseball diamond-shaped tables and a scoreboard that hung above the dance floor, for a bar mitzvah at the Ravenswood Event Center in Chicago.

For a vodka shot bar at a birthday party designed by Kristi Amoroso Special Events, the bottles were displayed in a sculptural arrangement of textured ice spheres.

Mélangerie Inc.’s customized wedding genealogy charts detail the relationship of the wedded couple to their guests with the help of a relationship key. Guests browse the chart during the cocktail hour to learn about their tablemates.

For a wedding at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Marc Hall Design built seven-foot-tall mirrored glass vessels to hold apple tree branches adorned with phalaenopsis orchids that were kept hydrated through a system of hand-blown glass pipes.

For a bat mitzvah at Guastavino’s in New York, Susan Holland Events used Tyvek pillows hand-stitched with neon thread as chargers. After the meal, waiters threw the pillows in the center of the tables, where they glowed under black light.

Levy Lighting and Preston Bailey collaborated on a wedding after-party lounge held in a tent, with the ceiling lit from behind to create the glowing effect.

For a gift almost too pretty to eat, Flying Noir Chocolates of Mendocino, California, offers hand-painted treats from Karen Urbanek, who doubles as an artist. The survival kit—packaged in an oval sardine tin—includes six chocolate confections such as the caramel balsamnam, a slow-cooked cream caramel with balsamic reduction and savory salt in a single-origin dark chocolate ($18).

Precept Wines created a combination of a fine red wine with natural dark chocolate in its Chocolate Shop wine ($10.99). Varieties include a red blend, strawberry, and crème de cocoa, a cream-based chocolate wine blend. It also offers a chocolate sparkling wine.

For meeting attendees with special dietary needs, Oliver Kita Chocolates of Rhinebeck, New York, now offers vegan chocolates that are gluten-free, dairy-free, fair-trade, and organic. His line of Maynard Rabbits, with oversize floppy ears, comes in a vegan version that is 70 percent dark organic chocolate ($8.95 to $14.95).

Pacari Chocolate offers a line of single-origin, organic chocolate made entirely in Ecuador. Pacari partners with small-scale cacao growers to preserve its traditional way of farming as well as the flavor profile of the Arriba Nacional cacao bean ($10 per chocolate bar, or $20 for limited-edition bars).

ChocoLava's Liquid Candy Bars from Davis Chocolate come in individual squeeze packs to pour over ice cream, cakes, pretzels, or fruit. They are available in milk, dark, peanut butter, and hazelnut ($12.80 per case of 16).

For the ESPN ESPY Awards preparty in Los Angeles in July, DNA Events set up a golf-inspired display of doughnut holes on toothpick tees on an AstroTurf-covered table.

For a fund-raiser in Boston, the Catered Affair set up a doughnut-on-a-stick bar, where guests could top their own treats with colored sugar, candy, and more.

At the Museum of Contemporary Art's most recent ArtEdge Gala in Chicago, Jewell Events Catering set up a Pegboard that held chocolate, cinnamon-sugar, glazed, and old-fashioned cake doughnuts.

Juicy Couture's Gold Coast boutique in Chicago threw an in-store shopping event for customers last year. Truffleberry Market served passed bites, including salted caramel mini doughnuts on hot pink zebra-printed trays.

Abigail Kirsch in New York repurposed a plate display rack by turning it on its side to hold smoked cheddar-glazed mini doughnuts dusted with peanut brittle.

Evoke, the event design and planning company based in Washington, D.C., designed this doughnut wall out of Pegboard, with 1,200 wooden golf tees holding chocolate-glazed, cinnamon-sugar, and powdered doughnuts. A server with a step stool is on hand to pull doughnuts off the wall. Design Cuisine executed the concept.

During the cocktail reception, guests played craps, blackjack, and roulette.

Bopology performed songs such as "The Girl from Ipanema" throughout the cocktail reception.

Striped lamps and embroidered candleholders decorated highboys.

Before dinner, an appetizer station outside the ballroom offered rose-shaped sushi.

In the ballroom, an illuminated lectern bore the Alzheimer's Association's logo, and images of Monte Carlo adorned the backdrop.

Gold linens, crystal globes, and black Chiavari chairs accented dinner tables.

For most of the past two decades the party was held in a tent near the theater.

Tall orchid centerpieces and cabana-style drapes highlighted the all-pink decor.

The tent took on some tropical flair with palm leaves, primary hues, and fruit-filled centerpieces.  

The sleek, all-white decor scheme featured disco balls and creamy fringe.

Chinese paper lanterns, prop parrots, and inverted umbrellas topping the centerpieces loaned an exotic vibe.

Heffernan Morgan designers collaborated with projection artist Stephan Mazurek to cast images from past Steppenwolf productions onto the tent ceiling.

The gala switched locations, moving to an empty raw space near the theater. Wooden dinner tables and leafy centerpieces  transformed the room into a forest-like space inspired by the Samuel Beckett play Endgame.

Event Creative designer Jeffrey Foster aimed to bring an exaggerated version of the fictional Hotel Baltimore to the raw space.