Latter Ideas

The teepee-style tents can hold as many as 400 people.

Atlanta’s Der Biergarten offers corporate branding opportunities during events.

In San Diego, Stone World Bistro & Gardens—Liberty Station capitalizes on the beer-meets-business trend.

Ravinia music festival celebrated its women's board's 50th anniversary at a black-tie gala in July. After a performance from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and singers including Patti Lupone, guests had dinner in a tent lavishly decorated by Event Creative. At the entrance, designer Jeffrey Foster created a custom wooden canopy of trees inspired by Ravinia's logo.

The Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago gave its annual summertime ball a "Great Cats-by" theme this year. To channel the interior of a grand East Coast estate described in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, Frost's David Kelly worked with designers from Event Creative to hang a cluster of ornate chandeliers form the top of the dinner tent.

At Barbra Streisand's recent fund-raiser for the Cedars-Sinai Women's Heart Center in Malibu, guests helped themselves to a raw fruit and veggie bar. In place of a tablecloth, organizers used a quilt to match the vintage-inspired aesthetic of the event.

McCartney's carnival-themed presentation also had a mac 'n' cheese station. Guests could grab a mini serving wrapped in a spinach cone from a Ferris-wheel stand, or opt for a full cup that could be topped with veggie bacon bits, truffle oil, jalapeños, scallions, or sriracha sauce.

For the grand opening of the Miami Airport Convention Center in Miami earlier this year, the venue's catering team created an edible garden using toasted pumpernickel crumbs as "dirt" with spears of baby carrots, asparagus spears, and zucchini, as well as baby tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella "flowers."

At a Belvedere-sponsored event during the 2012 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, guests sat on haystacks covered with bright orange blankets and chevron-patterned pillows.

LoLo Event Design offers hand-painted handkerchiefs that can serve as table numbers at a garden event. Geraniums in a terra cotta pot have a more casual feel than an elaborate formal centerpiece.

LoLo Event Design also creates message-in-a-bottle place cards for beach-inspired events.

Guests also played lawn games like croquet at the Seersucker Ride and Social.

At Sunglass Hut's summer block party in Miami, family-friendly games included corn hole, bocce ball, ping-pong, and hopscotch.

"Placing tent frames in an interior space helps create an intimate environment by using overhead space that often gets ignored," said Dwayne Ridgaway of Perfect Surroundings.

Each flower was hand made and comprised of custom-printed stock, crepe paper, and tissue paper.