My İmages

Ronald McDonald House Toronto hosted its annual holiday-time gala at the Carlu in December. McNabb Roick Events reflected the Holiday Chic: Sparkle theme in sequined table linens and the crystal candle holders that served as centerpieces.

For a winter-themed corporate party, design director Andrew Zill of Baltimore-based Feats Inc. created a snowy scene that included a glowing bar anchored by a crystal-flocked tree.

Centerpieces of white carnations designed by Feats Inc. evoked fluffy snowballs.

David Stark created an elegant but relatively inexpensive look for the Whitney Museum of American Art's annual gala in December by using hundreds of softly glowing candles.

The Portlandia season 3 premiere party, held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in December, played off the idea of Portland in winter with quirky displays of everyday objects suspended in ice.

At Diffa's Dining by Design in New York, Ralph Lauren went with a cozy, ski chalet-inspired look. Centerpieces of snowberries and wrought-iron lanterns created a runner down the center of the rustic wood table. Other striking details included a faux fireplace, Pendleton-inspired bench cushions, and an antler chandelier.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada celebrated its 50th anniversary gala in November at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto, where planners created a wintery forest feel by lining the ballroom with living trees hung with candlelit lanterns.

In New York, the Sanctuary Hotel's Haven Rooftop has been turned into a ski chalet for the winter season. Available for private events, the fully tented, heated space comes complete with new seasonal drinks, such as peppermint hot cocoa spiked with Bailey's, and a menu of hearty, savory dishes. Revelers also have the option to take a "ski shot"—four signature shots to share with friends—off of an actual ski.

For a party Maxim threw to celebrate January cover girl Michelle Branch in 2004, the magazine's in-house design team created a unique invite: Guests received a white branded ski cap; instead of a price, the tag on the hat carried the event info and served as an admission ticket.

Russell Harris Event Group produced a winter wonderland-themed party for Fox in 2010. The designers covered the patio at Los Angeles's Villa Sorriso in blue carpeting and hung LED tubes in the trees, creating an effect that simulated falling snow.

In November at Diffa's annual Dining by Design event at Chicago's Merchandise Mart, the table Hok designed for Halcon had a winter forest feel. Walls were lined with logs, and the chandelier was covered in twigs.

Shiraz Events provided decor for the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center gala in Miami in December. Tabletops were covered in silvery linens, and centerpieces of orchids and silver-coated ivy sat atop glowing white platforms.

The Park Avenue Armory in New York was decorated by David Monn for the 2012 holiday season. Monn used natural materials including birch, magnolia leaves, evergreen branches, and pine cones to adorn the ornate space's interiors.

Kapture Vision produced a holiday bash with a masquerade theme for CyberCoders in December at Newport Beach Dunes Resort in Newport Beach, California. Jay's Catering set up a s'more station where guests could fire-roast their own desserts.

Zak Events wanted to showcase "winter whites" at the 11th annual June Briggs Awards held at the Pierre New York in January. The look included custom-built white leather tufted highboy cocktail tables topped with icy-looking glass vessels filled with candlelight.

Bloor Street Entertains, a fund-raiser for Canfar, took place in several venues on the Toronto street in November and was produced by Spinradius Events. At one stop, guests sat in chairs draped with cozy fur wraps.

The Out NYC's Great Lawn has been turned into a "Winter Wonderland" for the season. The area, which is available for group buyouts, includes an outdoor ice rink, wintery decor, a pine forest, hot tubs, and a menu of Alpine-inspired food and drinks such as chocolate fondue, cheese fondue, hot mulled wine, Mexican hot chocolate, and more.

MillerCoors celebrated the introduction of the Coors Light resealable aluminum pint can in 2010 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa. The hotel's pool area was converted into a winter scene with fake snow, ice sculptures, and illuminated high-tops meant to resemble blocks of ice.

As a way to introduce its new all-wheel-drive models, British carmaker Jaguar built a larger-than-life snow globe in New York in the height of summer. To make the transparent, spherical tent feel like a snow globe, producers tapped Los Angeles-based MagicSnow to bring in a machine that periodically dispersed ice flakes.

The Washington National Opera Ball took over the ceremonial building at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in 2010. Event producer Sandi Hoffman of Sandi R. Hoffman Special Events transformed the lobby into a winter landscape with plush white carpets and white birch trees lining the hallway.

At the 2010 National Opera Ball, the winter theme continued into the courtyard, which featured fake snow falling from the rooftop and was designed as a tribute to the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Entertainers circled the snow-filled courtyard in inflated Zorbs.

For Toronto marketing company Capital C's annual holiday party in 2011, Apex Sound & Light projected 3-D mapped images of falling snow onto the venue's windows. Silver furniture added to the ice theme.

Capital C's creative director of live events, Mary Pallattella, created booths against the wall of the dance floor space for the company's holiday party. A video fireplace centered the booths.

Chicago's Shedd Aquarium held a Russian winter-themed gala in 2010. Heffernan Morgan designer John Hensel incorporated wintry touches into the decor, illuminating the pathway to the cocktail reception with snowflake-shaped gobos.

For a Regent Park School of Music fund-raiser held at the Carlu in Toronto in 2009, the event organizers at McNabb Roick Events draped panels of sheer white fabric and oversize snowflakes, stars, and icicles from the ceiling of the concert hall to give the space a wintry feel.

Zellers threw a farewell party produced by Candice & Alison in November as the Toronto retailer got ready to shutter all its stores after 61 years of business. A massive, four-sided bar was covered in enlarged newspaper clippings from 1951, the company's opening year.

At the Whitney Museum of American Art’s annual Art Party in New York, producers MKG hung black and white lanterns over the main bar.

Also at the Whitney Art Party in June, the hallway bars had illuminated displays composed of hundreds of individual lightbulbs that served as backdrops.

Turner Broadcasting Latin America presented its newest lineup at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center in October. At the preshow cocktail reception, Triton Productions cloaked the space with LED backdrops and placed a 40-foot-long bar made of ice on one side of the room. Behind the bar, a performer on a platform acted as the focal point.

For the launch for Absolut's new sparking wine-infused vodka in New York, event designer Nicky Balestrieri of ExtraExtra tapped Confetti System to create silver Mylar installations spelling out the product's name to hang over the bar area.

Target hosted hundreds of shoppers at a pop-up store for its Shops at Target program in New York in September. As a whimsical way to incorporate a bar into the event, the production team at ExtraExtra built a diner-style coffee shop set.

Showtime hosted the second-season premiere of its drama series Homeland aboard the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York in September. Glowing lanterns made the central outdoor bar easy to spot from afar.

One of the bars at the Design Exchange’s DX Intersection event in Toronto had an eclectic decoupaged look.

Following the premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man in Los Angeles in June, guests headed to an outdoor party designed by 15/40 Productions. The premiere party's central bar in the round got a reptilian look inspired by the film's villain.

Samsung launched its Galaxy Note II in Los Angeles with an event at interior designer Kelly Wearstler's private home. Event Eleven constructed a futuristic-looking bar and food buffet that sat on an LED-lit platform.

The theme of the Emmys Governors Ball in September was "A Romantic Rhapsody in Red" and saw the Los Angeles Convention Center's West Hall designed to look like the inside of a red rose. Red rose petals were suspended in the sculpted ice bars, sponsored by Grey Goose.

BrownHot Events partnered with Mille Fiori Floral Design to create an 8- by 20-foot paper flower backdrop for the V.I.P. tent bar at the third annual Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic in Los Angeles in October.

At a Cort Event Furnishings preview event at Washington's Four Seasons Hotel in March, designer Richard Carbotti used some of the company's rentals to create an Asian-themed bar area.

Food festival Chicago Gourmet took over Chicago's Millennium Park in September. Event Creative was tasked with building out the tents that housed tasting bars for brands, including Constellations Brands' "Passport to Wine" tent, where the designers accented the white bar with faux boxwood hedges.

For the grand opening of Mariano's newest Chicago location in October, Kehoe Designs arranged for a disco-themed soiree inside the supermarket. To bring a Studio 54 vibe to the space, the designers used shimmering bars and disco balls for the decor.

At the welcome reception for the BIO International convention at the Boston Convention and Exposition Center in June, Kehoe Designs created various themed areas including a Japanese-inspired space, where the bar was covered in koi pond imagery and live greenery.

As guests arrived in the coat check area, they were met by a giant King Kong statue covered in flowers—a nod to the evening's iconic venue.

Chairs surrounded the central all-white ceremony area on three sides. Black-and-white garden images were projected onto white draping that hid the altar from view as guests arrived. As the clock struck midnight, Blackmann kicked things off by singing “You Make Me Feel So Young."

Bailey made his grand entrance as a 12-foot-tall sculpture of a wedding gown, custom-designed by Reem Acra, floated down the aisle. While it appeared that Bailey himself was wearing the gown, it was actually a body double—a fact revealed to guests when Bailey himself popped out from underneath the giant, frothy skirt.

Joan Rivers officiated from underneath a canopy dripping with crystals. At one point during the ceremony, the comedienne quipped that Bailey was standing in her spotlight.

Bailey and Blackmann decided to skip a traditional sit-down dinner reception in favor of a cocktail-style after-party that lasted until after 4.30 a.m. Purple flowers and crystals hung overhead in the hallway that led from the ceremony space to the late-night shindig.

Black-and-white personal snapshots of the couple’s guests gave the hallway an art gallery-style look.

A gold-painted tree stood at the entrance to the reception space, offering guests boxes of gourmet chocolate strung from pink ribbons.

The reception room was awash in pink lighting and the dance floor displayed images of orchids, echoing the floral arrangements.

In keeping with the cocktail-style atmosphere, there was no formal seating. Instead, black Chiavari barstools surrounded tall tables topped with lush pink-and-red floral arrangements.

Caterer Great Performances served a cocktail-style menu of small plates, including mini waffle cups topped with bacon-and-egg ice cream and savory cannolis made with radishes, whipped butter, and chives.

Preston Bailey Designs
Bailey’s dramatic floral designs and theatrical flair have made fans out of celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Liza Minnelli, and Donna Karan, as well as brands such as Sandals Resorts, Godiva, and Hewlett-Packard. The high-profile New York-based designer’s lush, over-the-top designs have been featured in six books, plus countless TV shows and magazines.
On Twitter: @PrestonRBailey

"I love creating a unique place for guests to congregate and enjoy one another, so I thought, why not create a massive floral carpet that would serve both as a beautiful focal point and a gathering area? I designed a 'carpet' and filled it with hundreds of beautiful blooms and then covered it with Plexiglas. The result was a statement piece that allowed guests to dance on air." —Preston Bailey

Events by André Wells
Wells launched his Washington-based, full-service production firm in 2004 and has since become one of the top planners in town, producing around 80 corporate, social, and nonprofit events a year in his signature glamorous, colorful style for members of Congress, BET, Dell, Disney, and more.
On Twitter: @AndreWells

"I like the chic simplicity of it. We used crystal and glass elements to make the historic building more modern and fun." —André Wells

Colin Cowie Enterprises
With a 26-year career that includes designing lush, extravagant events for big-name corporate clients and A-list celebrities, plus nine books, a wedding Web site, a line of home products for HSN, and too many television appearances to count, Cowie is a solid candidate for “Most Famous Person in the Event Industry.” He brings his five-senses design approach to around 25 projects a year, four to six of which he is heavily involved in.
On Twitter: @ColinCowie

"My favorite part about the design was the research trip to Kazakhstan. Since the national color is blue, I created a palette of blue and grey and used elements like cobalt blue mirrors to showcase a modern Kazakhstan, and yellow miniature calla lilies for the bright future they have ahead of them." —Colin Cowie

David Beahm Design
Beahm’s inventive, breathtaking designs have been in high demand since his big break, planning the nuptials of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas in 2000. Beahm and his New York-based team design more than 200 events annually, including lavish social, nonprofit, and corporate parties for Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Victoria’s Secret, and Louis Vuitton. Beahm is especially known for his sculptural, dramatic floral arrangements.
On Twitter: @davidbeahmdesig

Beahm is speaking at BizBash’s Event Innovation Forum­—South Florida on April 10.

"We were influenced by our surroundings. We let the decor of Blue Hill at Stone Barns rule our aesthetic, letting nature dictate the design. The hand-hammered copper urn visually grounded the design." —David Beahm

Abel McCallister Designs
Business partners since 2004, Los Angeles-based Abel and McCallister specialize in stylized editorial events, consumer promotions, sponsor lounges, and other brand-focused experiential events for clients such as Chase, Sprint, Entertainment Weekly, and Elle. Their designs often include surprising product installations, such as a chandelier of Godiva chocolates or a mosaic of Garnier bottles.
On Twitter: @larryabel

"We imagined what an amusement park would look like in the world of the Simpsons. Attendees loved the way the characters were integrated into the games, and my favorite part was turning Whac-A-Mole into Maggie’s Peek-A-Boo Pumpkins." —Larry Abel

Billy Butchkavitz Design
Butchkavitz’s claim to fame is the eye-popping, Technicolor decor he has been creating for HBO’s annual Emmy and Golden Globes parties since 1999. Using custom tents, carpets, and furniture, and drawing inspiration from such diverse sources as the stone mosaic walkways of the Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro, vintage Pucci fabrics, and modernist architect Oscar Neimeyer, his designs are always a kaleidoscope of color, patterns, and light projections.

"I find out what will be trending and available to the public around the time of my event—and then I avoid it." —Billy Butchkavitz

YourBash
For four years, the Los Angeles-based creative duo has worked on designing movie premieres, product launches, and green-minded events including Fox’s American Idol finale party, the Foundation Polo Challenge, and the Teen Choice Awards.
On Twitter: @YourBASHjgeffen
On Twitter: @YourBASHbworley

"The V.I.P. tent was inspired by the surfboard that is given as the award. Each year it is fun to see what the award will look like and then get to design a space that represents it. This tends to be one of my favorite spaces to design because it allows for lots of color and whimsy." —Brian Worley

David Stark Design and Production
Clients such as Target, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the IFC request Stark’s signature style, which combines an artistic sensibility with a sense of whimsy. Stark is known for using recycled materials and items that can be repurposed in his often flower-free installations and for his striking on-brand marketing ideas.
On Twitter: @DavidStarkInc

"From atop a 20-foot-tall viewing platform, guests viewed a giant optical illusion ‘street’ drawing created by chalk artist Michael Macaulay as well as many other radical art installations, sculptures, performances, and video art pieces." —David Stark

The Carlu Corporation/McNabb Roick Events
With more than 28 years of experience, Roick is a one-stop shop for Toronto events, designing show-stopping party decor for big-name clients like Target and Chanel.
On Twitter: @mcnabbroick

"The beauty of this design was the bold use of color, which complemented the essence of Picasso’s art without focusing on a specific piece of his work. It allowed guests to step into his world of color." —Jeffry Roick

Baura New York
Since he launched his firm in 2006, Baura’s aesthetic has been influenced by his graduate degree in Japanese and Chinese art history. He creates fresh, edgy branded environments for clients like AOL and Tumi by incorporating unusual conceptual designs and 3-D structures. Recent projects have included LED trays, iPad walls, and vegetable totem centerpieces.

In October, Toronto's Bell Gala had fairy-tale decor by Solutions With Impact, with several nods to Alice, including oversize playing cards, chairs, and flowers suspended from the ceiling.

Among David Stark's Lewis Carroll-esque touches at Washington's Meridian Ball in September was a red and white dessert buffet reminiscent of the Queen of Hearts.

At Advanstar's Magic Marketplace, a fashion trade show held in September, Disney hosted a Mad Hatter-style tea party in the Las Vegas Convention Center's grand lobby.

The Museum of Arts and Design held its first Paperball in October, with paper flowers, lanterns, and origami, as well as art installations using paper fashions and the museum's exhibit "Slash: Paper Under the Knife."

Post-It notes were the inspiration for David Stark's decor at the New Yorkers for Children fall gala in September. The event's step-and-repeat, a giant tree, and some tabletop items were made of thousands of sticky notes.

Paper magazine's 25th anniversary party in September filled the New York Public Library with hats, flowers, luminarias, and other decorations made of paper.

Designed by Windows Catering Company and Amaryllis Inc., the Washington chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Women association's October award reception was decorated with goldfish-filled fishbowls, treasure-chest table toppers, and a raw bar station with a giant clamshell.

The sea was the inspiration in a room at the Toronto International Film Festival gala in September. Designers from Party Barbara Co. used blue lighting, hanging jellyfish decorations, and vases filled with sand, shells, and sponges.

Held in September, Canada's Walk of Fame inductee ball, designed by Kyriacou & Associates, had ripple-effect lighting, blue linens, and clear furniture.

One million flowers blanketed the walls of Christian Dior's July show during Paris Fashion Week. The Bureau Betak-event included a room covered with red roses.

XO laptops replaced flowers as centerpieces in the dining room, flashing images of bouquets and alerting diners to their next course.

For the Toronto International Film Festival’s opening-night party in September, producer Barbara Hershenhorn of Party Barbara Company surrounded the DJ booth in the main room with 18 TV screens looping a futuristic video.

Flower-free centerpieces showed more superhero images and served as holders for IML's devices.

In a reference to Cinderella's pumpkin carriage, pumpkin creme brulee from Superb Cuisine was served after dinner.

The stage at Library Lions

The details of the event were leaked on the Internet before it took place, prompting a surge of R.S.V.P.s and a line down the block that night. Security and event staffers kept the party from becoming overwhelming by limiting the number of guests in the venue at any one time.

The centerpieces of leaves, pine cones, fruits, and beaded flowers sat in mahogany pedestal bowls.

In the music room, hundreds of mylar balloons were strung across the ceiling and along the walls to create an elegant yet festive cocktail party atmosphere. The chandelier and wall and curtain treatments were preexisting elements, while all furniture was brought in.

Hundreds of balloons from Balloon Trix hung from the ceiling during the V.I.P. dinner. The space changed colour with each course, starting with blue, morphing to pink for the main course, changing to orange for dessert, and ending in red.

A balloon ceiling treatment covered the dance floor, where guests discoed to the Al Sofia Orchestra and DJ Rock City throughout the night.

In January, the Walrus Foundation hosted a fund-raiser with travel-themed decor in Toronto, where Balloon Trix created centerpieces meant to resemble hot-air balloons.

At an Art Institute of Chicago gala in May, Kehoe Designs covered the ceiling of an all-white lounge area with hundreds of clear balloons.

Also at the Courage Forum, guests received long pins to pop balloons that held the desserts.

Purple ribbons anchored balloons to each of the 40 dinner tables.

Inside the dining area, Santiago and his team fashioned a hanging imitation of High Line Park using balloons and fluorescent light fixtures.

Giant pinwheels and green, white, and silver balloons sculpted into flower-like shapes hung over the gala dinner.

The event celebrated Marwen's 25th anniversary, or silver birthday. To underscore the theme, guests entered the dinner tent through a tunnel of silver balloons.

Onstage performers participated in dreamy sequence scenes, which included a bathtub-bound actor and an assemblage of balloons and drapes.

At the entrance, the first vignette illustrated Camper's lightweight collection with shoes tied to helium balloons. To add to the ambiance, adjacent machines blew bubbles.