Winter Wonderland Wedding
Submitted by A Legendary Event
Some 8,000 hand-tied crystals suspended from a ceiling, 500 white snowflakes hand-tied to crystals, six 12-foot white crape myrtle trees, four eight-foot manzanita trees, 4,500 white orchids, and 10,000 hand-reflexed white roses were only some of the design elements used by A Legendary Event to turn the St. Regis Hotel into a winter wonderland for a wedding in December last year. The Georgia-based bride, Dahlia Ghais, and Abu Dhabi-based groom, Makram Ashcar, had a vision for a dramatic all-white wedding for 280 guests, and the event design brought their vision to life. From the indulgent cocktail hour and decadent dinner to dancing under a canopy of crystals and snowflakes, dramatic elements including mirrored tabletops and white sequined linens combined glamour and elegance at the affair.
Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce's Experience: East Meets West Celebration
Submitted by An Catering
To celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the City of Beverly Hills—and to celebrate the Lunar New Year—the Chamber of Commerce voted on an “Experience East Meets West” theme and tasked An Catering with expressing it through food for a 600-guest event. The firm created a “food bazaar” with six stations throughout the two-story Crustacean restaurant. Each station was designed with an individual theme: a dramatic ice sculpture featured lotus flowers—representing purity in Chinese culture—and ice bowls with oyster shooters, sashimi, and specialty rolls; an edible “prosperity tree” food wall allowed guests to pluck golden beet panna cotta salads in tones of red and orange, which are the traditional Lunar New Year colors; and An Catering and Crustacean teamed up to create a new dish for the occasion called “Centennial Beef,” made of Wagyu beef, Vietnamese herbs, and golden flakes. In addition to the stations, sushi geishas walked around wearing structural “table” skirts holding “Good Luck” sticky rice hors d’oeuvres.
Redwood Forest Wedding
Submitted by Got Light
For a wedding at Big Sur’s Ventana Inn in California, Got Light worked with Paula LeDuc Fine Catering to execute the high-profile couple’s vision of a performance-art project set in an enchanted forest. The bride and groom were married under a glade of towering 500-year-old redwoods amid a soft, radiant glow. Later in the night, the team turned the forest into a high-energy dance party with dramatic lighting and colorful moving lights illuminating the canopy of trees, while fanciful landscape lighting immersed the surrounding hillsides. Nearly all of the lighting fixtures for the event had to be suspended in the natural forest without damaging it and without creating the risk of fire.
Talking Transition
Submitted by Production Glue
Designed as an open forum that would allow New York City residents to weigh in on the city’s first new mayor in 12 years, Talking Transition was a three-week pop-up that opened immediately following the November 5 election. The program was created by a coalition of nonpartisan foundations—from the New York Community Trust to the Open Society Foundations—and produced by Production Glue. Inspired by the concepts of transparency, openness, transition, and change, the design included a transparent tent, unadorned and utilitarian materials such as plastic milk crates, and activities like a “video soapbox” that invited visitors to express their opinions to a camera.
