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A phalanx of female model staffers dressed in out-of-this-world space-age uniforms greeted guests as they arrived at the suburban Houston venue in Sugar Land.

The cocktail portion of the evening featured a series of interconnected all-white rooms, which guests entered into via an octagonal-shaped tunnel. A 32-foot-long walkway led from the spaceship-cum-cocktail area to the dinner space, which was styled to look like the surface of the moon.

The all-white odyssey-style "capsule" was a veritable homage to Omega and the storied relationship it has had with the space program since 1965. A full array of the Swiss watchmaker's iconic Speedmaster timepieces, spanning several decades, were on display.

While the event featured no live entertainment or DJ, prerecorded voices did play overhead throughout the cocktail portion—mimicking astronaut flight calls with sayings like, "Welcome aboard. The outside temperature is minus…" Complementing the white-noise background was a smoke effect, which was used not only to recreate the moon landing atmosphere, but also to usher guests to the start of dinner.

Bureau Betak transformed the Western Airways Hangar into a spectacular 20,000-square-foot party setting—the Omega Lunar Base—that flowed from the "space capsule" into a dramatic moonscape, where dinner was served beneath a starlit orb.

Five truckloads' worth of gravel combined with large rocks comprised the setting in which some 300 invited guests dined. More than 150 workers were enlisted to create the set, which was designed to transport guests to dinner on the surface of the moon.

Guests dined above a custom floor covered with crushed rock and gravel that had been mixed with glitter to achieve a sparkle effect so as to add some pops of brightness to the otherwise all-black decor scheme.

Keeping on theme, the charger plates at each table setting featured the design of a moon.

To mimic the zero-gravity effect of dining on the moon, traditional floral centerpieces were eschewed in favor of levitating displays. That included Omega watches that appeared to float in air, oscillating on "moon rocks" under glass domes .

The M.C. of the night, Lily Koppel, author of The Astronaut Wives Club, welcomed Omega ambassador George Clooney to the stage, calling him the  “man on the moon.” The actor, who emerged from a cloud of white smoke and waxed poetic on the Apollo 13 mission, shared the stage with Omega president Stephen Urquhart and astronauts Gene Cernan, Captain Jim Lovell, and General Thomas Stafford.

Adding to the dinner's outer-space ambience was a massive video screen that showed planets moving across the sky, a space station floating by, meteor showers, and an astronaut drifting in space a la Clooney's film Gravity.

A Fare Extraordinaire provided the dinner, cocktails, and hors d'oeuvres, all of which featured a space-age theme, including the Tang-and-grapefruit-juice-infused vodka cocktail served in a Space Ration Hydropack.

The "On the Moon" dinner was prepared by Houston-based A Fare Extraordinaire under the eye of French chef Valentin Neraudeau, flown in from Paris for the occasion. The first meat course consisted of fresh king crab and Granny Smith green apple with thyme crisp, olive oil madeleine, carrot and cumin foam, and an extra virgin olive oil vinaigrette. Also on the menu was filet of veal with eggplant caviar and caramelized basil-infused jus, and dessert of white chocolate demi spheres with mixed berries.

London-based mixologist Justin Darnes prepared four specialty beverages, and the presentation of each was a twist on the night's space-age theme. For instance, the gin and Williams Pear cocktail was topped with a salted and spiced watermelon foam. Other libations included calvados, kirsh, and raspberry coulis, and, of course, a Clooney-branded Casamigos tequila old fashioned.

For a touch of whimsy, male staffers wore glowing ties, making them easy to spot. The visual also added to the night's otherworldly aesthetic.

At the TED conference in Long Beach, California, Target hosted a social area that had seating inspired by brain waves. The reactive space changed colors as guests interacted with it, and it had a live Twitter stream that showcased real-time tweets from conference attendees. The event took place February 25 to March 1.

The Palm Springs area's La Quinta Resort & Club hosted TED's official simulcast, known as TEDActive. A picnic lunch Wednesday offered picnic baskets for groups of seven—so each person had to meet six new folks with whom to chat and chow.

Anya Hindmarch, an English accessories designer, showcased her new bags in a sea of colorful, cascading dominoes for her presentation at London Fashion Week on February 19. Watch the whimsical show here.

"Midnight in Paris" was the theme of the Lyric Opera of Chicago's "Fantasy of the Opera" gala on February 9. In a lower-level lounge, guests had cocktails and sweets at highboy tables wearing diaphanous pink linens. Designed in house by Event Creative, the flouncy table covers were inspired by the costumes of the Moulin Rouge dancers.

H&M had its Paris Fashion Week runway debut February 27. Held at the iconic Musée Rodin, the event saw a 20,000-square-foot "Maison H&M" built on the museum's grounds. Models clad in French maid uniforms occupied a library and parlor room, where light furnishings and period books were used as props to recreate a posh environment.

Designer Mathieu Mirano sent out a memorable invitation to his February New York fashion show: a petri dish that appeared to contain bacteria. The attention-grabbing invitation was designed by Alpine Creative Group and employed screen-printing in gold and black.

Ferllen Winery teamed up with the Amigos Near Foundation for an arty event in Miami February 16. Held at Paramount Bay, the party offered the chance to check out artwork in a rather unusual setting—the swimming pool. On the deck upstairs, mounted pieces from photographer Tomas Loewy floated on the turquoise water.

The February 7 benefit, which took place at the Coral Gables Country Club in Miami, went beyond the basic silent auction by enlisting a group of hunky male volunteers to showcase auction items. The event ended up selling $50,000 in goods that day from the auction and a fashion marketplace, resulting in a fund-raising total of $450,000.

At a 2011 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.