Best Day of Your Life
In keeping with the positive vibe, event staffers meant to look like grannies handed out birthday cards with money and Prohibition Bakery's Beer & Pretzel cupcakes.
Photo: Jill Menze/BizBash
Limelight's Fruit Wallpaper
In Chicago, catering firm Limelight has an innovative format for serving fruit skewers. The fruits are inserted into a custom wall with thematic wallpaper design (which varies for different events). Guests approach the wall and pull of a skewer and can dip the fruit in sauces that are arrayed on a nearby table.
Photo: Courtesy of Limelight
Limelight's "One Potato, Two Potato" Station
Instead of serving French fries at a stationary table, Limelight has used a wheelbarrow to deliver Belgian frites at events. The fries are served in cones, and assorted sauces are displayed on the side.
Photo: Artisan Events
Clif Bar
In Clif Bar's "Re-Sound Lounge," guests could watch audio engineers from Mobile Vinyl Recorders make vinyl records. Based in Seattle, the company uses vintage disc-cutting lathes to create records in real time. The company travels to social events, festivals, and marketing events, and has other clients including Toyota, Converse, and Red Bull.
Photo: Barry Brecheisen for BizBash
At the House of Kim Crawford—a fashion-focused event on August 3 in New York—a golden balloon installation designed by Jessica Fels Event Production and Design and executed by Mixed Greens Events created an eye-catching focal point. The summery event, which also featured bottle art installations, a fortune-cookie tree, and a silhouette-artist station, was produced by Fels and Shadow.
Photo: Craig Barritt/Getty Images
At the Unicef Hope Gala in Chicago in April, designers put an elegant spin on a childlike theme by creating a canopy of suspended neon Slinkys above the dance floor.
Photo: Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images for UNICEF
For a Coca-Cola event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a ceiling installation design was inspired by a burst of bubbles exploding from a Coca-Cola bottle. The installation lit up in gold whenever athletes won a gold medal.
Photo: Tiago de Paula Carvalho
Skincare brand La Roche-Posay's street promotion in 2013 brought a colorful suspended installation of branded parasols to New York's Madison Square Park.
Photo: Courtesy of La Roche-Posay
At the Friends of the High Line spring benefit in 2014, more than 1,000 linen panels hung from the ceiling in the dining room. Designers dip-dyed them by hand in a dozen inflatable children's pools, and they changed color based on the lighting.
Photo: Christian Oth Studio
The Museum of Modern Art in New York honored writer and director Alfonso Cuarón at its 2014 film benefit. Large metal sculptures, trimmed with LED lights, were suspended from the ceiling of the museum's lobby.
Photo: Cornelia Stiles/BizBash
For the Blaffer Art Museum’s annual gala in Houston in April, creative studio Matter designed a gilded meteor shower ceiling installation using NASA space blankets—an idea inspired by the event’s space theme, as well as the metallic trends seen on recent fashion runways.
Photo: Max Burkhalter
A table at Diffa Dining by Design in Chicago in 2013 had a canopy of twigs and a wraparound scene of birds flying in a blue sky, giving the vignette a calming vibe.
Photo: Barry Brecheisen for BizBash
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2015 Costume Institute celebrated all things Chinese. To create a feeling of intimacy in the expansive Engelhard Court, designers lowered the ceiling to 14 feet by hanging nearly 200,000 stems of wisteria overhead.
Photo: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
More than 5,000 T-shirts created a colorful canopy overhead at the Jewish Museum’s Purim Ball in 2014. The custom tees were painted with tongue-in-cheek takes on classic slogans, like "Frankie Says Relax It's Purim" and "Got Spiel?"
Photo: Susie Montagna
Chicago hosted the U.S. Travel Association’s IPW conference in 2014. At the splashy opening-night party, hanging letters and signs served to divide the space and add a sense of intimacy throughout.
Photo: Timothy Musho Photography
At the 2012 Screen Actors Guild awards after-party in Los Angeles, a diamond-shaped, draped ceiling treatment created a dramatic effect.
Photo: Nadine Froger Photography
At Diffa Dining by Design in New York in 2015, Smartwater's space aimed to reflect the brand's natural water purification process, which is mirrored after rain clouds. The fluffy fixtures lit up like a storm above the simple table setting.
Photo: Cornelia Stiles/BizBash
For the Food Network's 20th anniversary party in 2013, dozens of prop macarons made from Styrofoam were rigged to create a 10-foot-tall chandelier that hung over a dessert station.
Photo: Amanda Schwab/StarPix
For a destination wedding in Big Sur, California, producer and designer Sterling Engagements suspended a 12-foot dream catcher decor piece above the dance floor.
Photo: Courtesy of Sterling Engagements
At the New World Symphony gala, held in Miami in March, decor included hanging floral installations made up of white flowers, moss, and driftwood.
Photo: Sonja Garnitschnig
At a New York bar mitzvah, 400 luminaries filled with LED candles were hung from a large oval truss on the ceiling to create a supper club atmosphere.
Photo: Andre Maier Photography
For the Whitney Museum of American Art’s final gala in the historic Breuer Building in 2014, dining room decor included hanging paper lanterns with the names of honorees.
Photo: Cornelia Stiles/BizBash
Designers of the 2009 Bell Gala in Toronto evoked a fairytale theme with oversize flowers and playing cards hung from the ceiling.
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash
At Diffa Dining by Design in Chicago in 2014, inner tubes suspended from the ceiling were one of many playful touches at the tropical cabana created by Kehoe Designs.
Photo: Barry Brecheisen for BizBash
As part of U by Kotex's Period Projects, a multiyear program and project series aimed at changing the way people think about periods, the brand debuted a "period pop-up shop" in New York in May. The event featured a ceiling installation created with dangling tampons.
Photo: Taylor McIntyre/BizBash
Dramatic chandeliers created an elegant tone at the MSNBC White House Correspondents’ Dinner party in 2012.
Photo: Michael Loccisano/MSNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images for MSNBC
For the 2011 Design Exchange gala in Toronto, hundreds of balloons hung from the ceiling during the V.I.P. dinner. The space changed color with each course, starting with blue, morphing to pink for the main course, changing to orange for dessert, and ending in red.
Photo: George Pimentel
At the 2012 Steppenwolf Gala in Chicago, script pages from the theater’s recent production hung from round chandeliers on the ceiling.
Photo: Kyle Flubacker
