The event design of the Wolf Trap Ball, hosted by the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, featured screens with scrolling images of the national parks that rotated throughout the reception and dinner. Plants and greenery walls around the dining areas, as well as floral centerpieces, also reinforced the night’s theme celebrating the National Park Service's 100th anniversary. The event was held in September in Vienna, Virginia, and raised $1.5 million.
The New York Public Library hosted its annual gala on November 3. David Monn handled decor, bringing in tall centerpieces that evoked autumn trees. The tables were set with patterned linens and seasonal tropes such as pumpkins, pears, and fall leaves.
The activation had 3-D photo vignettes that depicted different parks including Sequoia National Park.
The Television Academy's Governors Ball Committee and Sequoia Productions chose a “Nature's Elegance” theme for the two Creative Arts Balls as well as the Governors Ball at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It was the 19th year Cheryl Cecchetto and the Sequoia team have worked the events, and the first year two events expanded to three nights.
For guests at the nature-inspired dinners, official spirits sponsor World Class poured Ketel One Vodka, and the Hilhaven Lodge Blended Straight American Whiskey cocktails, Sterling Vineyards provided the wines, and sponsor Fiji Water the water.
Resource One provided specialty linens at tabletops where Patina served the three-course meal. Additional decor elements included starry drape and 2,700 yards of fabric covering the ceiling beams, plus 1,000 yards of black fabric covering the truss structure. Fabrics were done in neutral, earth-inspired tones, and sequin mesh, metallic silks, and floral sequin organzas added an element of glamour.
LA Premier's Kevin Lee created the floral look for this year's more rustic vibe. Centerpieces alternated between low birch-wrapped looks and towering, colorful designs rising more than three feet tall off tabletops in trumpet-style vases. Designer8 supplied the event's lounge furniture, and Bill Ferrell Company and Sosa Sisters the scenic fabrication.
This year's more rustic, organic look included more than 50,000 hydrangeas, 80,000 roses, and 20,000 succulents. Classic Party Rentals provided the guest and catering rentals, and ShowPro brought in the lighting equipment for design by Matt Levesque of First Circle Design. Goodman Audio handled the sound, Irma Hardjakusumah the technical design, and Matt Ringer the technical direction.
At the annual benefit, which took place in May, guests first enjoyed cocktails on the High Line at the Diller-Von Furstenberg Sundeck and in the Chelsea Market Passage before heading to dinner at two separate locations: Highline Stages and 60 Tenth Ave. in New York. Van Wyck & Van Wyck handled design for both venues. The Highline Stages space featured two columns reimagined to look like dogwood trees with flickering candlelight. The 60 Tenth Ave. venue boasted the “Tree of Life” (pictured), a column that was transformed into a tree dripping with fiber optics that changed colors.
In May, more than 600 guests gathered in the New York art institution’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden for the dinner—a first for the annual fund-raiser—to honor philanthropist Agnes Gund. The tented dining space featured sections of round and rectangular dining tables that were decorated in four springtime shades—sunshine yellow, robin’s egg blue, rich teal, and cherry blossom pink, with linens, seat cushions, glassware, and floral arrangements to match. Greenery swags hung from the clear plastic tent’s trusses, and faux grass carpeting lined the space.
