10 Best Ideas of the Week: a Ceiling of Golden Roses, Gift Bag Prescriptions, Servers in Backless Chaps

Men in backless chaps walked around the room holding large Brussels sprout stalks and knives; guests were asked to cut the sprouts onto their plates.

Held at the Getty Center in Los Angeles on November 9, the award dinner featured glowing tables decked with butterflies.

Metropolitan West held its grand-opening event on November 5. With a New York theme, the party for the 24,000-square-foot event space had catering from Sterling Affair and Great Performances. Thematic snacks included apple-shaped cookies served on a table decked with miniature apple trees.

Featuring an avant-garde Medieval Times vibe, the biennial fund-raiser titled “Paradiso: A Tribute to the Renaissance” was held at the ornate Weylin B. Seymour’s Williamsburgh Savings Bank in Brooklyn on November 5. Guests were encouraged to swat suspended rubber chickens, which were filled with smoked paprika, in order to dust the deviled eggs arranged on the table below.

In a separate room at the September 17 gala in New York, guests could pose for portraits photographed by Roberto Chamorro. The space was decked out in all-white furnishings, carpet, and decor, with the only color provided by six LG TV screens that displayed classic works of art. Photos were sent to guests after the event.

From November 6 to 8, thousands of people flocked to the archway under the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood to celebrate the inaugural New York Festival of Light. At the festival, lighting designer Howard Ungerleider's high-powered laser show created a rave-like mix of music, smoke, and colored light.

The tablescapes at Diffa Chicago's Dining by Design, which took place at the Merchandise Mart from November 6 to 8, reflected the participants’ interpretations of the event’s theme: “Beauty and the Feast.” Golden palm-frond-inspired fixtures hung above the Garden of Eve-theme Circa Lighting display, which was designed by Sarah Whit Interior Design. The vignette also featured an apple tree centerpiece, animal-printed rug, and greenery as makeshift walls.

Taking inspiration from the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Illinois Institute of Art students created a luxe-looking vignette with a fur table covering, golden goblets, and gold-tinged roses on the ceiling.

HBO’s series Getting On is an absurdist look inside a hospital, and its Season 2 premiere party in Los Angeles translated the show's wacky mise-en-scène in an interactive live event format on October 28. Guests could take their fake custom prescriptions to an area designed to look like a pharmacy and swap them for gift bags filled with show-inspired goodies.

More than 1,700 people attended Johnnie Walker’s “House of Walker” events October 28 to November 1 at Fair Market in Austin, Texas. A personalized welcome message appeared in front of guests when they put their R.F.I.D. cards into a designated slot of the tasting mat on the right.