Continued from previous page.
Loews executive chef Mark Ehrler created worldly hors d'oeuvres including yuca fries al mojo, churasco with green chimichurri sauce on wilted arugula, Thai pork satay, and yellow and red tomato gazpacho with a vodka mist. Bamboo grids adorned with exotic flowers and foliage hung from the ceiling and hovered just above the buffet tables. Tall orange columns illuminated from within connected the decorative structures to the tables and enhanced the food's dramatic presentation.
To quench the thirst of the 3,200 attendees, cool aquarium bars—large glass tanks filled with koi—were set up in each quadrant of the ballroom. Each was backed by white laminate with shelving, upon which round, koi-filled fishbowls stood. Swank Audio Visual provided screens built into the back of each bar that played nature scenes and real-time footage from the event itself.
"With so many people at the event, we had to keep everything up; thus, we did lots of hanging and suspended decor items," Darst said. "We only used 25 percent of the ballroom floor [for decor]. In total we had almost 40 different service areas and 140 servers, and we served nearly 12,000 drinks to 3,200 people in two hours."
—Shari Lynn Rothstein