Party Planners are buzzing about....
Everything Is Illuminated
This season, swanky product launches, retail openings and VIP affairs all have one thing in common: illumination. We're not talking light bulbs, of course, but a new wave of party rentalware that blends that beloved material from the '70s, Lucite, with color-saturated LED lighting. Combined, they create exciting party furniture and props such as hot pink glowing-from-within cocktail tables, neon blue glowing columns, even illuminated Lucite serving trays! Extra cool is that these lights can be pre-set to change colors, or changed by remote control. Event decorators are using them as is or dressed up with sheer fabrics for an exciting palette of otherworldly, gorgeous effects. When combined with equally color-satured lighting throughout the room, and maybe even a matching gobo on the ceiling or dance floor, the effect is truly spectacular.
Spankin' New Spandex
Oddly, another '70s refuge is back in vogue: spandex. (Surely you remember those tighter-than-tight workout suits?, right?) During the intervening decades, some as-yet-unheralded designer figured out that when stretched over metal frames, Spandex allows light to shine through, casting an uber-cool color-rich glow. Event furniture companies are now offering illuminated Spandex lines of bars, highboys, cocktail tables and cubes. Generally, they're made of metal frames with acrylic or glass tops.
Getting Hammered
Not your guests -- your chafing dishes. Several event furnishing companies now offer artisan hammmered stainless steel warming trays and wine coasters.
Ice as Nice
Not just for igloos anymore, massive blocks of ice are now being used to make beverage bars (see photo on left). About 80" long by 42" high, they can even come with laser etched logos specific to your event. Though these ice bars sound tailor-made for B Mitzvahs where the Torah portion was about Noah and the flood, they actually rest on troughs to catch any water dripoffs. Check out www.IceMagic.com.
We're also seeing ice used to create "ice luges," artistically sculpted blocks that have channels inside liquid can flow through. An attendant takes a bottle of say, white wine, pours it into the top of the luge. The wine flows down the channel, getting chilled en route, and into your cup, waiting at the bottom. Relatively new to the event scene, luges always seem to be surrounded by excited crowds, not unlike the earliest days of the now-ubiquitous (but still worshipped) chocolate fountain.
Beautified Buffets
Here's an intriguing catering concept to chew on: at a recent New York City event, a well-known caterer created a most unusual buffet arrangement. As BiZBash, a corporate event planning website, described it: "Instead of a traditional buffet, the [caterer's] stations had two tiers—one low bar and a higher one behind it on a raised platform. Chefs prepped and cooked food on the upper level, and then servers at the lower bar individually plated the dishes, with appropriate utensils, and passed them directly to guests. And, unlike at a customary buffet, guests received creatively presented food—instead of making a scrambled assemblage of their meal."
Balloons Balloon
At a recent gala for the New Museum of Contemporary Art, an artist was commissioned to a design a pod of enormous, vibrant balloon sculptures of animals and sea creatures, which hung from the ceiling. And when famed clothing designer/ groovy girl Betsey Johnson held a fragrance launch in her home for a gaggle of newspaper and magazine beauty editors, her ceiling, too, was dotted with dozens of hot pink round balloons.
Vegging Out A high-end event decor firm in Florida is getting rave reviews from its centerpieces made mostly of vegetables, which use flowers only as minor accents! Think clusters of exotic-palette, texture-heavy artichokes, grapes, eggplants.
Skip the Separate Courses
Who says you need three or four courses for a sit-down dinner? The director of events at Gourmet magazine recently organized a party for the Gourmet Institute at which only small dishes were served: seven varieties of hors d'oeuvres, two stations, and 11 different tapas. As everyone knows, the appetizers are always the tastiest. Consider using this concept, which takes that notion to its logical extreme.
Region-specific food
Brazilian menus are all the rage in Manhattan, allowing event planners to tap in the lively, tropical vibe associated with, well, most things Brazilian. Alas, many of the dishes incorporate such non-kosher ingredients as pork or shrimp but there are plenty of combinations and substitutions to play with: · Arepas – a Venezuelan dish of filled corn pancakes · Seared red snapper with avocado, orange and olive · Feijoada – black bean cake topped with braised meat
Sephardic, So Good
Spanish influences are visible in many of the chicest New York social events, such as a recent Yves Saint Laurent-sponsored Young Collectors Council Artist’s ball at the Guggenheim Museum. In this case, there were six moving mechanical bulls and enough red cloth to bring them all to life. At a benefit at the Frick Collection, another New York museum, the work of Spanish artist Goya was selected as the theme. If your family has Sephardic roots, why not embrace them (with or without the bulls)?
Everything Is Illuminated
This season, swanky product launches, retail openings and VIP affairs all have one thing in common: illumination. We're not talking light bulbs, of course, but a new wave of party rentalware that blends that beloved material from the '70s, Lucite, with color-saturated LED lighting. Combined, they create exciting party furniture and props such as hot pink glowing-from-within cocktail tables, neon blue glowing columns, even illuminated Lucite serving trays! Extra cool is that these lights can be pre-set to change colors, or changed by remote control. Event decorators are using them as is or dressed up with sheer fabrics for an exciting palette of otherworldly, gorgeous effects. When combined with equally color-satured lighting throughout the room, and maybe even a matching gobo on the ceiling or dance floor, the effect is truly spectacular.
Spankin' New Spandex
Oddly, another '70s refuge is back in vogue: spandex. (Surely you remember those tighter-than-tight workout suits?, right?) During the intervening decades, some as-yet-unheralded designer figured out that when stretched over metal frames, Spandex allows light to shine through, casting an uber-cool color-rich glow. Event furniture companies are now offering illuminated Spandex lines of bars, highboys, cocktail tables and cubes. Generally, they're made of metal frames with acrylic or glass tops.
Getting Hammered
Not your guests -- your chafing dishes. Several event furnishing companies now offer artisan hammmered stainless steel warming trays and wine coasters.
Ice as NiceNot just for igloos anymore, massive blocks of ice are now being used to make beverage bars (see photo on left). About 80" long by 42" high, they can even come with laser etched logos specific to your event. Though these ice bars sound tailor-made for B Mitzvahs where the Torah portion was about Noah and the flood, they actually rest on troughs to catch any water dripoffs. Check out www.IceMagic.com.
We're also seeing ice used to create "ice luges," artistically sculpted blocks that have channels inside liquid can flow through. An attendant takes a bottle of say, white wine, pours it into the top of the luge. The wine flows down the channel, getting chilled en route, and into your cup, waiting at the bottom. Relatively new to the event scene, luges always seem to be surrounded by excited crowds, not unlike the earliest days of the now-ubiquitous (but still worshipped) chocolate fountain.
Beautified Buffets
Here's an intriguing catering concept to chew on: at a recent New York City event, a well-known caterer created a most unusual buffet arrangement. As BiZBash, a corporate event planning website, described it: "Instead of a traditional buffet, the [caterer's] stations had two tiers—one low bar and a higher one behind it on a raised platform. Chefs prepped and cooked food on the upper level, and then servers at the lower bar individually plated the dishes, with appropriate utensils, and passed them directly to guests. And, unlike at a customary buffet, guests received creatively presented food—instead of making a scrambled assemblage of their meal."
Balloons Balloon
At a recent gala for the New Museum of Contemporary Art, an artist was commissioned to a design a pod of enormous, vibrant balloon sculptures of animals and sea creatures, which hung from the ceiling. And when famed clothing designer/ groovy girl Betsey Johnson held a fragrance launch in her home for a gaggle of newspaper and magazine beauty editors, her ceiling, too, was dotted with dozens of hot pink round balloons.
Vegging Out A high-end event decor firm in Florida is getting rave reviews from its centerpieces made mostly of vegetables, which use flowers only as minor accents! Think clusters of exotic-palette, texture-heavy artichokes, grapes, eggplants.
Skip the Separate Courses
Who says you need three or four courses for a sit-down dinner? The director of events at Gourmet magazine recently organized a party for the Gourmet Institute at which only small dishes were served: seven varieties of hors d'oeuvres, two stations, and 11 different tapas. As everyone knows, the appetizers are always the tastiest. Consider using this concept, which takes that notion to its logical extreme.
Region-specific food
Brazilian menus are all the rage in Manhattan, allowing event planners to tap in the lively, tropical vibe associated with, well, most things Brazilian. Alas, many of the dishes incorporate such non-kosher ingredients as pork or shrimp but there are plenty of combinations and substitutions to play with: · Arepas – a Venezuelan dish of filled corn pancakes · Seared red snapper with avocado, orange and olive · Feijoada – black bean cake topped with braised meat
Sephardic, So Good
Spanish influences are visible in many of the chicest New York social events, such as a recent Yves Saint Laurent-sponsored Young Collectors Council Artist’s ball at the Guggenheim Museum. In this case, there were six moving mechanical bulls and enough red cloth to bring them all to life. At a benefit at the Frick Collection, another New York museum, the work of Spanish artist Goya was selected as the theme. If your family has Sephardic roots, why not embrace them (with or without the bulls)?
