BEaM

How Social of me: part deux

Okay, I was waiting for the disc with the images on it, but thought I'd just take one more quick look before we move on to some other exciting events. Gotta love it when your ideas come together (and don't end up looking like a circus tent)!

Social was an event sponsor--this is comparable to our name in lights!

Guests came to the Gibbes Museum of Art to view the exhibition, curated by newly appointed Executive Director Angela D. Mack, called "Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art". There were large scrims in orange (Identity), red (Politics), purple (Protest), and green (Nostalgia), that helped tell the story of the exhibition-- very powerful, please go see it!

I brought the colors down to the Courtyard for the party, which not only tied it into the exhibition, but also gave the party a splash of Spring!

Duvall Decor helped with some really beautiful pieces from their rattan furniture collection, sheer pole covers and the colorful draping. I rented the tables/linens/chairs from Snyder, the Gibbes Women's Council flower committee did the fab florals, and Carolina Catering did the food and bar.

The menu included southern delights like duck and collard spring rolls, shrimp on mini grit cakes with remoulade sauce, and key lime tart sandwiched between benne seed wafers.

The evening was finished off by the sweet tunes of the Charlton Singleton Trio and the nice early-May Charleston weather (not too hot, not too humid).

See Katie Kern's Charleston Magazine Fete Set blog post about the party HERE and her party pics HERE. More CharlestonPictureCompany.com photos HERE.

photos: CharlestonPictureCompany.com

What a difference...

3 weeks makes. When I started planning the Gibbes Museum of Art's opening reception for the exhibition, Landscapes of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art, I had a dainty little idea about a pretty party. Then, seeing Angela Mack's ideas for designing her exhibition, I have almost done a 180°. See, I've realized that I love using color, lots of it, and that's exactly what Angela has done as well, so I decided to bring the colors of the exhibition down to the party.

The tents will be draped in the same colors as the scrims in the exhibition, deep jewel tones of red, purple, green, and orange. It's crossed my mind that this may end up looking a bit like a circus tent, but it's past the point of no return, now... In any case it will be full of color and light. With the Charlton Singleton Trio playing, it's sure to be a sweet southern evening.

BUY TICKETS TO THE PARTY! Call Wendi at 843-722-2706 x. 22, and tell them Sarah sent you.

Landscape of a party

Yay, Social Event Design is going back to the Gibbes! We are planning the exhibition opening party for Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art, Chief Curator Angela Mack's premier exhibition which "considers plantation images in the context of the history of landscape painting while addressing their impact, both real and perceived, on race relations in the United States." I'm very excited to see this all put together, Angela has been very passionate about every detail, and she's even written a book!

N-e-wey, last night, trying to fall asleep these ideas ran through my head... making it that much harder to actually sleep, these are some decor ideas I thought about :

Taking cues from Alice Ravenel Huger Smith's beautiful watercolor works, I can bring in color and texture. Mix in rustic touches, like burlap and wooden benches, with shiny satin ribbon and mint julep cups... and there you go!

More party info soon.

Photos: Stephen Duvall Decor, Ooh! Events, Flickr

Let's go inside this time

Okay, now that I have my head screwed on straight from the gala, I wanted to thank and link to all the vendors that made it possible! We held the event at the Daniel Island Club this year, which is a beautiful space with a stunning view.

Our guests entered to the Kevin Hackler trio playing light jazz music and nibbled on scrumptious passed hors d'oeuvres of beef tenderloin carpaccio, bacon wrapped sea scallops and tomato mozzarella crostini. They viewed the auction items in the foyer and sipped on drinks for the cocktail hour.

After that, we opened the ballroom doors as we asked guests to "board the plane". Tables were draped in luxurious pin tuck linen from BB&J, and hydrangea centerpieces evoking fluffy clouds from Tiger Lily were beautiful in the various sized milky white vases. At each table setting was a gift from Chocolate Perfection with an edible copy of our invitation cover printed on it. OtherBrother Entertainment lit the room in cool hues of blues and aquas to complement the color scheme and provided an inviting all white dance floor. Stephen Duvall Decor created seating areas on each side of the dance floor.

Our emcee/flight attendant Trixie Layover (fabulous actress Mandy Denaux) introduced the evening's festivities with a witty monologue filled with flight attendant lingo. Vintage Velvet played as guests noshed on a four course meal of tomato bisque with lump crab and basil oil, boston bibb salad with goat cheese buttermilk dressing, thyme-roasted prime rib of beef and a duo of desserts of whiskey bread pudding and bittersweet chocolate mousse, for the men and women respectively. On the two large screens I played a looping video of clouds which transported guests through the air -- and the evening.

Doug Warner, Mandy "Trixie Layover" Denaux, and me!

When dessert was served, Doug Warner, our speedy auctioneer extraordinaire, ran through our six auction lots in less than thirty minutes with a few bidding wars over the jet-setter and travel-related auction items. After the auction, guests danced to VV's swanky tunes and made their way outside to the Sky Club Lounge where mod furniture from Stephen Duvall Decor, and OBE's red and amber uplighting on the columns, was the talk of the party.

Thanks to all our wonderful vendors, you ROCK!

Photos by Charleston Picture Company.

The photos are rolling in!

Chocolate Perfection made our invitation edible!

The Ready. Jet-Set. Go! Gala was a success! Here are some photos and the rest are downloading, I'll post more lata. See them here at Charleston Picture Company, thanks Paul and Andrew for some amazing shots! More photos and links soon!

Above, Tiger Lily's arrangements were fluffy clouds of beautiful Hydrangea

Vintage Velvet was a hit as our in-flight entertainment

OtherBrother Entertainment's all-white Starlite dance floor was beautiful

Photos by Charleston Picture Company.com

Do you see what I see?

Mirror strands, like the ones above will sparkle behind the stage

The Gibbes Ready, Jet-Set, Go! Gala is next Saturday, December 8. I'm starting to get all cloudy in my head because of all the last-minute details! I thought it would be a good mental exercise to post my design so I can see what it seems like all together.

The gala theme is retro air travel, hence "Ready, Jet-Set, Go!" and some items included in the live auction will be "The International" - a trip for 4 to a luxury golf resort in Ireland, "The Weekender"- tickets for 2 anywhere in the country and fine Gucci luggage to go with it, and "The Mogul"- a getaway to Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Ireland above and a diva-licious necklace from Geiss & Sons below

So, in the spirit of aeronautics I am focusing on making these jet-set guests feel like it's the best plane ride they've ever been on (not hard to do, if you're not really on a plane, right?). Here is a small sample of my design ideas.

Tiger Lily will create a few different versions of the arrangement above, to look like clouds

Groupings of two different shades of blue pintuck linen will add interest

got these customized wing pins made for staff to wear and guests to have fun with

There's a lot more--like flying through the clouds, the VIP Sky Lounge area, the all-white dance floor, furniture arrangements to mimic airport waiting areas, Vintage Velvet, etc. but I feel so much better now that I can see all of this together. Maybe I'll do the rest next post. What do you think?

photos: BizBash, Tiger Lily Florist, BBJ, istockphoto

Old is new and inside is out!

Saturday, October 13, the ladies from Gathering Floral + Event Design turned the Gibbes courtyard from peaceful to posh for a beautifully designed wedding reception. Guests were led from the church to the cocktail hour at the Gibbes by the River City Dixieland Jazz Band in their signature N'Awlins style. James Burns of JBC Catering enticed palettes with passed hors d'oeuvres like oyster ponzu and Maine lobster rolls with truffled drawn butter.

Guests enjoy a cocktail hour on the first floor of the Museum

Gathering decorated day and night to get the look just right

In the courtyard the large clear tent was decorated with elaborate crystal chandeliers, tables of various shapes and sizes for the seated dinner, and flowers in warm tones and different heights. Gathering also brought in large wrought iron seating arrangements for the garden lounge area, and complemented the color palette with textured throw pillows and beribboned lanterns.

James and his crew plate the main course

Guests noshed on a delicious four course meal by JBC, and orange and triple-sec butter cake by Jim Smeal for dessert. When dinner was over, the Legendary JC's out of Orlando, Florida rocked party-goers into the night on the whimsical dance floor by OtherBrother Entertainment.

Vendors: Gathering Floral + Event Design, Snyder Event Rentals and Staffing, OtherBrother Entertainment, Wedding Cakes by Jim Smeal, JBC Catering.

The long and short of it

Who am I??? Just talking about my blog with Mitchell Crosby of JMC Charleston and he said it took him a while to figure out what is going on with me, this blog, my website and the Gibbes. Basically, I work full time as the Sales & Special Events Planner at the beautiful and historic Gibbes Museum of Art. I also have my existing side venture SOCIAL Event Design & Planning, which allows me to expand my planning horizons every now and then, and I run this blog, Being SOCIAL, that I update every other day or so. I also post portions of some of the blog entries on CharlestonPartyPlanners.com, and now on CreateMyEvent.com.

I love blogging about the event industry, in general, and also about events that take place here in Charleston. A lot of what I see are the weddings that take place here at the Gibbes since I'm here too, and I enjoy highlighting all the vendors involved so people can see their work! Eventually I want include posts about other industry leaders in the city, and what they are doing to move Charleston forward (like Mitchell!). I take this blog home as "homework" and look forward to bringing it to you and having more fun with it as time goes on. Ciao!

PDA + SDC = WOW!

This is going to be a long one today, ya'll. Thursday, August 2, the Gibbes courtyard was transformed into a mid-century mod creation by the minds at PDA and Stephen Duvall Catering & Events (herein referred to as SD for length purposes). They combined their forces to thank their loyal clients with a blowout and blog-worthy event.

Guests first entered underneath the handsome awning installed by Robin and the team at SD. Once in the courtyard there was a stimulating feast for the eyes beginning with the stage. If you've ever seen the Gibbes courtyard on a regular day, I guarantee you wouldn't be able to recognize it after SD and PDA were done with it. Robin, Amelia, and Ziggy from SD draped the entire facade of the stage in intricately pleated red fabric and it took A LOT of balancing, literally, to get up that high. They also built smart covers that hid the less-than-beautiful stair rails and enclosed the space a little more. Todd and the guys at PDA hung a fiber optic fabric backdrop that twinkled like a starry sky. Vintage Velvet swanked it up with lead singer Regina Ruopoli's voice cutting the evening like buttah!

PDA created a very unique ceiling installation in the tent which carried on the color scheme of the night, RED! They also, according to a few sources, hand dipped the lightbulbs red... they work hard for the money. Guests were also treated to some cinematic art on 4 plasma screen tv's, courtesy of artist and creative director, Kevin Harrison. There was a fresh fruit daquiri bar (pineapple, peach, strawberry and banana), a rotating dessert display, mini-burgers and pomme frites, a yummy caesar salad station, and fresh seafood and ceviche.

Jacqueline Lawrence, Design and Decor Director for SD showcased all of her new rentable inventory ranging from groovy red benches (don't even know how to describe them, see photo), uber-mod tulip chairs and tables in sleek white with red cushions. Nicole and Nikki from PDA placed small LEDs throughout the tree beds and fountain, and hung strands of mirrored discs throughout the trees to reflect all the light and add an element of fun(k). The arrangements of red gerber daisies in shallow white boxes and chocolate brown ribbon represented the carefree attitude of the evening.

The head honchos for PDA and Stephen Duvall, Jeff Nickles and Steve Wenger respectively, got on the mic and graciously thanked their clientelle for supporting them and told everyone to please party like rockstars... only not in so many words. The night ended with Charleston's hottest, DJ Moo Moo spinning, and the hardcore partiers staying until the lights came on, just how it should be. FUN!

There I am attempting to capture the spirit, like a cheerleader.