Decor & Design - the polish on your event
ByAugust 4, 2009
Décor is big wedding business and the biggest names in décor have something in common, they focus on creating a theme and incorporating elements of it repeatedly throughout the process to create that WOW factor that make us gasp in pleasure.
Whenever I think about décor and design, I reach for my “Inspirations” by Preston Bailey and I start to dream!
Something he said when I had the opportunity to hear him present at the Wedding Expo in Toronto in 2007, stuck in my mind. He told us that no one comes to him for “nice designs”, people come to Preston Bailey for “over the top WOW!” He therefore encouraged us to use his designs as a starting point, to choose colours or elements of design from his creations and personalize it based on our clients’ style. Since I know I won’t be seeing any Preston type budgets coming across my table for design anytime soon, I look through my signed copy of Inspirations 
, dream, lust and then get real and meet with my client to discuss designing their décor using Preston Bailey inspirations but scaled to their style and budget! I have steered a client or two in the direction of the transformation of the Exhibition Hall in United Arab Emirates, a terrarium created for an after party bar for one of his clients and of course being Sandals certified, I have also introduced my clients to his Signature Weddings @ Sandals that used to be featured on their properties. Feast your eyes on incredible transformations at http://www.prestonbailey.com/PORT.htm
Closer to home I find more inspiration from Toronto’s award winning event design and décor company, Designing Trendz. I am a huge fan or Craig Gruzd and his team and having listened to him present earlier this year at the 4th annual Wedding Planners Institute of Canada conference in February, elements of the process stuck in my mind as he explained how he achieves the ultimate wow for his clients. Craig insists that he can create a design from anything that inspires him at the time, whether it is a place or a picture, a mood or an era that comes to mind when he is thinking about his clients’ event. That boggles my mind since my creative side is forced out through midnight research and blood, sweat and tears!
With permission from Designing Trendz, I invite you to view “Candy Land” below. Note how candy colours greet you from the foyer area with candy filling the bottom of the vases, incorporating the theme before you get to the room with the main display. Walking into the room, you see the wow factor of the mural on the wall, bags repeating the candy theme hanging on to the chairs, a fantastic table linen that makes me think of swizzle sticks and arrangements of flowers in a myriad of colours that make you actually feel like you are in candy land. The overall effect from above is that of a fun, happy, absolutely gorgeous design.
So the lesson for today, find a theme and use elements of it repeatedly to capture that big WOW! Décor makes an event and these creative geniuses leave us a lot of food for thought and much eye candy…no pun intended…really!
