The Occasional Word

Red Creative & Coke - RWC Hospitality Lounge

It's been a little while since I've been here - we've been working on our exciting new look, a complete rebrand and the new stationery range. I'll keep you posted as we roll it our over the next month but you're going to love it!

In the mean time I have a H U G E backload of gorgeousness to show you. The Rugby World Cup was an awesome opportunity for everyone in the event industry to showcase what we can do. For us, we were lucky enough to work with Event Dynamics to create something extra special for Coca Cola.

We transformed a blank conference space at the Langham Auckland into a fully branded hospitality space including dining, lounge and guest services. 

We love working with such great brands. It's always exciting to see all the carefully considered details come together to create a memorable event space. 

Forbidden Fruit

Don't have a lot of time to write today as we're busy getting ready for this weekend's Bride & Groom show and Christchurch fundraiser. What an exciting weekend. Hope to see a lot of you there.

Thought you may need some inspiration on this chilly, grey day. Whips N Spurs is always a lot of fun but we loved this theme! Particularly loved the big urns of apples with the floral collar. What's your fav?

 

A x

 

Dinner on the HMNZS Canterbury

We love a challenge. It's an exciting opportunity to think outside the box. When one of our clients told us they wanted to host 600 guests in the cargo hold of a navy ship we jumped at the opportunity. The result - we transformed the space into a clean white canvas and then manipulated it with coloured light.

Our goal was to recreate the sunset over the ocean inside the space. Guests arrived and were greeted into an orange hued cargo hold with cocktails & canapes. Throughout the evening as they dined and danced, enjoying live entertainment from the navy band the lighting morphed from oranges & pinks though to purples and then finally deep blue.

A southern cross appeared throughout the evening, representing the theme of navigate and centrepiece lit from withen glowed on the tables.

Want to see how we pulled it off? We've put together this nifty little video - enjoy

x A

 

 

Corporate Elegance - Bloodstock NZ & Racing for Christchurch.

We love it when our corporate clients go for something a little less, well, 'corporatey' for their functions. Sometimes branded and corporate is good. Sometimes though, a client can be impressed and experience your brand ethos in other more subtle ways.

This is the fourth year that we have had the pleasure of working with the lovely folks at Bloodstock NZ. We styled their corporate hospitality marquee at Ellerslie for Karaka Million in black, white, taupe and sage greens and I have to say I was quite pleased with the result.

Clean, elegant and fresh. Particularly loved the hydrangea rimmed urns as they worked really well as stand alone pieces. Thanks to our friends at Villa Kula for supplying the beautiful lounge furniture.

  

In other horse related news - we are teaming up with a number of great suppliers and Ellerslie to raise money for Christchurch. If you are interested in racing or you just want to do your bit to help, check out the website and buy your tickets here. The goal is to raise 1 million at an evening of glamour. Dinner, live entertainment and a fabulous auction.

Boxing Day Races - Lemons, lemons & more lemons

As a child we had a tradition of heading to the races at Ellerslie for boxing day. I always remember loving it as a kid - enjoying a picnic under a tree, shaved ice and running around getting lost in all the little hiding spots.

It's our pleasure to work with Ellerslie to make their race days that little bit extra wow and this year we did it with lemons. I think it really captured that fun. vibrant, summer feel that makes boxing day races so much fun.

I know we've talked about using fruit as decor before - it really is a great way to go particularly if budget is a little tight but you need big impact. Fruit also has the added benefit of generally not being as fragile as flowers (although this lot of fruit had a few issues we had to contend with!)

So what do you think? Have you used fruit before at an event? Are you considering using it and if so which fruit? 

Groundfish Dinner - Ice Centerpieces

How are we all doing this morning? We've had a pretty full on week here and it's only Tuesday! Yesterday was the Life FM wedding Season winner's wedding. Our job being what it is I didn't actually get to see the lovely couple but Nathan & Gabrielle we wish you all the very best in your new life together. Pictures will be coming soon so watch this space!

I was just looking back over previous blog posts and noticed we haven't had a corporate function in a while. We actually split our time about 50/50 with corporate and wedding clients so heres some corporate goodness:

 

 

We worked with Sanford Fisheries to style the Groundfish conference last year at Rendezvous Hotel. The aim was to impress the delegates without overshadowing the amazing fresh seafood being served up. This event was a bit of a challenge for us as we wanted to steer away from doing anything overtly themey while still giving the guests an experience that was uniquely NZ. 

Not one to shy away from a challenge we worked with one of our very talented suppliers to create something unique from ice. We had plaques made from ice with the Groundfish logo carved into the front. These were lit from below and surrounded by a fern wreath. After 4 hours working in the freezer putting these babies together we were pretty thrilled with the results (once we defrosted).

So there you have it! Like what you see? We'd love to work with you to create something unique for your event. Just give us a call!

U2 360 - Pre Party

We had the pleasure of putting together the look and feel for a U2 360 pre party a couple of weeks ago. The brief was to theme two separate rooms at Ellerslie, each with a distinct but complimentary look. We chose mirror balls because I think they work well for a music related event and because of the obvious collection to 360.   

 

The Pakuranga Hunt room has a pretty spectacular gold ceiling so we used this as the basis for the colour scheme. Gold mirror balls combined with rusty orange and black feathers, table runners and votive candles. Gold table chandeliers finished the look, flanking the entry. In Chairmans club we used a palette of bright red, black and silver in a combination of mirror balls with feather and tall martini glasses.

We love creating unique looks for corporate functions whether big or small, cocktail or seated dinner - it's always a challenge to pull it all together so remember us for your next corporate function. 

Melbourne Cup @ Ellerslie

We have the absolute pleasure of styling some of Ellerslie's fashionable race days. The look we designed for this years Melbourne Cup was stylish, elegant and invoked the 'modern aristocrat' feeling that is so key to Ellerslie's look and feel.

We created funky acrylic melbourne cup inserts for our vases, combined with uplit crystal these looked amazing. For height we used martini's with bright red floral. Black & white flocked brocade and striped runners added a graphic elegant and tied it all together.  

Win your wedding. . .

Morning everybody. I hope you all had a great weekend. I unfortunately spent the weekend in bed with the flu but it's a big week so onwards and upwards!

First up if you haven't already rsvp'd for the pop up showroom it's not too late. This Saturday from 10am-4pm the pre-function area at the Rendezvous Hotel Auckland will be transformed into our showroom. There will be centerpiece ideas, bouquets, stationery, favours, and loads of pictures. Come to be inspired, let us help you create a unique look for your event or put together an estimate for you. It's going to be a great day. If you'd like to come along, please let us know you're coming.

RSVP for the pop-up showroom here

As if that wasn't enough exciting news for the day we have an opportunity for one lucky couple to win a free wedding. 

Yup pretty much the coolest prize ever. We're talking a reception @ Carringtons worth $15,000, a full photography package from the talented perspectives photography, a couture bridal gown to the value of $2100 from city bridal, a band, filming, sound & lighting, a beauty package, cake, wedding bands, suit hire. . .  amazing right? Oh and most importantly a $2300 styling package from yours truly!

Interested? Enter here before the 3rd September.

Good luck and see you Saturday

xA

Something Orange. . .

We had the pleasure recently of working with Simpson Western to style their 25th Anniversary at the Hilton. Having just gone through a rebrand we were able to really launch the new branding in style while creating a celebratory atmosphere for the 25th.

Orange and silver is not the most common colour combo but I love it! What do you think?