Year End Party Decor Trends 2010

We organized our first Annual Dinner for the second half of the year two weeks ago and was it fun! Themed "Pajama Party" our client's staff walked in wearing sexy nighwear to two-piece jammies complete with bedroom slippers!

The waiting lounge was decorated with colourful lit structures, a backdrop which looked like a bed and even a bedroom set. The ballroom had plenty of helium balloons and mood lighting.

What made the event successful was not only the decor, or the entertainment, or even the hot emcee but really the attitude of the staff. They were ready to party and they were dressed for it! Their energy filled the air and everything just fell into place.

With companies starting to plan for their year end parties, we thought we'd give a little input on some trends to look out for and some of our fave venues.

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 more of table lamps as centrepieces to color-saturated LED lighting. LED lighting They produce an enormous range of color while using almost no electricity.

Also, think glowing columns, changing mood lighting. 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.

The effect lighting has on a room, when done properly, pulls you into the space.

You, emotionally, are drawn into a space that you may have seen a hundred times before; but never in a way that you are seeing it now.

Spankin' New Spandex

Oddly, another '70s refuge is back in vogue: spandex.

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.

Ice is Nice




Yes, we know you're thinking those ice sculptured swans and hearts but ice sculptures have evolved! Not just for igloos anymore, massive blocks of ice are now being used to make beverage bars. They can even come with laser etched logos specific to your event.

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.

Balloons


Some of us grimace when thinking of balloons being used for adult parties but 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.

Edible Centrepieces


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.


For non-vege lovers, you can opt for other food stuff, of course!