Fete Events

Incredible events have soul and should share something about the host. My job is to understand each of my clients and then use this knowledge as the basis for the creativity. The fun (and challenge) is finding purposeful ways to weave this into the design, music, drinks, service, food, etc……

For a recent 60th birthday party, we came up with lot of fun ideas but one of my favorite details was suspending contemporary silver light fixtures over each white plexi top farm table. On each fixture, we wrote quotes and copy on each that had great meaning for the birthday boy.

While we love all the weddings we do (like our children, none more precious than any other), we’re putting together the coolest four-day wedding party on Italy’s Amalfi Coast later this summer. I don’t want to spoil any of the many surprises in store, but I will say that all of the senses will be hyper-engaged and the guests will never want to fly home. (How’s that for confidence?)

While scoping out the region on a recent trip, Josh and I came across a new favorite after-dinner drink, Passito di Pantelleria. Made from raisins and semi-dry grapes on Pantelleria, a small island off of Sicily, Passito (also known as “straw wine,” for its grape-drying method on straw mats) is a variation of Moscato and has a very high sugar content. We first tried it—Donnafugata Ben Rye Passito, to be exact—over dessert at a beach restaurant where we’re having dinner one night. It was a spectacular setting, located on a private cove and only accessible by boat, ye the drink clinched the evening… We were instantly in love with it, and helplessly enamored by the Amalfi Coast.

I’m constantly on the lookout for subtle, beautiful flourishes that make a table setting pop. These super high-gloss, lacquered candles from Danish company Ester & Erik (ester-erik.dk)—available in tapered, cylindrical, and cone shapes—have become one of my new favorite elements. They’re beautiful enough to leave unburned on your table all the time, yet their lacquer catches light in a warm, lustrous way.