Tulip Fever

So, you may wonder why the title has 'tulip' in it, but the photos don't? That's because, as any person in the event industry will tell you, working with mother nature can be a very stressful thing...

We were given the task of designing a party for a highly sophisticated, highly attuned and self-proclaimed Design Snob. 800 tulips had been ordered (for a sit down dinner for 28 -- yes, it was a bit excessive, even for us!) in two shades of red, to try and tie the bluey-red of the feature wall and the orangey-red of the Philippe Starck chairs together. When I got the call from florist Marijke Engel the day before telling me the tulips had arrived in PINK and ORANGE, we had a brief moment of panic and then had to change tacks quickly.

Knowing that pink and orange would never do for our Tom Ford-loving birthday boy, Marijke had to scramble to get any flowers at all on such short notice. She had the great idea of using the simple, elegant phaleonopsis orchid, en masse, to save the day. With the regal flowers in quickly-borrowed containers, black croc candles going down the length of the tables and the odd red chair randomly thrown in to the mix, the combination ended up looking sensational -- and not one guest knew that the party had had a totally different 'look,' less than 24-hours before. Crisis diverted, but not without a new grey hair or two.

Über-chef Arpi Magyar from Couture Cuisine was given free-reign to design an unusual and amazing menu. Given that it was such a small group, we served -gasp- Berkshire pork as the main course! It was a topic of much discussion throughout the night, with people wondering why more people don't offer it, more often. The meal was a work of art and complemented the tulip-free environment to perfection.



Thank you to Jackson at Ikonica for recording such a special night so beautifully with your photos.