DesignWorks Plays Favorites – March 2014

Stunning Event Design, Fantastic Food, and a Great Planner. These are the main elements you need for a fantastic event! Here are a few of our favorites in each category.

Give us a brief description of your business.

 Since 1970, Occasions Catering (formerly Occasions by Sandy) has reinvented catering in Denver with the belief that great food and service are just the beginning – it’s all about creating occasions. Our comprehensive event design process is custom tailored for every party, from 10 to 10,000 guests.

What is your favorite part of events?

 The rush – when everyone at once is enjoying food, drink, and each other’s company, and we are multitasking to make it all seamless for them.

Intimate backyard wedding for 30 guests or social event of the season for 500?

 We love the fine attention to detail of an intimate affair, but our magic is the big events – logistics planning and execution on complex events for hundreds of guests.

Favorite celebrity chef?

 Our local culinary community is truly first class, with amazing chefs like Jeff Osaka, Steven Redzikowski, and so many others that it’s hard to pick just a few

Favorite thing about Colorado?

 We have the best people in the world!

Favorite event worked on with DesignWorks.

We have worked together on Biz Bash, the annual concert fundraiser for local charities put on by CoBiz Financial, every year since the event began. Working with DesignWorks is always easy and exciting – great people, fabulous designs, and flawless execution!

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Give us a brief description of your business.

I own two businesses. Tropical Occasions was my first born (we opened doors in 1999) and is located in Costa Rica as well as my home office in Denver, but we now do weddings all over the world. Tropical Occasions is Costa RIca’s premier wedding planners and designers. I was actually the countries very first professional wedding planner. I pioneered the destination wedding market there and today it is consistently seen on lists as one of the top places in the world to host a destination wedding.

I came back to Colorado (I am a Colo State Univ alumni) in 2008 and it has been amazing. I at first just ran Tropical Occasions from Colorado, however I really missed being at the weddings, and executing design and logistics and found myself wanting more than just Tropical Occasions so I started Mountain Occasions. I have been in business in Colorado with Mountain Occasions for around 5 years now and LOVE the Rocky Mountains and the mile high city just as much as the exotic tropical locations I frequent.

What is your favorite part of events?

Two Parts always have stood out to me.

With a wedding it is that magical moment when I send a bride down the aisle. It is a moment in time that never repeats itself. I always make my brides take 3-5 deep breaths as they stand there before they walk and take in that moment. The man waiting for them at the altar,  to the people standing watching her. They are all there celebrating her love for the man waiting for her and it is truly such a romantic and incredible moment to witness.

The second one is the unveiling of the events design. So many people go into making a room transform, from a small event and a great looking table to a huge ballroom event where you have literally taken a box and transformed it into your clients vision and beyond. To witness the clients reaction and knowing you have exceeded their expectations and have helped bring a very special day to them beyond what they had imagined, is hugely gratifying and makes me love what I do.

Intimate backyard wedding for 30 guests or social event of the season for 500?

OH this is a hard one. I LOVE a challenge so the 500 person event makes me excited as I love the task of managing tons of details, spreadsheets, design, timelines. I get excited about complex events and all the mental and physical challenges they bring. But when it comes down to it, I may have to go with the 30 guest wedding. They are so intimate, you really get to play up the personalization of the clients and make that event so much about them- as it should be. Add that intimacy,  and it becomes such beautiful energy that’s permeating in the air and you feel!  The love, the friendships, all add to the overall feel of the event and it is magical. Creating magic is always my ultimate goal 😉

Favorite celebrity planner/event designer?

You mean beyond Mike and David at Design Works?

I have many that I look up to and study their work and styles and like to emulate or garner inspiration from and at all times just simply admire, To name a few and what I like about them.

David Beahm- I find his events have such thought when you look at all the detail. They really take it to a thinking outside the box and doing things differently and always beautifully. They always introduce those, why did I not think of that moments and the wow, I would never have thought of that. So I love to see what they are up to and have huge respect for them.

Matthew Robbins – beyond being a truly wonderful person, I love his design process, his use of flowers mixed with other elements and keeping all looking so natural and delicate, he has such a special touch with his designs. I love to follow him on Instagram and his Hunter and Gather posts where he takes a bunch of stuff from hardware (like a door knob) to a swatch of fabric and a leaf, and other random things thrown in there and shows you how he is thinking for a design and I totally get it and love his thought process!

Mindy Rice – Her style is so ethereal and she is so incredibly creative and she has a way making a vintage shot wedding feel modern, but it has the timeless element to it that I just want to bottle up. I have never ever seen an event that she has designed where I am not totally smitten with every little detail she has created. So I am as well a HUGE fan of her work.

Favorite thing about Colorado?

The Beauty – From the beautiful, fun hip city we have that just keeps getting better with each year, to the beauty of our great outdoors. There have been moments when I am on a mountain top witnessing a wedding or other event and the Panoramic view and the beauty of the events in front of me, they are these surreal backdrops and have many times taken my breath away.  I am at those moments reminded of the gratitude I have to plan and design events in such an amazing place on earth.

Favorite event worked on with DesignWorks.

They are all my favorites and I simply love collaborating and working with Design Works, I have such tremendous respect and love for the entire crew. BUT if In had to choose one it would be when I took the company to Costa Rica with me. We did a wedding of a Nascar driver and as we referred to our bride a Nascar princess. I took Mike with me on an Inspection & Designing trip and we visited many vendors, he would communicate to me and I would communicate to the vendors we enlisted to bring the design to life in Spanish. It  took a total of 7 companies hired to do what Design Works would be able to do all on their own and with me at the helm translating all of what Mike had come up with for the design. DesignWorks flew down 4 assistant designers along with owners Mike and David and we along with around 50 other vendors brought to life a truly spectacular wedding as well as Rehearsal Dinner. This event challenged me on many levels as it did Design Works. It was a collaborative home run hit for us all and we had such pride and happiness in our hearts that the vision had even exceeded our expectations.