Our Open House

I am still in shock from how successful our open house was this past weekend. I'm honored that so many people showed us support and wanted to be a part of our event. The best vendors in Pittsburgh came in to help us out and made this into such an aesthetically pleasing and fun event.

I love to plan parties but with everything I have had going on lately (moving the business and lots of events), I knew that I needed help. So who does a person in the party industry go to when they need to plan a party of their own? There was no question, I needed Simone! http://www.5sensesevents.com/ I have always loved Simone's organic sense of style and knew that she could help me pull everything together. Within a few hours of talking about the event, she emailed me a spreadsheet that had every last detail outlined. It made my job incredibly easy. I cannot say enough wonderful words about Simone.

There were a few things from the start that I knew that I wanted for this event. First, I needed Jeremy Ganss, http://www.jeremyganss.com/. I was so excited when he offered to drive down and set up equipment for the weekend. He created a customized event CD for Mocha Rose and I have been listening to it nonstop since he gave it to me. It was an honor that Jeremy and his fiance, Heather were able to be at my event especially since he was having a big birthday bash the following day. Happy 30th Birthday, Jeremy!

I also knew that I had to have cupcakes from Dozen: http://www.dozencupcakes.com/ (I have a weakness for the Diva Delicious Red Velvet Cake) and cheeses from La Cucina Dolce: http://www.lacucinadolce.com/

There were two other vendors that I met while planning this event. When I meet certain people in this line of work, I can tell instantly that they are simply the best in the area at what they do. The first was Erica from All Occasions Party Rental, http://www.allparty.com/. She just has "it". I told her about the event and within 10 minutes, she had picked out the perfect stemware, china, flatware, tables and chairs for this event. The flatware was probably the most talked about detail for this event! I adored the "ice" Chiavari chairs and loved how they seemed to glow with the lighting.

Erica introduced me to Andy Shick from http://www.adslighting.com/ I let Andy come in and have free reign over the lighting. When you are holding an event, it is sometimes the best to just let the pros do their job and go crazy. (I know that I love it when people tell me that I have creative freedom.) The results were glamorous. I love this shot taken from outside. Now that's a "wow factor"!
I had so much planning for this event. I have never had 100% creative freedom with an event before. Since I recently painted one of the walls in the studio fuchsia, I decided to go over the top and used a palette of fuchsia, white, black and purple. I worked with my best suppliers and had flowers shipped in from Holland and Ecuador. I literally clapped out loud when I opened my first box of flowers for this event. I got black calla lilies, cymbidium orchids, gloriosa lilies, fiddle head ferns (monkey tails), dahlias, grape hyacinth, amaryllis and of course my all time favorite- peonies.

This was the tall centerpiece that I used for the main table mock up.

This was the entry/ window display:

I did a whole wall of hanging vases with unique flowers and candles. This looked so neat at night!

A tall cylinder submerged flower arrangement of cymbidium orchids and fiddle head ferns:

A whole wall of submerged centerpieces:

Our fuchsia wall:

Our window etching (the overhead lights were on in this picture so you can catch the lighting).

Simone from www.5sensesevents.com put together this mosaic from the photos that she took. Her pictures were taken at night and really show the lighting.