Great Lighting for your Events

Lighting can make or break your event experience. If the lights are too bright your event may seem stark and cold. If your lights are too dark guests may miss important elements of your event and design. Well placed lights can create ambience at your event. Great lighting will allow you to get more impact from other items such as floral arrangements and other decor. You can also use lighting to direct your guests attention to events going on within your event, or to grab their attention.

 

Here are  a few things to think about when planning what type of lighting to go with for your event:

• Imagine your beautiful floral centerpieces highlighted in pin beam spotlighting to enhance their color and beauty.
• Imagine your personalized monogram illuminating the dance floor or your head table backdrop throughout the evening creating a magical setting for your Wedding.
•  Imagine UpLighting transforming your Wedding into a beautiful and stunning environment, perfect for hosting your unforgettable event.
•   Imagine a beautiful pleated wedding fabric backdrop to focus attention on you and your bridal party all through the night.
•  Imagine your first dance on a beautiful white dance floor.

Uplighting is a great way to create an atmosphere at your event. This is most important for the more basic venue such as an empty ballroom, gallery, or conference center which can tend to be bland if you do not add in lighting and color. As most of these venues don’t offer much in character, you’ll need to build ambience with more lighting and decor. 

Gobo’s are a great way to add an element of design and depth to your event. Gobos can project any design or pattern including abstract shapes, patterns, pictures, and company logos. You can project gobos onto ceilings, floors, and walls; they are a great way to add visual interest. While gobos are great for transforming your event by giving it a dynamic atmosphere and feel, they can be used to promote your brand. 

A Light Show is a really fun way to grab your guests attention. Lighting shows are often used at corporate events before an awards ceremony or speeches to quite the crowd and build excitement for the main event. We also use them to create an amazing dance vibe at galas and high energy concerts. Light shows make a very memorable experience and keep the energy high at events!

Pin Lighting is an excellent way to direct attention to certain parts of your event. Using a spotlight creates a dramatic effect that can transform centerpieces, decor elements and table settings into incredible pieces of art. Not only do pin lights add drama to your event lighting, but they also provide separation that is often needed between dark table linens and centerpieces allowing the centerpieces to pop and stand out. Pin lighting will make your event design a more dynamic visual experience

Creative Valentine Dates

The most romantic day of teh Year is around the corner... are you ready for it?

Here are the 5 Creative Valentine Dates, pick one and make it your own.

1. Write a song or poem expressing your love, one that you can sing or recite to your favorite melody.

2. Recruit a friend or relative to dress up and serve you a meal and dessert specially prepared beforehand. (Someone who will serve in silence and then leave.) Don't forget the candles, music and flowers.

3. Give your love a dance sheet, with your name filled in for every dance. Then take your valentine to dinner at a restaurant with a band or DJ playing that night. Or make a CD of love songs and spend the evening dancing in your living room.

4. A Great Pick Up - You can make it creative by your choice of transportation. And you don't need a limousine to impress your date. Try picking your sweetheart up on horseback, with a moped or having a motorcycle with a sidecar. 


5. Take a shower or bath together, have warm towels in the dryer, a fire in the fireplace, and a perfect nest in front of the fireplace. Prepare in advance sliced apples, bananas, cantalope, peaches, and kiwi fruit. Have a CD of love songs playing in the background. Blindfold your partner, let your valentine's senses examine the tastes and textures. This will be a very memorable, romantic evening I can promise you.

Enjoy!

Jaime

Halloween Myths

And a special treat for all you youngsters at heart.

During my many years of travel, I was presented opportunities to visit sights off the beaten path. Did you know that just south of Mexico City, between the urban sprawl and the farming region known as Xochimilco lie an ancient lake and canals. A semi-popular tourist attraction, the only way to travel through the canals is by trajinera, like the gondolas of Venice. There is much to be seen on a trip through the canals: swamps, islands covered with exotic plants and trees, and wildlife. There is one place on the canals, however, that is not on the regular route of the trajinera. You can hire one to take you there for about $100.
There is a small, isolated island in the vast, complicated maze of the canals. As your boat approaches the island, across the deathly still water, you cannot help but feel a sense of dread. Twisted, old trees with gnarled branches line the shore, but there is something very sinister about them. As you move closer, you notice that there are faces…hundreds of faces among the branches, staring back at you with dead eyes. Closer, and you see that they are children’s faces, infants with missing limbs, blistered faces, covered in cobwebs, nailed or lashed to the trees with rusted wire. Welcome to La Isla de Las Munecas: The Island of the Dolls.

Some of the dolls have decomposed over time. Damage from the sun has left many covered in blotches and blisters. The wind and rain have eroded any painted surfaces, and left their hair in ragged tufts. Many are missing limbs, or have been given limbs that are not their own. Some are headless. Some are only heads. Some have become the home to spiders and insects that inhabit the island. They are nailed to trees, wired to branches, hung from clothes lines, and jammed into knotholes and between branches. Some of them have smiles, melted by the tropical heat, into grimaces. Some have lost their eyes, or, even more disturbing, have eyes that flutter open in the breeze.

Some days there are visitors to the island, an average of about 20 per day. Some days there are none. All are greeted by one of the relatives of Don Julian, who act as caretakers of the island. There are some, however, who are convinced that the dolls themselves come to life at night to take care of their island home, since Don Julian passed away in 2001. Some even believe that Don Julian has joined the little drowned girl as a permanent resident of the island. Whatever they say, and whatever you believe, it’s hard not to agree with those who claim that La Isla de Las Munecas, The Island of the Dolls, is the Creepiest Place on the Planet.

Happy Halloween!

J

Halloween -tips and tricks

This is it. The spookiest time of year has arrived.  Many communities have Halloween activities planned. The hours for trick or treating for your community are usually posted on the town’s website, and if you haven’t looked yet, do it now! There are events scheduled for schools, local malls, parks and recreation centers. Usually, the hours for these events are early evening, to keep from interfering with school schedules. It’s time to make your plan for a safe and happy Halloween.

Here are some tips for the youngsters:

1. Choose age appropriate events for your trick or treaters. Make sure you know the times and locations ahead of time, to avoid disappointment, or a last minute rush that could compromise safety.

2. Plan your trick or treat route  ahead of time. This will give you a clear idea of where your children will be at all times, and an idea of when they will be finished.

3. Feed your trick or treaters a good supper before trick or treating starts. This will make them less likely to snack as they go, before you have a chance to inspect their treats.

4. Stick to places you know. All year we encourage our children to be cautious of people and places they don’t know, yet, on Halloween, we send them to the doors of strangers. Stick to areas where they will be visiting family and friends, both for their safety, and for your own peace of mind.

5. Only visit homes that have a porch light on and never go inside the home of someone you don’t know.
6. Wear something reflective and carry a flashlight.

7. Cross streets only at crosswalks. Never walk between parked cars. Stay on the sidewalk.

8. Stay in a group, and never run off alone, or fall behind on your own.

9. Turn in all candy at the end of the night for parental inspection.

Aand of the Dolls, is the Creepiest Place on the Planet.