To creative director and CEO Matthew David Hopkins, head of New York-based Matthew David Celebrations, the driving force behind event design for 2015 is choice. “Guests want to choose and mold their own event experience,” he says. “If you can offer a choice of activities, seating, food and beverage, music, environment, vibe—everything--your guests will talk, tweet and post about the event. Today, guests expect more interaction at events, and respond to something new and different.”
To that end, Hopkins, has had great success with—and predicts a rise in—micro pop-ups, where the food, decor or activity comes to the guests rather than the other way around. “The goal is to keep the energy going,” he says “Instead of guests moving to the dessert station, the bar or the game area, the station pops up right where they are. We’ve done food trikes and have rolled decorated metro carts into the party to make this happen.”
Another trend set to bloom in 2015 is the use of paper flowers, in both floral walls and centerpieces. “A growing trend in floral design is actually not using flowers at all,” Hopkins says. “It’s all about paper, paper and more paper! Paper makers are hot right now, and elevating paper art into beautiful paper installations is so on trend.”
As for color palettes, Hopkins favors dark neutrals with pops of color. “I’m using dark base colors such as slate gray, olive green and midnight blue,” he says. “They’re great when accented with touch of vibrant color, like fuchsia and tangerine.” Tabletops, he asserts, should be personal with a lot of mix and match. “I call it ‘perfect imperfect entertaining,’ and it’s all the rage. No one wants to see a boring china pattern used as a complete set. We find interesting pieces that make a statement on their own, and then partner them with other pieces that elevate each other" ....
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