Last week was a bit of a light posting week because I was pretty much consumed with last minute details for the Swiffer SocialLuxe Lounge – the “pampering party” kick-off for BlogHer ’09 that I co-hosted with 5 other bloggers in Chicago last Thursday…which ended up attracting over 500 guests!

My main responsibility for the event was the party decor & room set-up. The set up became just a tad stressful when we decided to move to a larger room – with a completely different layout of course – the day before the party :0 We had to rent lounge furniture and a zillion power strips & extension cords to accommodate all the vendor & beauty station needs, but in the end the new space worked out great – blessing in disguise!

For the floral centerpieces, I wanted to do something with a “spa” feel that was impactful, yet simple to put together, since I had to do all of the arranging at the venue itself. (Here’s the inspiration board that I worked from, as seen in an earlier post.) There were 2 different styles of arrangements, and 2-3 color variations within each style.

ProFlowers shipped in tons of gorgeous mokara & dendrobium orchids, white hydrangea stems, and ti leaves. I purchased the sandblasted manzanita branches, curly willow, tall pilsner vases, ceramic vases, and dahlias at a local Chicago floral supply. (I’ll do a step by step breakdown of both of the centerpieces in another post – they’re honestly super easy!) Crystal ornaments and rhinestone word stickers (purchased at Michaels) were used to embellish each arrangement and add a bit of glam.

Framed signs with phrases like “Hello, Gorgeous!”, “Say Cheers to Cocktail Hour”, and “Yes, I do deserve to be pampered… obviously!”, sat on tables throughout the party.

I used the same stock image of the girl in curlers on the custom Jones Soda bottles that we made for the event (pictured in the top image). I liked her goofy attitude. =)

More info to come soon… in the meantime you can see more pics on the SocialLuxe Lounge Photostream over on flickr, which were uploaded LIVE from the party courtesy of Eye-Fi! (Most of the decor shots are on the last pages, since they were mainly taken before the party started.)

*****

P.S. After the past few large-scale events that I’ve done this summer – I have even more respect than ever for wedding & event planners – so a quick shout-out to all of you!

It’s amazing how much problem solving has to be done on the fly when it comes to events… between the wind blowing our centerpieces over at Tisha’s shower last weekend to the last-minute room change, step & repeat banner/stands not arriving in time (Hello, Kinkos at midnight!), and several other “road blocks” with this one – I’m really getting some use out of the thinking cap at these parties. So MAJOR props to those of you that do this stuff all the time!