Behind The Design: “50 Years Greater”
For this entry into our “Behind the Design” series, we’re taking a look at last summer’s “50 Years Greater” anniversary celebration — J&N originally tied the knot in 1974 and wanted an at-home blowout to commemorate 50 years of love and laughter with friends and family.
Design-wise, at-home events are kind of the best of both worlds: they provide a relatively blank slate while also feeling immensely personable. This allows the imagination to run wild, and while you must work within the technical limitations of the space (as well as stay mindful of things like local fire codes and noise ordinances), you aren’t bound by any sense of how things are “typically done” and get to create from the ground up: to us, that’s incredibly exciting.
Throwing it Back to 1974
There was one place to start with this event inspiration: what did their lives look like in 1974? Music is a huge part of their home life, so I began with photographs of their favorite musicians, concert posters, and streetscapes of downtown Chicago in the ’70s. An incredibly vibrant and funky palette of lavender, orange, and marigold emerged, which we curated to share with our design and production partners.
Tents, Layouts & Special Touches
J&N’s home presented a unqiue layout for the event: the back and side yards were quite sloped in several places, and they had recently invested in landscaping and retaining walls that added several different “levels” to the space. Additionally, they wanted the event to be abundant in food and drink, but ultimately free-flowing: so instead of a formal dinner space, we scattered seating around the entire backyard, and coalesced formalities into a “dancing tent” on the level parking pad, surrouded by lounge furntiure and glowing with string lights, where the celebration lasted into the wee hours of the morning.
As a focal point in the tent, we took inspiration from the home itself: there’s one long hallway covered virtually floor to ceiling in family photos. This was taken as inspiration for the tent, where boxwood walls and floral accents formed a “J&N through the years” wall for guests to enjoy captures of them together through many stages of their relationship.
Custom Details Everywhere
Whenever possible, I work to customize a design plan to a space, rather than try to impose any kind of artificial structure that doesn’t feel harmonious with its surroundings. Thankfully for this event, our partners at Eventful Rental, BBJ La Tavola and Rebecca’s Garden were excellent creative collaborators: we created a custom “valence” on top of a standard 20×10 high peak frame tent to create a fringed bohemian flair, echoed in custom pillows and table cuffs that created a consistency with the event. Floral decorated the existing retaining wall and positively exploded off the tent ballasts, turning functional stone into verifiable works of art. Finally, Lauren at Pratto Paper Shop worked her magic with a psychedellic-inspired stationery suite (and custom crossword puzzle!) that felt totally at home in the space.
A Night to Remember
Maddie Blecha came down from Chicago to capture the details: for a fuller look, here’s our full event portfolio rundown. Looking to plan an at-home event that feels meaningfully personal? Get in touch, and we’d love to hear more about your vision!
