During my second year at Columbia Business School, I served on the Graduate Business Association’s Events Committee where I oversaw the annual Spring Fling gala and marketing for our weekly happy hours.  For Spring Fling 2009, we wanted a fun, black tie worthy theme… and settled on a “The Oscars” for a night of red carpet glitz and glamour! We received rave reviews after the event and sold over 1,000 tickets — a new record!

I love taking an idea and searching for inspiration through photos, so here’s an inspiration board that I put together:

…Red carpet arrival, golden Oscar statuettes, paparazzi, and velvet rope staunches…

We first set the tone by played up the theme and promoting the event with personalized posters of some of our favorite campus “stars”:

The event itself was a 5-hour black tie optional affair, featuring a cocktail hour, dinner buffet, and premium open bar. Here are some shots from the event night:

Soaring 70-foot ceilings at Cipriani Wall Street… aptly chosen to host Columbia Business School since it was formerly home of the New York Merchants Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange, the United States Customs House, and the headquarters of the National City Bank.  Custom lighting was used to highlight the ceilings and monolithic columns — so stunning in person!

Centerpieces featured a tall cylindrical vase filled with black river rocks and red James Storei orchids, surrounded by votive candles and a mix of red and dramatic “black magic” rose petals:

The step & repeat wall was the hit of the night!  Everyone loved posing for pics for our “paparazzi” (aka photographers):

(I couldn’t resist taking a pic with some of my favorite ladies!)

To set the tone for the event, we wanted to have a top notch DJ, so we hired DJ REACH, resident DJ at Pink Elephant, PM, TAO, and Marquee… he did an incredible job at keeping everyone on the dance floor all night –  thanks again, REACH!

Spring Fling was one of my favorite memories from school, and I was absolutely thrilled with the feedback that we received from the event.

Vendor Roundup:

• Venue and Catering by Cipriani Wall Street
• Music by the amazingly fun and talented DJ REACH
• Florals by Jack at Plant Shed
• Lighting and sound by Star Group Productions
• Step and repeat wall by Red Carpet Runway
• Tickets by Ticket Printing
• Private after party at Perle NYC

Great way to kick off the week…  I just received a CD of images from my last wedding, so I’ll be sure to post them up soon, so stay tuned!