Textile Love

Textiles are a life long obsession for all of us at AE. While we are pretty limited to what's available in the rental world, we sometimes add in a few accent pieces, whether they're throw rugs or pillows and just fun napkins that are a little different to spice things up. Here are some photos of a recent fabric hunt I went on in Hayes Valley. I'm especially obsessed with all the rugs!

Sneak Peak at the New Alison Events Website!

After sorting through hundreds of weddings, thousands of photos, handfuls of layouts, and spending months organizing it all, we're officially only a couple weeks away from launching our new and improved website! Check back in a few weeks to see the final version live, but until then, here's a sneak peak to give you a taste!

A Visit to Kathleen Deery Design

This week we were lucky enough to take a little hop over to the Kathleen Deery Design Studio for tea and a little floral demonstration with Kathleen and the lovely ladies she works with. Kathleen, having just returned from a trip abroad, shared with us how to make floral mandalas with all different types of flowers and colors. It was a pretty awesome zen moment for us and I have to say, we were pretty good at it! Anyway, thought you might enjoy a little photo montage of our day and her adorable studio in San Francisco. Enjoy!

xoxo.
a.b.

Alison Events East Welcomes New Marketing Manager

I'd like to introduce you all to our East Coast Marketing Manager, Jennifer Labinski, pictured above with Shira Savada of Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine.

Jenn joins the Alison Events team from Estee Lauder. She worked as the Creative Operations Manager for Clinique where she spent her days managing designers and marketing teams for Clinique’s global advertising print campaigns. Prior to that, Jenn spent over 3 years working in Production for Lucky Magazine at Conde Nast. She brings with her a strong background in Operations and Communication.

Photo by Carlos Andres Varela Photography, taken at the Wedding Library Event in NYC.

Friends of Alison Events

To celebrate the holidays this year, we invited a few of our friends over to Potrero Hill for a good old fashioned game of Sloshball. Yep, that's right. And by friends, we mean all the wonderful vendors we team up with for our Bay Area events throughout the year. The idea was that everyone would come dressed with at least one piece of flair, then we'd play a simple game of kickball with beer. Well, one game quickly turned into two and we learned entirely too much about the competitive nature of all our friends, but it was a blast. Hope the pics are good proof of how much fun we all have on and off the field.

 Oh, and there's a video too. It's probably the best part of this post, so don't forget to check it out. Slosh Ball Video by Tod Owsley

New Press: Anthology Magazine

We are SOOOOO excited about this new press! Alison was featured in an interview piece in one of our all time favorite magazine, Anthology. They cover tons of info about her favorite parties and gives some awesome tips on how to throw the best party. Check it out!

Also loving the article featuring our friend Sabrina from Hello!Lucky. Cute!

AE East

Well, it's official, we're bicoastal! Thought you all might enjoy some preview photos of our East Coast Launch party at Flea from last week, since you've heard so much leading up to it. Check out the space, the photos, etc. and let us know what you think. And hey, if you know anyone who is planning a wedding or even a small party in Connecticut, Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, Nantucket, Montauk, or any other coastal town on the eastside, let us know! More photos coming soon (and some with people too)...

How Did You Know Project

Our friend Amelia recently started this totally inspiring blog called the How Did You Know Project. The basic premise of the site is that people write in about pivotal moments in their lives in an attempt to unravel the way different people experience and handle "aha moments". It's pretty rad, especially when it comes to the moments in which people decide they want to get married. So, we thought you might enjoy reading some of the stories. They're not all related and Alison just posted one about her career too, so check it out.

Oh, and Happy Mardi Gras from my hometown!!


xo.
alyssa

AE Loves Fabric

We love mixing things up every now and then. Rather than reusing and pulling from the same linen rentals all the time, we occasionally have table runners, table drapes and/or pillows custom made to add a little extra touch of uniqueness to a wedding or small event. We often scour the racks at Britex and Discount Fabrics in SF to find a pattern or texture we love, then we send the fabric off to be sewn down to the right size for an overlay, runner or throw pillow.

This year, we're searching for extra special linens for a few of our destination weddings, including one in Italy and two in Mexico. The fabric options in the Bay Area are quite extensive, so finding the perfect linen for each location is no small feat, but we have a blast searching for something that complements the location and venue of the event.

Check out our most recent trip to Discount Fabrics and you'll get a sense of the types of patterns, colors and textures we really dig.

Our Pretty Pretty Office

Check out these adorable photos of our office space (and us acting like total nerds) shot by the lovely Edyta Szyszlo. We likey like. So warm and colorful and inviting. For those of you who haven't been to our Potrero Hill Studio, we hope this gives you a better sense of our space. Enjoy!

AE Holiday Wrap Up

The adventures never end here at AE. After an amazingly successful 2010, we decided to shut down our headquarters for two weeks in celebration of Christmas and the welcoming of 2011. So, we each took off on different trips around the country.

To clarify for those of you who don't know us very well, AE Planning + Design is comprised of four very different, creative and lovely women (and so humble too). Alison is the big picture maker, Kelsey is the creative head, Alyssa is the details editor and Lindsay is the all around ninja. We all assume many different roles on a daily basis, but what makes us work as such a great team is the fact that we each play off each others' strengths, so all of our projects end up being a very collaborative effort. We work really hard, but we also take our free time very seriously and the holidays were no exception, as we covered a total of 13,825 miles of American soil between the four of us.

Alison spent week one in Aspen, skiing with her friends and soaking up the fresh snow and mountain sunshine. Then, she flew off to Connecticut to be with her family and bake cookies with her adorable niece Phoebe. A couple of snow storms later, she was able to get back to SF for New Year's Eve with friends.




Kelsey and her husband Mike went on a road trip to Portland for Christmas before heading up to Seattle to ring in the New Year. They spent a lot of time relaxing with friends and got to meet their friend's sweet little infant baby for the first time.




Alyssa spent the full two weeks in New Orleans, eating too much, dancing to too much loud music, and riding her yellow cruiser bike every second she could get. She also got to spend some time with her family and her adorable little toddler cousin Maxwell, with whom she is quite obsessed.




Lindsay spent her holidays in Arizona with family, bouncing from town to town, totaling out at sleeping in five different towns in the short week she was there. She also made it a point to not only support, but encourage her younger sister's obsession with Harry Potter.




All in all, we really enjoyed the time off and made it back to SF feeling refreshed, inspired and ready to tackle 2011. Yahoooo! A new year, a new astrological sign, a new east coast office... may the list forever go on.