Wednesday, March 31, 2010

NEW Inventory!




Hummingbird House Open House!

Come join us at the Hummingbird House Open House on April 11th from 2-4PM! There will be lots of great vendors including Premiere Party Central, Whole Foods, Lucky 13, The Gala Gal, and many more! Can't wait to see you all there!!!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Memory Lane Events Center

Here are some more pictures from the Memory Lane Open House, courtesy of Rojo Pictures: www.RojoPictures.com



Friday, March 12, 2010

PPC North's Centerpiece from CulinArt last night!




Thanks Cindy Lo! www.redvelvetevents.com

The Life Expectancy of Hot Trends

By: Diane Lyerly
Guest Blog #3

In the event industry, as in society in general, hot trends pop up seemingly overnight and take the industry by storm. The reasons for hot trends are myriad: political, environmental, current events or any one of many other reasons. These trends become all the rage. Everyone wants to incorporate them in their events. These hot trends morph in one of two ways: either they die a spectacularly fast death or they go from being a trend to being a staple in business.

One example of the latter, is the green movement. Two years ago, every event was trying to be green (think environmentally clean, not the color). Every industry wide meeting was about being green. By last year, the individual event holders had jumped on the band wagon and they wanted their events to be green. This translated in many ways. In the rental industry it was a boon for the tabletop products because people wanted dishes that would be used again. (think recycle!) In linens, brides began requesting neutral colors such as soft brown, ivory & sage green. They wanted linens with texture similar to burlap. Never mind that none of these linens is “green”. This was just how the brides interpreted the green movement. Now “green” is not really a trend. It has worked its way into being a basic, or staple way of doing business. The event holders now expect that every “green” way of creating the event is being utilized by their planner, caterer, rental company, etc.

Some other examples of hot trends that became basics after the furor for them died down are turquoise jewelry in the mid-first decade of the 21st century, mini skirts in the late 1960’s and exercise & personal training after Dr Kenneth Cooper’s books finally fell off of the bestseller lists. All of these formerly hot trends are now regular part of the fabric of our society.

Examples of trends that skyrocket to success and then disappear just as fast as they appeared are Pet Rocks, fat-free diets, & The Religious Right.

A very hot trend right now is social networking. Event holders can find out so much information by logging onto sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. Social networking offers a plethora of free information to create any event. It also is a quick way to get personal reviews of businesses the event holder may be planning to hire.

Current hot trends in events are flaming desserts, s’mores bars, and the colors purple & silver. Colors themselves often follow fashion and are usually a year or two behind fashion. Looking at women’s fashions right now, it would be easy to predict that in the next year or so yellow, blue & green will all be popular colors for brides.

Event trends that are no longer trendy and need to be retired are Candy Bars & Bling. These have been done over and over and it is time to move on.

Memory Lane Event Center





Memory Lane Event Center (venue and planning)
Royal Fig Catering (catering, planning and design)
Premiere Party Central (rentals)
Wild Bunches (floral)
Stardust Pastry (dessert bar)
Winery on the Gruene (wines)
Dragonfly Designs (Invitations, menu cards, gift bags, and more!)
J Harpist
Austin Massage Studio

Monday, March 1, 2010

Rough Hollow Yacht Club







Photos by: Andrew Sterling, Sterling Images: http://www.sterlingimagesonline.com/

Venue: Rough Hollow Yacht Club: http://www.RoughHollowLakeway.com

San Marcos Bridal Show



This is the table that Diane Lyerly did for the Austin Wedding Day Bridal Show in San Marcos

Rental Experts-The Real Party Planners


By: Diane Lyerly, Guest Blog #2

In the ever expanding party & event industry, the need for rentals continues to grow. There is virtually no event that is not dependent on rentals to fulfill need, style & mood. The event rental consultant is usually the client’s first contact when deciding on the look of the event. And because of this, we are more than just a rental company, we are co-designers/planners of all of our clients’ events.

The simplest questions for event rental consultants are table size, linen size& chair style. Answering these basic rental questions is just the start of what we do for our clients. When we answer these questions and ask questions of our own to determine the needs for the event, we are becoming partners with each of our clients. We work with them for the best results for their event. We are the “go to” people for answers. We CAD layouts to make sure that what is needed will fit in the space allowed. In doing this we ask them to envision the event-what type of tables, chairs, linens do they want? What kind of mood or theme are they trying to create? Who is catering and what are the catering needs? When the client starts sharing this information with us, we can then suggest the right linens, dishes, stemware, flatware & other accessories that fit in with the style of the event. We are also educators because it is our responsibility to explain to each client how the product works, operational details, safety issues with products, installation issues and more.

We have two distinct clients: the individual event holder who has never done an event before, may likely never do one again and has no idea of all the things it takes to pull off the event. This type of client has to be guided through the entire event process by the rental consultant. It is that consultant’s responsibility to ask the right questions and make sure that all the client’s rental needs are met, even if the client is not aware of those needs. These clients typically take a lot of time. The second type is the industry professional such as an event planner, caterer, florist, or venue. They are more familiar with rental needs than the individual event holder, but they still aren’t experts at rental equipment and need our guidance.

Rental companies/consultants become partners with other event professionals by helping to make their jobs easier in the rental process, by creating computer aided design (CAD) layouts for them, by introducing them to new products, placing special orders for them & their clients and recommending other industry resources that they may not know about to make their event even more special.

It is this resource guide that helps to make us so important in planning events. As industry professionals, we attend many industry related conferences & conventions. We do so to further our knowledge of ever changing trends in this fast-paced industry and to increase our knowledge of the event industry in general. We also regularly attend meetings of industry related organizations such as ISES & NACE. We collect business cards & information on just about every aspect of the event industry and we pass this information on to both our individual clients and our professional-partner-clients. Individuals frequently ask for suggestions for caterers & florists. We try to steer them towards those businesses whose price & product fit their needs. Industry professionals also call us with challenging questions such as where to find 36” tall vases, a blow up pink gorilla, or natural linen that has the feel & look of burlap.

Because of all the things rental consultants have to know to be successful, we basically become party planners ourselves. Should we decide to branch away from rentals we already have much of the knowledge necessary to plan events and start our own businesses. But should we decide to make event rental a career path, we will become more & more knowledgeable and more & more important to our professional clients. We become the person every planner or caterer wants to talk to because we can do or find anything that they need. The planners realize that we can design the event for them. This not only helps us grow as professionals, but helps our company grow as more planners turn the majority of their events over to us.