Jan 27

Jan 27 An EXCLUSIVE Q&A with the Wedding Pros from Preston Bailey's PB Live

Hey party people!

Happy Monday night. I’m back with another awesome Q&A with some wedding pros who will be at this year’s PB Live at The Legacy Castle. What is PB Live you ask? It’s a three-day event focused on education for wedding pros, helping them plan and design special events and weddings under the guidance of world-renowned event designer, artist, set designer, author, and instructor Preston Bailey and a host of top industry professionals. Each day is a opportunity to attend speaker sessions and hands-on workshops. At the end of the three days, participants receive certificates of completion and attend a closing party. Sounds like a great time right? Check out the video for a sneak peek of last year’s event courtesy of Eleazar Film.

A big thank you to LLG Agency for allowing me to cover this event for two days! Make sure to follow along on the LuxeBrideGuide Instagram for live content. Now on to some of my favorite answers from the interviews. I’ll be sharing anything not included here on my stories and in Instagram captions, so stay tuned if you want to learn more. I’ll include the IG handles of all of the speakers at the end of this post so you can follow them as well and get some major inspo for your next event or wedding.

What is your favorite wedding design you’ve ever worked on?

One of my favorite wedding designs is the wedding of Serena Williams to Alexis Ohanian. I loved that both of them wanted to create surprises for the other- like the real carousel that Alexis had us installed and conceal, to surprise Serena at the after party. She happens to love carousels.

-Preston Bailey, Preston Bailey

Ha! Our cakes (and our clients) are like children - I couldn’t possibly name one as a favorite over the
others! I like to say that it’s always the next project that I’m working on that is my cherished one. Like a
Broadway opening night, or a seasonal fashion runway, I always get butterﬂies in my stomach before each
wedding or event.

-Ron Ben-Israel, Ron Ben-Israel Cakes

Top of the list would be a wedding in Austria. Intimate and relatively small, but the events leading up to that day were one-of-a-kind. For the bachelor party, we ﬂew to Scotland with the groom and his best men. Castle, Highland games, bagpipers, clansmen, kilts. Add to that the apparition of the Loch Ness monster! Yes, made especially just for them. Then for the bachelorette party, we spent a week in Spain. The program included a party in a private ship with international artists on-board. Then on the wedding day, the bagpipers were ﬂown from Scotland to perform Despacito! A version that is an unbelievable combination of the northern and southern Europe!

-John & Marijo Eleazar, Eleazar Film

My favorite wedding to work on was this past September at Pelican Hill. It opened a lot of doors for me, got my work in front of a lot of prominent people, and my clients were really grateful for how much work went into their entire event. The boundaries were pushed creatively - in terms of event execution we were thrown tons of curveballs, but the entire team really pulled through. I learned the importance of your team and the vendors you bring to represent you.

-Lauren Grech, LLG Events & LLG Agency

One of my favorite events was the New York Ranger Hockey House in 2014. As a huge Ranger fan, this was such a fun project for me. As the Rangers battled to the Stanley Cup Finals, the organization rented a space next to iconic Madison Square Garden. This space was converted to the Hockey House. We created a 180-degree projection-mapped wall with a ton of interactive installations, lighting, sound, and print design.

-Dennis Jaigobin, Visual Comet

Of course, I have to start with saying that it was Preston and Theo’s wedding! A midnight wedding, on Valentine’s Day, in the Empire State Building, with all the stars of the industry in attendance? I mean c’mon, need we say more? But if we’re not allowed to count Preston’s wedding, than it would be tough to narrow it down to just one. Even just recently in Lake Como we played a glamorous wedding overlooking the lake in a Glass Marquis. But one of most “fun” weddings we ever played might have been for ﬁtness guru Shawn T. His celebration was unlike any other wedding we’ve ever done, with a theatrical production that rivaled any Broadway show.

-Darren Olarsch, On The Move Entertainment

What is the one thing you want outsiders to know about the world of celebrity weddings?

That regardless of all the press, they still want a super romantic day.

-Preston Bailey, Preston Bailey

Here I very much follow the “Preston Bailey rules” - celebrities are people, and even though there are
matters of conﬁdentiality and security, they need to be treated fairly and honestly. I don’t like to take
advantage of their notoriety and/or success, and expect them to treat me as a respected professional.
I don’t like to “gift” or “discount” those in the public eye, unless the cause is charitable.

-Ron Ben-Israel, Ron Ben-Israel Cakes

We’ve been privileged to be entrusted by Europe’s elite families to ﬁlm their milestones. These are all private and intimate events. And what we’ve learned from all these is that beyond the breathtaking locations, magniﬁcent design, indescribable entertainment and just all the shiny stuff, what they really want at the end of the day is to spend time with the people important to them. This is to note that these people have it all and can buy whatever they want, whenever they want. It’s impressive and actually inspiring to see that the bottom line for them is really just to have a great time with families and friends.

-John & Marijo Eleazar, Eleazar Film

It's incredibly difficult. The stakes are higher, the investment is greater and the nerves are uncontrollable. It's not about what you did right, it's about what you did wrong and there is no detail that goes unnoticed. These
attendees have all been to lavish events, over-the-top experiences that are catered to them. When handling an event of their own, the discerning eyes are all over the place, including the paparazzi.

-Lauren Grech, LLG Events & LLG Agency

Celebrities are just as excited as every couple! They love to create a one-of-a-kind experience for their guests! Be ready to brainstorm. They are realistic and will also work with budgets!

-Maha Abuagel, Divine Designs & Events

The expectations are incredibly high. Far higher than most other weddings. We have a tremendous amount of pressure to get everything right 100% of the time. It is very stressful - especially when media is involved. There is simply no room for errors at any of our weddings, but especially a celebrity wedding.

-Sonal J. Shah, Sonal J. Shah Event Consultants

What is the one thing you are looking forward to educating the industry on?

The importance of pricing properly. It took me over 10 years when I ﬁrst started to show a proﬁt. With this rapidly growing world of events, and hopefully with some training, they’ll not make the same mistake.

-Preston Bailey, Preston Bailey

I am a strong believer in options and variety, so I never assume any monopoly on my niche in the industry.
I like to say that, “There is the right baker for the right celebration.” But I’m committed to educating the industry on what it takes to design, produce, and deliver a cake of substance to events.It’s always harder than what people think!

-Ron Ben-Israel, Ron Ben-Israel Cakes

Authenticity and showing emotions are the greatest differentiators. We all have seen hundreds or probably thousands of event videos, but which ones stick to us? Those that were able to connect to us. And how was it possible? We felt transported into the story and felt the emotions and saw the authenticity in people in those videos. Our purpose is to inspire people to dream, to commit and to love through storytelling. It is a great opportunity to speak in front of hundreds of industry professionals so we are really grateful to Preston and Alejandra for giving us their platform to share and educate the industry.

-John & Marijo Eleazar, Eleazar Film

Creating a network that extends beyond your client list. This industry is full of amazing professionals that need away to connect and to communicate with one another under a common interest. I'm excited to show the
industry how I would use a platform to connect with other planners and exchange information. Knowledge is power, but connectivity is expansion.

-Lauren Grech, LLG Events & LLG Agency

The importance of communicating your ideas effectively. So many great ideas die on the vine from lack of
effective storytelling, and there are countless ways for us to tell these stories. If we’re each willing to explore
different ways of expressing and evaluating those ideas, we can ﬁnd a medium and process through which we can do our best work.

-Matthew Myrhum, Matthew Myrhum Event Visualization

That drape and fabric is extremely versatile and if designed correctly, can create an environment that in my opinion sets the tone and feel for the overall experience.

-Tommy Murphy, Swag Decor

I am rooted in the world of theatre and television production and therefore the mantra of “the show must go on” has been deeply ingrained in me from an early age. It's a non-negotiable when being tasked with the responsibility of one of the most important days in a family's life. I look forward to discussing what that means and how that applies to professionals in the event world, sharing some of my personal stories, and having honest dialogue surrounding support, self-care, stafﬁng and best business practices that ensure your clients have an incredible experience each and every time they work with you and your company.

-Ali Barone, Ali Barone Events

I’m known for being candid and I’d like to convey that authenticity actually works.

-Marcy Blum, Marcy Blum Associates

I hope you guys enjoyed getting some insights into the world of celebrity and luxury events!

You can follow all of the PB LIVE speakers here:

Preston Bailey, Preston Bailey

Jennifer Zabinski, JZ Events

Bryan Rafanelli, Rafanelli Events

Ron Ben-Israel, Ron Ben-Israel Cakes

John & Marijo Eleazar, Eleazar Film

Lauren Grech, LLG Events & LLG Agency

Matthew Myrhum, Matthew Myrhum Event Visualization