Inspiration to Illumination: Lighting Installations
Inspiration to Illumination: Bruce Munro’s dramatic installation art
When designing a statement piece for a dramatic entrance to a special event nothing is more spectacular than wonderful lighting installations. Today, again, I am awe inspired by Bruce Munro’s work of lighting and environment installations. He not only works with interiors creating interesting focal points and scultpures with his creations, but is a daring fine artist in the world of installation art.
Exploring scale and repetition (such as the Tara Donavon exhibit seen here) through lighting and light reflective elements such as cd’s and bottles of water (a must see!), Bruce creates wonderlands of illumination and shine that transport you into another world.
In the event design world, such installations such as these may seem like an impossible fete to accomplish for a single events, but don’t let that stop you from dreaming big!
Illumination to Celebration: Bruce Monro’s Water Towers at Salisbury Cathedral
Lighting design is stepping out from the shadows and transforming from the accessory to the main attraction
There is no denying that beautiful lighting at an event is like icing on a cake. Lighting breathes life into an environment and can transform a mood like no other. From a calming blue to a warm amber to an invigorating pink, soft auras of lighting are like the mood rings of the night.
I was recently left speechless when I stumbled upon a lighting installation designed by Bruce Monro at the Salisbury Cathedral in the UK. Inventive, creative and resourceful, Bruce created towers of 16,000 water bottles laced with fiber optic cables that change colors as they react to the classical music being played. Stacks of ordinary water bottles up close, stained glass windows from afar. Lighting of these Gothic vaulted arches and cloisters of this 750 year old cathedral has breathed new life into this ancient relic.
Bruce’s work is such an intriguing inspiration to me… To make the light the actual art instead just an ambient compliment.
Photos courtesy of the Huffington Post
Illumination to Celebration: Bruce Monro’s Water Towers at Salisbury Cathedral
Lighting design is stepping out from the shadows and transforming from the accessory to the main attraction
There is no denying that beautiful lighting at an event is like icing on a cake. Lighting breathes life into an environment and can transform a mood like no other. From a calming blue to a warm amber to an invigorating pink, soft auras of lighting are like the mood rings of the night.
I was recently left speechless when I stumbled upon a lighting installation designed by Bruce Monro at the Salisbury Cathedral in the UK. Inventive, creative and resourceful, Bruce created towers of 16,000 water bottles laced with fiber optic cables that change colors as they react to the classical music being played. Stacks of ordinary water bottles up close, stained glass windows from afar. Lighting of these Gothic vaulted arches and cloisters of this 750 year old cathedral has breathed new life into this ancient relic.
Bruce’s work is such an intriguing inspiration to me… To make the light the actual art instead just an ambient compliment.
Photos courtesy of the Huffington Post
Aspiration to Realization: Goals for 2011
Alchemy Fine Events & Invitations’ Goals for 2011 that I would like to share with you…
It’s barely 2011 and the exciting possibility of starting off with a clean slate of goals lie ahead of us. All of the opportunities that we can imagine for this year are still a possibility and with this post and a positive attitude they can become a probability. The year can be full of wonderful dreams and aspirations that we create for it and make for a wonderfully successful and stylish 2011 where we can not only grow but forge wonderful relationships with other creative people in the event design industry and reach out to brides and clients to make their wedding dreams come true.
It seems as if just imagining these wonderful goals sets them into action and have already had a wonderful start to 2011. With even more goals to conquer then ever, I wanted to share them all with you.
To work with other planners to design and style their clients weddings and special events.
With a background in interior design and art direction our love of design is what drives us in this industry. We of course love to plan as well and bring all of the components such as catering and music and coordination together but our heart is driven by style. We love to focus on the small details, one-of-a-kind ideas, custom made linens, hand ombre dyed napkins, embellished and intricate styled dessert bars. We can oversee and direct all of the creative design aspects including floral, lighting, linens, and detailed site plans or even just take over specific areas such as tablescapes, lounges and dessert bars. Being able to work with other planners as their go-to designer not only allows us to focus solely on the design that we love but also allows the planner to focus on all of the other intricate details involved in planning while knowing that their clients event design will be
To work with other planners to design their clients invitations and wedding stationery & to design even more gorgeous custom luxury wedding invitations.
We believe that great event design starts with the invitation and should be just as beautiful and luxurious as the linens and the flowers that you put on your table. Great invitations and stationery is like another design accessory in your overall creation. We love to collaborate with other great planners to create custom wedding stationery suites for their clients events. We don’t just look at invitations as a single element but as part of a whole. Being able to work with other planners and learn about how we can incorporate their clients inspirations into the stationery including invitations, welcome booklets, dessert tags is a wonderful way to add our design value into another planners work.
As an event designer in addition to stationery designer we know how the creative process works and know how to bring in unique paper elements that add to the overall decor of an event. Custom illustrations, unique embellishments such as chain and stone and new techniques such as laser cutting allow us to create one-of-a-kind custom invitations and stationery that serve as fashionable accessories to your clients special day.
To plan and design weddings and celebrations in Italy and throughout Europe.
While living in Florence for my masters in graphic design I also worked with a boutique luxury travel company as a personal concierge. I would coordinate castle rentals, villa rentals, wine tours, truffle hunts and gallery visits for weddings and holidays for clients throughout Europe. With so many wonderful connections in Tuscany and throughout Italy and Europe, planning events there would be the perfect transition into being known as a luxury destination wedding planner. My Italian is starting to get a bit rusty so would love the excuse to ‘parla Italiano’. Whether it be an intimate wedding in your own private villa in Tuscany, a 4 day trip to Monaco with your closest friends gambling along side you in Monte Carlo, a private perfume tour of Fragonard in Eze or taking a cruise on a yacht for your 1 day anniversary party around the Mediterranean, we can make it all happen while still having the high level of design that you can expect with Alchemy Fine Events.
To plan and design weddings and celebrations in San Diego.
As ironic as it may sound, we haven’t had the opportunity to do many events in our own back yard! We love to travel and because of our blog and other blogs that have been kind enough to post our work, the majority of our events have been out of county and out of state. From Santa Barbara to San Francisco, New Orleans, Hawaii, Miami, New York and New Jersey, we have worked with many wonderful clients, but it would also be so amazing to do more events in the city that we’re so proud to be from! San Diego was voted the #1 Destination Wedding location last year and who better to show you all that our wonderful city has to offer then a born and bred local.
To collaborate with talented Chefs and to grow my passion for food into a large part of the events that I design.
For as long as I can remember I have been one of food’s biggest fans. With and Italian/Spanish/Mexican/Dutch family food always played a huge part in our lives and this passion has only grown larger and larger every year. Even in high school I toyed with the idea of culinary school but art school won. What some people don’t appreciate is that food is such an art form that shouldn’t have to be sacrificed for budget or design. I have such a high respect for chefs and love to collaborate with them to create unique recipes, menus and desserts for my clients events. When I see brides that have amazing decor, stunning flowers and extraordinary invitations only to server their guests dry chicken with rice pilaf I’m shocked at how this huge element of celebrating is overlooked. I believe that the food should be the star on the table and that it doesn’t have to be boring when catering a large group of people. In 2011 my goal is not only to bring more daring and gourmet cuisine into my events but hopefully work work with clients that appreciate the art of dining as I do.
To get my work published in top design magazines and to work with publications themselves to show their readers new possibilities in combining event design, fashion, food and the luxury lifestyle.
Working with top magazines, blogs and other publications is such an exciting and great way to show readers what we’re made of and what we can really do. We’re already off to a great start with such wonderful publications as Style Me Pretty, Style Unveiled, Utterly Engaged, Hostess Blog and San Diego’s Riviera Magazine! Creating styled and designed shoots is such a great way to ‘show off’ a bit and test the limits in design while also inspiring brides for their own big days. What I would love to do is not only contribute design ideas but fashion, food, traveling and music which also play such an important role in weddings and celebrations in addition to an overall stylish luxury lifestyle.
Oh, and to add a lot more Missoni to my closet wouldn’t hurt.
