Elena Damy - A Black and Gold Gala at Nizuc Resort

A Black and Gold Gala at Nizuc Resort

Posted on June 30th, 2015 by Melissa Paul

PERHAPS ONE OF THE MOST INCREDIBLE experiences we have ever had in the international wedding industry, we were beyond thrilled to design the BIG gala event at the recent Engage! Luxury Wedding Business Summit at Nizuc Resort in Cancun. And then, to see our friends at Style Me Pretty had featured the event just added the cherry to the sundae! We were so honored to participate in such a prestigious celebration of “all things luxury” and it was another spectacular conference filled with inspiration and fellowship! You can see the Gala here in the following images from the talented photographers who covered the event, including John Cain, Love Life Images, Tammy Swales, Carla Ten Eyke, Dave Noonan for C10 Studios, Dorian Patrick for C10 Studios, and Joel Callaway for C10 Studios. OR, you can just pop over to the story as originally shown on Style Me Pretty. Enjoy!

Photo courtesy of Dorian Patrick

AS WE SHARED IN OUR OWN WORDS IN THE STYLE ME PRETTY FEATURE:

After attending several engage! Luxury Wedding Business Summits, we couldn’t wait for the right opportunity to introduce our industry colleagues to our beloved Mexico! When we discovered the uber-stylish, incredibly posh Nizuc Resort in Cancun, we knew we had to share it with Rebecca and Kathryn. They, too, fell in love with the breathtaking resort and asked us to design the Gala for the conference! We were honored, to say the least, and we couldn’t wait to get started designing an event that would share the warm sophisticated spirit of Mexico!

View More: http://engage.pass.us/engage15nizuc

Photo courtesy of Vanessa Kreckel

Once you get a glimpse of Nizuc’s minimalist architecture, globally-inspired interior design, and locally-influenced landscape, you can’t NOT be inspired! Thoughtful. Purposeful. Dramatic. Yet, somehow, understated and unobtrusive. It was easy to draw our own inspiration for the gala from all the earthy scenic elegance of Nizuc. We set out to use the same palette of metallics, stone and wood to create the final engage! party. Specifically, weathered gold and vintage platinum, mixed with glossy onyx black and distressed wood. Blended with geometric lines in the square and rectangular dinner tables, to the low lush white floral arrangements that kept the site lines clean and the energy “engaging” across the table, the whole design concept echoed the modern warmth of Mexico.

We brought in hand-made or locally-sourced Mexican décor elements such as mirrored containers and votive holders custom made for this occasion by artists from Jalisco, the land of tequila, mariachi and craftsmanship, complemented with oversized succulents and different types of indigenous foliage from Southeast Mexico, and a set of 103 hanging hearts made with wooden branches by artists from the Bajío region of Mexico.

The square oversized tables (each one seating 16 people) had black linens and black ghost chairs, while the rectangular tables had ivory linens (each one seating 36 people) and distressed vineyard cross-back chairs on the sides and glossy ghost chairs on the head of the tables. A wooden round dance floor was the perfect element to use as the center of the ballroom and, above it, we created an oversized, free form “chandelier” with giant natural hearts and local foliage. Smaller versions of the chandeliers were hung above some of the dinner tables.

Nizuc’s ballroom has impressive views to the mangrove swamp (which we decided to enhance with spots of light outside the ballroom), beautiful floor to ceiling wooden shutters, and a couple of elegant white stone walls, so we avoided adding draping or trusses that would ruin the already cool space and obscure the gorgeous view. Soft ambient light from our low, weathered metallic votives and hurricanes complemented the subtle settings.