Lunar New Year is by far my favourite holiday to celebrate throughout the year. It is all about celebrating with family, eating lots of good food and has so many beautiful symbolic elements. We were honoured to be the planning and design partner for the Shangri-La Hotel Toronto Lunar New Year party. We created a vibrant and sophisticated party for their clients and partners to enjoy, and we had a lot of fun doing it.
Photos: Indigo Events
I wanted to re-imagine the entrance for this party, since many of the guests come year after year. We created this special tunnel to the entrance to the party and lined it with lanterns. At the end of the lantern tunnel was a neon sign for the character “fortune”. We placed it upside down, because when the word fortune is upside in Chinese, it means fortune arrives. The tunnel was a coveted spot for photos all night!
Lunar New Year Party Design
Lunar New Year is always red and gold, so I wanted to create a more sophisticated colour palette that still paid homage to the traditional colours but with a modern twist. I designed a floor vinyl design with a sultry navy blue with gold peonies and a dragon as the main centrepiece we built around. Velvet champagne sofas and ottomans was accented with black marble and gold furniture.
We build a feature wrap around bar around the dragon motif on the floor, creating a beautiful focal point for the space.
Beautiful blue vases echoed the blue in the floor vinyl perfectly, with vibrant red floral.
Seating is always important! We made sure we had a mixture of bar stools and soft seating so guests had somewhere to sit all night long.
Bright yellow floral accented the coffee tables, contrasting against the black marble and blue floor vinyl, and complementing the yellow forsythia trees.
We put the stage to the side of the room and decorated it with the dragon seen in the lobby, yellow floral and beautiful candles.
Food and Drink
A party is always judged by the food and drink, so we knew we had to impress here! We wanted to create food carts that resembled street hawker stands, so we brought in specialty carts and designed peony decals specifically for them that matched the floor vinyl. It was both a feast for the eyes and tummy.
We were thrilled to have Chef De La Mesa join as an outside caterer, providing a delicious bao station. I especially loved the flora accent to the baos.
The team at Mix6ix really outdid themselves with a printed drink topper and their usual flair bartending.
Love Gelato provided an array of Asian-inspired flavours of gelato for dessert.
Blooming Cotton Candy created special dragon cotton candy characters, along with their usual assortment of cute characters. They were a huge hit with guests!
The Entrance
As guests got off the elevator to the 3rd floor, they were greeted with gold and yellow flowers. They knew they were at the Lunar New Year party! In this foyer space, we created an inviting lounge with express manicure stations, a zodiac fortune wall and a photobooth.
Guests enjoyed traditional and soothing sounds of a guzheng upon entering.
Our zodiac fortune wall made an appearance at the party, giving guests a chance to find their fortune for the Year Of the Dragon.
Guests could snap a photo at the photobooth and get a print out as a keepsake for the party.
Guests enjoyed a mini manicure and hand massage from the fine folks at The Nail and Champagne Bar.
Our gift shelf was adorned by antipasto jars from Cured Catering, a sweet take home gift for guests. There were also nail files and gift certificates from The Nail and Champagne Bar.
The antipasto jars included mushrooms, different flavours of olives, hot peppers and bomba. It was such a treat to take some of these home to try.
The Experience
It’s always so hard to capture the liveliness of a party in motion. Guests enjoy the food, they interact with your decor and they take it all in. One thing is for sure, the energy at the party was unmatched! Guests had a blast.
Guests walked through the beautiful lantern tunnel upon entrance to get to the ballroom, where an array of creative decor and entertainment awaited them.
After guests walked through the lantern tunnel, they were greeted by aerial champagne pourers who poured some welcome bubbly for guests. It was an amazing theatrical surprise!
As much fun as it is to design and put creative elements together, I especially love seeing guests interacting with our designs. That’s the wonderful part of live events.
Guests got a surprise performance by Canadian singer, Tyler Shaw. It was an incredible surprise for guests. There were a lot of fans in the audience!
Dessert is served!
We got an entertaining performance by Wushu Project with a 40ft long dragon and two golden lions. This is always my favourite part of a lunar new year celebration!
I joined the GM on stage and presented the raffle prizes for guests. The most exciting part of the evening!
The Shangri-La Hotel Toronto Lunar New Year Party was such a fun event to design. I have a blast putting this one together and seeing it come to fruition. Until next year!