Event Portfolio

The Boundary Ballroom’s Grand Opening During A Pandemic

Project Scope

If you know Agnes from The Boundary Ballroom, she’s great. The Boundary Ballroom is one of our partnered venues, and we love them. They asked us if we could help them with their Grand Opening event. Absolutely. Funny enough, I did my cousin’s wedding there many years ago. A lot has changed and I can say: it is even better!

It wasn’t as easy as you think to have a Grand Opening. Then with the added obstacle of it being in the middle of a pandemic. Extra precautions were indeed planned for and taken. We introduced new marking tools using QR codes to avoid handing out pens or having customers write their information down – they were able to submit everything online right from their phone.

To a surprise, I found out that this event would feature bridal dresses and have models! I was engaged more than ever because this meant a lot more would be needed besides DJ talent (music) and audio. After a meeting with Agnes and Kasia from Kasia’s Bridal Boutique, we landed on runway staging, stage lighting, and even our new technology to request and upvoting songs for the DJ.

Event Day 🎉

I’m skipping over a lot of communication to save you the reading if you’re still here. Just know, I logged LOTS of emails, meetings, and calls between the venue and other vendors.

I really wanted to stream this live on our virtual platform, but unfortunately it would be a lot of work for the venue to get us a hard ethernet connection.

Bryant was the DJ, playing music in the background while we talked with lovely people, and played the music for the bridal show. I know he spent a lot of time prepping for this event so maybe he will write a blog entry about his experience . I had the privilege of announcing, controlling the lighting, and overseeing the staging.

The Lighting

There is a lot that goes into lighting one of these events. Why? The audience is surrounding the stage not just all facing one direction. That means the light has to hit the dresses at every angle and not cause ugly shadows on the featured dresses. Another variable is color but one we don’t have to worry about too much. We use RGBAW+UV fixtures meaning we can output the whitest of white (what the “W” stands for). The fixtures we used were our Tournado color washes, which we also use for professional uplighting, and a Chauvet follow spot for the front. Originally we were going to do a T-design stage so the models would walk across then come forward, rather than just forward, so a follow spot would be necessary, but I left it on the equipment roster anyway.

The Staging

The staging took the longest in the planning process so it was great to see it finished. The unique part about this is that I had the stage fully covered in thin astroturf so that the long wedding dresses would not snag on wood, screws, or even the skirting. To save money, we ended up doing a runway with a staircase upstage, no T-design so less stage decks are used.

Our Virtual Technology

Instead of live-streaming the whole event, which would’ve been really cool, I placed QR codes on chairs. If scanned with a phone, it would bring you to our webpage where you would be able to request and upvote songs. So if there was enough interest on a song, we played it! The technology worked seamlessly and Daft Punk was a big hit.

The Team We Worked With

Overall, this event was a huge success for the venue, vendors, and perspective customers. We were so happy to be chosen and can’t wait for their next showcase.