Punch Productions | Judith Mackin

LIVE LIFE AWARDS 2013- The ‘After Life’ & ‘behind the scenes’ post from the Artistic Director

On the evening of June 6th the now bi-annual Live Life Awards graced the presence of Saint John’s Uptown once again. This year the event was held at the new Diamond Jubilee Cruise Terminal.

With red tables in abundance and a swanky mod 1950′s vibe, the night was by all counts a great success. To see UPTOWN SAINT JOHN’S Wrap up Post, please visit here for a detailed list of winners.

Here are my top 10 favourite photos from the event (all from Sean McGrath and Kelly Lawson):

Photo: Sean McGrath.

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First off, a recognition to our committee: Peter Asimakos, Tracy Hansen, Leslie Keating, Stephanie Bell and Cathy Hutchinson. They were a great team to work with and we shared a mutually creative vision.

Photo: Kelly Lawson

Secondly, a major thank you to the presenting sponsors: Commercial Properties and Uptown Saint John.

Much appreciation also goes to all the Event Sponsors: Port Saint John, Hemmings House Pictures, Hairacy’s, Element5 Spa, and BonFire.

A big shout out to all the award sponsors: Enterprise Saint John, Cox Palmer, In Color Inc., Bell Aliant, Moose Light, Canaport LNG, Saint John Waterfront, UNB Saint John, Market Square, Brunswick Square

On site Collaborators:

Photo: Amy Stewart

Having seven paparazzi greeting all guests on the red carpet set the tone for the night. Huge appreciation to the following photographers who shot, blogged and made a terrific impact on our event:

Red Carpet film and hosts: Three cheers for Greg Hemmings | Hemmings House Pictures for attaching himself to Stephen Kopp and Monica Adair as they rocked the red carpet. Here is a short film capturing the vibe from the carpet:

Where we began:

The most exciting part for me at the beginning of any event is two fold. 1. Where will the event be held and 2. What will the theme be? I knew that I really wanted to hold an event in the Gangway at the new Diamond Jubilee after the first tour I had of the new cruise ship terminal. And, I wanted to tie the theme in with madmen.

Port. Party. Paparazzi.

From there I engaged friend, long time collaborator and event sponsor Lise Hanen, from Bonfire to work with me and to turn it all into a beautiful brand.

Speaking of beautiful. I couldn’t resist placing this pic of Lise in here as she is such a beauty. Thank you Joanna Belyea for capturing Lise in such a genuine way.

Photo: Joanna Belyea

Photo: Kelly Lawson- We brought the brand through all elements of the event, including these buttons which were a great hit.

Photos: Sean McGrath – We created quotes for centrepieces from the MadMen era, including one from Roger Sterling,”Have a drink, it will make me look younger”.

Photo:Kelly Lawson- This is one of my favourite pics of the evening. Kelly captured the models getting their ipads ready for the reception. Each model was outfitted by local boutiques, hair and makeup and accessories. They stood by one of the 11 tables – each representing the nominees and their category. A visual presentation was on each ipad and guests were invited to scroll through and learn about the nominees.

Images by Sean McGrath

Images by Kelly Lawson

Image by Kelly Lawson

Images above by Kelly Lawson and Sean McGrath – A big thank you to the Delta Brunswick for their creative touch in the catering!

Photo: Kelly Lawson – Tomato | Tomato: We thank Lisa and John for their wonderful jazz at the reception!

We are incredibly impressed with our Master of Ceremonies, Scott Thomas who deserves a standing ovation for his emcee performance!

Photo: Sean McGrath

Major thanks go to all our models (who you will see in the photos below):

And a huge shout out for all our Uptown Saint John Boutiques who provided our models, red carpet hosts, band and emcee with fashions, jewellery and accessories:

Also another round of applause for Hair by Adam Donnelly and Sara Hill of Hairacy’s and Tina Murtagh and Nicole Stevens from Element5 Spa for makeup.

A special thank you to Emily Teed, from me. She was a complete joy to work with at Port Saint John, as well as all the port team!

Please enjoy the wonderful talents of Kelly Lawson and Sean McGrath in the photographs below.

The first set of photographs are by Sean McGrath. Please ensure you give photo credit when reposting.

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The second set of photographs are by Kelly Lawson. Please ensure you give photo credit when reposting.

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Note: We all had a wonderful time at the AFTER PARTY at the York, Hilton Hotel, but we can’t post those pics as they may be too incriminating! Thanks to Dermot and his team for providing a wonderful party.

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Categories: Branding, Events, Judith Mackin, Punch Productions

Updates: Design is alive and well in our #Renaissance city!

What follows is a brief summary of a few of the projects we here at PUNCH PRODUCTIONS | PUNCH INSIDE | TUCK STUDIO are working on, some of which we invite you to participate in.

Guest Speaking:

I will be guest speaking at the event I’m hosting at TUCK STUDIO for the “Women in Business Forum with the Saint John Board of Trade” – this Thursday, April 11th, 2013.

Co-chairs Veronica Ford and Julia Wowchuk of the Women in Business Forum with the Saint John Board of Trade asked if I would speak to their group of women about the various projects and clients I work with in our three companies. This group is comprised of female members of the Saint John Board of Trade who get together to share ideas and experiences with an eye to helping their own businesses grow. This group will be treated to a fabulous lunch (catered by Lily’s cafe - our neighbours here in the North End) and we’ll have a house and studio tour followed by a colloquy about being a female in business and the joys of working in Saint John. I believe this particular event is full but if you are interested in becoming part of this Forum/Group get in touch with either Veronica or Julia through Carole Cunningham at the Saint John Board of Trade.

Speaking at Shadow Lawn: Thursday, April 25th 2013 at noon!

I was truly honoured to be asked by Mary Ann Gallagher to speak at their Inn for the Lunch and Listen Series in collaboration with The Big Rothesay Read. If you haven’t yet heard, The Big Rothesay Read officially launched the public unveiling of this year’s selected book title: Town House, by celebrated Canadian author, Tish Cohen. To read more about this announcement click here. I’ll be speaking briefly about colour and design and how it impacts our rooms and the way we live. I hope then to be doing less talking and more listening as the floor will be thrown open for discussion.

In addition, Shadow Lawn Inn will be giving away a $150.00 TUCK STUDIO Gift Certificate to one lucky attendee. If you’re interested, Mary Ann suggests getting tickets early as the event sold out last year. I’ll be looking to car pool so if you want to go, let’s go together!

ARTISTS | ARCHITECTS | DESIGNERS:

Coming up this weekend we have an exciting open house at 40 Autumn Street, “SPRING INTO AUTUMN (ST!)”

If you missed the post on this last week you read about all the details here. We look forward to seeing you between 11-5 on Saturday!

BEFORE AND AFTER MAKEOVER REVEAL:

We were very happy to be asked by Jenny Scott, owner of Element 5 Spa to give the lounge area a complete interior design makeover. Watch this space (no later than early next week) to view the big ‘before and after’ reveal.

PUNCH INSIDE | INTERIOR DESIGN:

Over the last month or so we have been working hard with our repeat client, Dr. Jane Walsh. As you may recall, we wrote about her project two years ago with her ‘Before and After Extreme Makeover.’ Well, Jane is on the move again. Her psychology practice has expanded and she has moved locations. In the next few weeks we will show you what we’ve come up with for her new offices.

PUNCH PRODUCTIONS | EVENTS:

One event we are pumped about is this year’s Uptown Saint John’s “LIVE LIFE AWARDS”. I am happy to be working as this year’s artistic director with a fantastic team of board & committee members of Uptown Saint John. If you haven’t already, mark the date and look for announcements as this event sold out last year! Details to follow.

Fellow DESIGN Collaborators!

We encourage you to look for Brandi Coyle’s newest design project, Eclectic (Vintage & Upcycled furniture), situated on 122 Germain Street and slated to open – well – any minute! Be sure to “LIKE” her page on Facebook and stop in to visit her new studio when she opens!

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Categories: General, Judith Mackin, Punch Inside, Punch Productions, Tuck Studio

Holly and Jeff Owens DIY wedding – as featured on HGTV.ca

This wedding is featured on HGTV.ca

You can see the five blog posts here:

1. Do It Yourself Event Decor (part 1)

2. DIY Textiles and Table Settings (part 2)

3. DIY Invitations (part 3)

4. DIY Personalized Decor (part 4)

5. DIY Wedding Keepsake (part 5)

Here it is in its entirety.

Do it Yourself Event Decor (by Judith Mackin | Sarah Tapley)

Photo: JK Murphy Photography – My client and the bride, Holly Owens, on her wedding day.

Last fall, I was approached by a bride-to-be to help her design her wedding. Up to that point, I’d quite deliberately avoided wedding design or wedding events; I was happy with the artistic direction of corporate events or art-related galas. But Holly was so charming (displaying none of the warning signs of a potential ‘bridezilla’) that I decided to make an exception to my ‘no weddings’ policy.

A key deciding factor was that she gave me complete creative control, and I liked her general sense of the event: “It doesn’t have to look like a typical wedding.’ I’m really drawn to the gold and navy weddings I’ve seen on pinterest boards; if you could make my wedding look like that….”

As you’re probably aware, Pinterest has taken the world by storm. However, if you are like me (and thousands of others) it is really tricky figuring out how to take those stunning images in the design boards and make them a reality; a challenge both in terms of budget and accessibility.

This blog features the creation of a wedding, but the same concepts and ideas can be used for any event you may wish to design yourself: corporate functions, fundraising galas, anniversary parties, or simply designing a special table for two.

Here were Holly’s various sources of inspiration as gathered on pinterest:

PINTEREST BOARD ONE:

PINTEREST BOARD TWO

PINTEREST BOARD THREE:

Photo: Pinterest board – The third board proved to be especially useful: the colour palette on the bottom of the board served as a springboard for my design concept for Holly.

These were challenges I faced with these boards:

1. Virtually everything was expensive!

2. Trying to source items such as the French provincial dinnerware set or the blue upholstery chairs for rental would be impossible in a small city like Saint John, New Brunswick.

3. Where would you find a venue that had beautiful, high, distressed ceilings, and chandeliers?

So, I chose to concentrate on the items I knew Holly was drawn to: Romantic fonts, golds, navies, French provincial, and an overall romantic, yet modern, feel.

Here’s what we did:

STEP 1: Palette and Textiles

Photos: Judith Mackin

Choose your colour palette and select fabrics from your local fabric retailer. (You’ll note I brought silver and a bit of glitter into the mix as well)
The selection of materials above was sourced from Fabricville, for what would ultimately serve as double-layered table runners.

Pick your tablecloths: I wanted a mix of the silver and the gold as base tablecloths. We rented ours through our friends, Barbara Lee Designs.
I then placed various runners over them so that each table would be entirely unique.

STEP 2: How many?

Now that you have chosen your materials, determine the number and sizes of the tables needed. How many guests will be at your event? How many will sit at each table?
This will help you decide the width and lengths of each or your runners and how much fabric you will need.

STEP 3: Fabric layout

Mix and match your fabrics. Decide which combinations will go on what tablecloth; i.e., which fabrics will be the wide and which the narrow runners.
With reference to your table and room layout, determine what combinations go where. Note: they do not need to be placed in any particular order or pattern (the textiles and colours will make it all look uniform).

Photo: JK Murphy Photography – here you can see how we placed a large navy runner as a base, with a silver sparkly grey runner on top and a silver tablecloth underneath.

Photo: JK Murphy Photography – Here, on the gift table, is another example of a gold large runner as a base, with a damask navy runner on top.

Photo: JK Murphy Photography: Keeping the napkins and the chair sashes all in navy allows for a certain variety within a proscribed range of colours/textures; you can mix up the silver, gold and decorative textiles throughout the rest of the room and still maintain a sense of coherence.

Photo: Judith Mackin – The head table featured four materials. The base tablecloth, in navy, spanned all the way across the 20 foot table, with a long gold wide runner with a narrower navy blue damask laid on top. The vertical handmade lace runners run in the opposite direction.

STEP 4: Sewing

Start this step as soon as possible — it takes a lot of time. (Holly had a great team help her: her mom spent many hours sewing the majority of runners and tablecloths that needed edges sewn. Her sister-in-law took on all the French provincial runners. And friend of Holly’s mother helped make the round table cloth for the cake. )
Cut your various runners to size.
Hem each of the runners along the sides and the ends.

*A helpful time-saving tip: Choose fabrics that don’t need to be hemmed (fabrics that won’t fray). Fabrics like the lace, damask, and the sparkly one we used can be left with a cut edge.

Photos: JK Murphy Photography. The lace material only requires cutting, not hemming. Cake by: Danielle’s Desserts

You don’t have to use your fabric as a conventional runner on every table. As mentioned above, the lace does not fray and can be left with a raw edge. For the cake table, the lace was cut into a circle and used on a round table.

Once Holly approved the materials, we used these as the ‘next step’ in terms of creating matching wedding invitations.

STEP 5: DIY Invitations – With a DIY invitation, you aren’t limited to the wording, font and layouts of someone else. We worked with a graphic designer Jessica Rhaye to take the elements and colors of the wedding and incorporate them into Holly’s very own wedding invitation.
Invitation: produced on linen card stock. Printing by Alan England, in Color inc.

REPLY CARD: also produced on linen card stock:
RSVP card (front) – Linen card stock also, with a nice twist – the back of the card (below) is an image of the scanned material that would be seen at her wedding later on.

Here is another example of how the design was implemented as table markers. These are very fun!

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Other wedding collateral:

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STEP 6: Personalized design elements

Photo: Judith Mackin This is the Tord Boontje Garland lamp (it comes packaged flat – it’s designed to go around a light bulb). However, we cut it up and used pieces in the invites, in the floral arrangements, the seating plan and some on the bride’s and groom’s place setting.

Photo: Note the small individual piece of garland that was individually placed in each invite.

Photo: Judith Mackin/instagram – a small spray of the Tord Boontje placed in each of the table centerpieces.

Photo: JK Murphy Photography – Flowers by Sandra Miller Floral Designs. Also pictured here is a different version of the handmade table runners: gold base with French provincial wide runner and silver skinny runner.

Photo: JK Murphy Photography: Decorative flourishes using the Tord Boontje garland add a nice touch as part of the pins attaching the Guest Seating plan to the cork board. (note the inclusion of the French Provincial Material used in the design)

STEP 7: Upcycled Lanterns

Take a ‘found’ decorative element that can be adapted to the event you’re designing
Using a dozen white metal lanterns generously donated by another bride from her wedding, we spray painted them gold (make sure you do this in a well ventilated area).

Photo: JK Murphy Photography – *For a bit of novelty/drama, tip your lantern over on a table and have flowers flowing out. Flowers by Sandra Miller Floral Designs.

STEP 8: Keepsakes

Turn some of your extra fabric into a throw pillow. This way, a vital part of your special event lives on in your home decor.
Use some of the extra fabric from your runners, large enough for an 11” x 20” pillow insert in this case.
Put the fabric’s right sides facing one another and sew along the edges leaving a ¼-inch seem allowance.
Turn your pillow right side out, stuff it, and then hand stitch the open end. Sarah Tapley made this pillow.

As an added flourish, create a personalized tag. In this case, we stitched Holly and Jeff’s wedding date on it.

Thank you to Holly and Jeff Owens for the opportunity to work with you on your wedding!

Photo: JK Murphy Photography – Jeff and Holly Owens on their wedding day.

Photo: JK MURPHY Photography – Holly with her beautiful bridesmaids, all in navy. (From left to right: Clare Tidby, Maja Mijatović, Natalie Owens, bride, Holly Owens, Laura McMackin, Jessica McMackin (note: Bridesmaid’s Jewelry & Bridal Hairpiece handmade by : Esquared Jewels (link: http://www.facebook.com/EsquaredJewels?fref=ts)