This summer, Fresh Events worked with Arrowhead Golf Club to create an open house to show off their gorgeous venue to Colorado event professionals. We were thrilled when they asked us to incorporate our products in the tablescapes at the event. Even better, top event photographer and friend, Joe Keum of Studio JK, captured wonderful images of the designs.

During the evening, ominous clouds rolled in and a huge thunderstorm took hold. The event was split between their two reception locations: the clubhouse and the permanent tent they use for events. In the words of Suzanne Barlow, owner of Masterful Musicians, “Splendor to rescue… AGAIN..Thank you for supplying the means by which to travel with style at Arrowhead Golf Club…you saved us all from looking like drenched kittens!” We were so glad we could help.

Thanks again to Studio JK for these fantastic images!

Are you searching through magazines and websites to find great decor ideas? Striving to create a unique event? Here are some awesome examples of how to use umbrellas to dress-up your venue – and add lighting effects. Umbrellas as chandeliers. What fun! Your guests would talk about these forever.

Enhance Your Venue’s Decor

This umbrella chandelier is designed to enhance the beauty of the room. This chandelier is actually created with small lights, but a lace parasol would work too. Just don’t get the light bulb too close to the lace!

Notice how the umbrella is reflected in the mirror to give the impression of a row of chandeliers. Imagine how gorgeous and romantic this room would be with long tables, lots of candlelight, and gold and burgundy linens.

Created by Hans van Benthem; Photo by Masumi Shishid

Build Your Design Concept

Famous event planner, Mindy Weiss, used umbrellas as part of the decor for a baby shower for Denise Richards. How sweet are these, decorated with flowers? You could also hang the umbrellas right-side-up and have the flowers hanging from the edges in strings.

Baby Shower Design by Mindy Weiss for Denise Richards

Create a Focal Point and Conversation Piece

You can also use umbrellas to create an amazing focal point and something for your guests to admire during cocktails and dinner. Imagine an umbrella sculpture at your outdoor event. This is perfect for a reception  at a botanic garden, museum, or downtown on a roof deck. Add square tables, funky centerpieces, and Rollasoles for your female guests and you have a fantastic, chic affair! Note: Not sure who to credit for these photos, but you can find them at: http://stevenhaulenbeek.com/

Cumulous Light Canopy by Steven Haulenbeek

Cumulous Light Canopy by Steven Haulenbeek

Outdoor Lighting

You can also use umbrellas as decor for a beautiful outdoor, Tuscany-style, vineyard wedding or a fun, downtown affair. This is one of my favorites. Best part? You can create this look for only $144! That’s a lot of wow for a little investment.

Umbrella Installation by Ingo Maurer; Image: marta.b

For even more umbrella decor ideas, see Event Lucky and World of Amici Events, two blogs by event planners.

Nicole's Clients Rented Our Lemonade Parasols (photo: Julie Kemerling)

We absolutely LOVE the parasols from Splendor!  We recently reserved them last minute {as in, the week of the wedding} due to an unusually hot forecast.  The bride and groom really wanted all of their guests to be completely comfortable, without sacrificing the “look” of the reception.  This is the one thing we really stress with our clients.  The comfort of your guests is absolutely top priority.  As the reception took place in an open area, a tent was really not the best option for several reasons; one because it just did not fit within the space for maximum effect; and most importantly, being under a tent can sometimes be hotter than just being outside in the open air.  Adding the tent was also going to be rather costly; and the parasols provided a less expensive option, even with shipping.   So we enlisted Nil from Splendor for parasols.  The couple had a vintage, fun design for their wedding…and the parasols perfectly fit within the theme.  I loved the parasols not only because they are super fun for photos and decor, but also because they work logistically speaking.  They easily cover two people, they protect from both rain and sun, and they are easy to display.  We found a vintage nail keg to display them and it worked beautifully!  Going with the vintage theme, we had lounges for the guests. To pull the parasols full circle, we placed vintage decorative parasols within each lounge as well {major cuteness!}.  Guests loved them, as did the bride and groom!  Well, well worth the money. No doubt about it!

Nil, we cannot thank you enough for getting the parasols to us {in the wedding colors, nonetheless}, on such short notice and with such great service.  They came perfectly on-time, as promised, and as always – such a pleasure to work with you!  Looking forward to many, many events in the future!

Nicole Riley
Verge Events (Asheville, NC) – owner
StudioWed – founder

Need some fun ideas for your bridal or baby shower? Want a unique design for your wedding reception? We partnered with our Splendor Vendor, All Well Rents, to show a fun way to decorate for this spring season.

We created a centerpiece with a pink parasol anchored in a vase filled with orchids. We also placed shawls on the chairs and tied them with All Well’s chair ties and an orchid.

See it in person in their showroom: 2125 S. Platte River Dr. Denver, CO

Fun Covering for the Table

Shawl on the Chair

We were thrilled to participate in this amazing photo shoot. Thanks to many talented people, we were able to create a modern look at weddings. Most of the vendors who participated in this shoot are Studio Wed vendors, a boutique Denver wedding planning studio.
We hope these photos inspire you to create something unique and memorable with your wedding.

It wouldn’t have been possible without these great vendors:
Wedding Planner: Julie Gambrell, Classic Creations
Wedding Florist: Alicia Schwede, Bella Fiori
Wedding Stylist: Tina Gill, Worthwhile Style
Wedding Hair and Makeup: Kori Schell
Wedding Cake: Slice
Bridal and Bridesmaid Dresses: Bella Bridesmaid
Wedding Invitations: JS Design
Location: Palazzo Verdi
Rentals: Event Rents
Linens: Chair Covers and Linens
Rigging: T’da Designs
Umbrellas & Shawls: Splendor

Angela and Ty chose the incredible Ritz-Carlton on Beaver Creek Mountain, overlooking the majestic Rocky Mountains, for their 10/10/10 wedding. Angela’s dream was to have their ceremony outside, amidst the true beauty of the state they call home. They realized that the weather may not cooperate, so an alternate plan was necessary. Renting shawls and umbrellas through Splendor seemed the perfect solution, both for warmth and for design. Shawls saved their beautiful outdoor wedding.
Their wedding day was a crisp fall day at only 45 degrees. It was dry, but threatening clouds came and went. We set-up the wedding wearing winter coats and wishing we even had gloves. Luckily, by ceremony time, the clouds parted and the sun rose the temperature a bit. Incredible photographers at StudioJK caught some wonderful shots of the day.

We were told that the guests were thrilled to use the shawls as many of the women hadn’t brought coats or even wraps to the ceremony. They also added a pop of color to the chairs and gave us an opportunity to include another special detail to make the wedding unique.

To make sure they didn’t have to worry about raindrops ruining their plans, they got umbrellas in chocolate and merlot. What a fun way to keep the drops away!

Amazing photography provided by: Studio JK

Last week, my good friend, Michelle Gillette of Dramatic Events, asked me to partner with her on a table design for the wedding showcase at Denver Botanic Gardens. She wanted to create a romantic, yet unique table setting that was a perfect complement for these beautiful gardens. Here’s the final design. Read on for the story behind it!

Pink Romance Design

At the beginning of our design meeting, we decided to use a parasol as our focal point and signature piece. Our plan came together so quickly that we were ready to gather the elements after a brief conversation.

Michelle ordered the gorgeous linens, china, crystal, silver, table, and chairs from Event Rents. I was so excited when she forwarded me photos of the linens and place settings. I knew they would really add a soft romance to our table.

Next, we selected flowers from the fresh floral market. Gorgeous stems of orchids were our main choice. We also chose various other flowers in our color scheme. I’m no florist so I have no idea what they were, but I can ask my amazing florist friends if you would like to know.

The day of the event, we arrived to find our table in the shade (thank goodness). It was a very hot day, which is compounded when the sun is a mile closer (such as in the Mile High City). We started setting up and all was going smoothly, until… we realized that our centerpiece wasn’t coming together as expected. We’d planned to use floral foam to anchor the parasol’s handle in the base of the vase. Unfortunately, the foam we had was for dry arrangements, and was floating in the water instead of soaking it up and forming an anchor. Next, the foam started breaking apart and sticking to the inside of the vase. At this point, I started giggling and saying how I felt we were on a reality TV show. My solution was to use paper towels to stuff around the foam and hopefully keep it in place. That seemed to work. At the end of it all, Michelle created a gorgeous centerpiece and now we know how to recreate it for the first bride who wants to do a parasol flower arrangement (we’re taking requests!).

We also incorporated our raspberry pink shawls as the chair decor. Michelle created the custom-designed jewelry to adorn the shawls.

Jewelry adornments for shawl chair decor

The look came together and got some great comments. We hope you enjoy these photos as much as we enjoyed creating this look.

It was a sunny and hot beginning to Labor Day weekend. A beautiful city garden at Washington Park was being prepared for a ceremony that would change the lives of two people. The colors of the flowers were vibrant, the scent of the grass was deep. The guests began to arrive, ooh-ing and ah-hing at their surroundings.

I quickly realized what a well-dressed group we had. I was excited to see their reactions to the raspberry umbrellas and raspberry and chocolate shawls the bride had selected to protect them from possible cold and rain. As the guests approached, I overheard one woman exclaim, “Look at the umbrellas! I can’t wait to use one!”. Anyone else might have thought it was a funny thing to say on a sunny, no-cloud day. However, as we watched, one guest after another helped themselves to personal shade. They popped open the raspberry umbrellas and kept the sun at bay.

The raspberry and chocolate shawls were wrapped with white ribbon and displayed in a trunk at the reception. Although most of Denver was experiencing a chilly night, the boathouse at Washington Park was warmed with dancing and enjoyment. Not many shawls were needed, but they had them, just in case.  The bride knew that if her guests were comfortable, they would enjoy the wedding and stay to celebrate with them through the night. Cheers to our latest Splendor couple. We wish them the best!

We’ve just added a new fuchsia umbrella to our product line! Fun, hip, and modern, this is an amazing statement piece. It even comes with a removable, telescoping, clear plastic sleeve that adds some extra wow. This umbrella is a bit smaller than our other offerings. We’d suggest renting enough for about 75% of the guests. Cheers! We’d be happy to answer any questions. Feel free to contact us.

* Please note that the color is more muted than in these photos.

I first met Lisa and Gary at the Denver Quality Hill Bridal Show at Grant-Humphreys Mansion in January. They were attending because their wedding was scheduled at G-H Mansion on June 7th (coincidentally, my birthday!). They had completed a lot of the planning, but there were still some details to be finalized.

My very good friend and popular wedding coordinator, Michelle Gillette with Dramatic Events, was asked to give some short planning seminars. She touched on various aspects of planning an outdoor ceremony (sprinkler schedules, having umbrellas on-hand, asking about tossing birdseed and such). Lisa and Gary heard some of Michelle’s tips and really agreed with the umbrella comment. They had visited the Mansion exactly one year before their wedding, just to see the weather. June 7, 2009 was one for the record books. Hail the size of golf balls fell all over Denver. There were downpours and whipping wind. After seeing what could happen, Lisa and Gary decided to look into umbrellas for their guests. Michelle mentioned that Splendor was at the bridal show if anyone had questions about renting umbrellas or shawls. Thus, Lisa and Gary sought us out.

Meeting them was such a pleasure. They are a wonderful couple and one of the most organized couples I’ve ever seen. They knew what they wanted and they made decisions efficiently.

Lisa and Gary chose to rent both shawls and umbrellas for their guests. They were thinking of both comfort and design. They chose three amazing colors for umbrellas and two sweet hues for shawls. It created an offering that guests will remember for a lifetime.

We’re honored to have been a part of their special day. Thank you, Lisa and Gary, for trusting us with your guests’ comfort.