November Open House

In November we launched our open house series with over 60 people attending to see all of the wonderful table designs by art director David Reilich. David showed a dozen or so great table decorating ideas by using rental equipment from A Classic Party Rental. If you would like to see what equipment was used for each design, visit our Open House Gallery for this month.

More from David Reilich

What inspires you when you are designing a table?
First and foremost, the CLIENT inspires me. Everything should be custom fitted for their taste and desires. But, even deeper than that, I want their family to be involved. An event means that much more when the family is reflected in the end result. Being a magazine designer for over 15 years, creatively, I am inspired by everything from home design to fashion design to graphic design. Lately, working vintage elements into my tables has been a great interest of mine. To me, it adds a depth to an event that you might not expect. I like table designs that tell a bit of a story. I'm sure this comes from my magazine days. I always thought of magazine design as a little piece of theater - and it was my job to bring the reader into a specific world for the length of that story. Well, I see event design even MORE like that because it actually is a three dimensional experience. That is why it excites me even more so.

What would you recommend to anyone who is planning a party of any size?
Make it personal. It may be easy to be influenced by all of the cable television "platinum" weddings, etc., but YOUR event needs to reflect YOU, not every generic trend out there. Also, I know this is tricky, but I would commit to the level of experience you wish to create and THEN decide on how many you can afford to invite to share in that experience . Try to avoid wasting your efforts on those who really will not appreciate the moment.

Did you have a favorite of any of the designs (that are in our showroom)?
Not really. I am attached to ALL of the designs in some way. Several of them were inspired by friends or clients of mine, and some of them were simply stories I wanted to tell - so each one means something different to me.

Anything else we should know about you?
I live by the Mies van der Rohe quote: "God is in the details". I think good design should have layers to it. That doesn't necessarily mean that a table needs to be BUSY or complicated, but it needs several layers of interest and it all needs to fit together like some fantastic puzzle. The LOVE that you show for your guests is visible in the level of details you create for them to experience. I whole heartedly believe that.