GG Private Party, Carousel, Melbourne 2019

The Client
The private event hosted by Joan & Gerry
Thursday 17th October 2019
Carousel, Albert Park Melbourne

The Brief

Joan approached Phoenix in September 2017 to manage the event design and execution of Gerry’s 80^th Birthday Party in October 2019 to be held in Melbourne, Australia. Her brief was this is the ‘wedding celebration’ they never had, they did not want a 3 course meal, instead food offered differently with a fully catered bespoke menu, carefully crafted and unique styling, entertainment that was also bespoke, beautiful, elegant, moody but then with a huge element of surprise, black and gold theming with a touch of Indian grace and military influence as Gerry was a very well respected Senior Official in the Military. The guest list was full of international guests from all over the globe, the dress attire was black tie or traditional Indian dress, in summary elegance, decadent, emotional, surprising, beautiful were the words we kept in our mind when creating this once in a life time event for Joan & Gerry.

We were engaged to execute each and every element of event management from; collating hand written email addresses from their very own address books and populating all their contacts into an excel worksheet, save the date and invitation creation and design, complete control of RSVP management pre and post event, (guests never heard from Joan or Gerry through the entire 12 month RSVP process), travel & accommodation management for international guests,  Venue Management, contractual management with venue and all subcontractors, creative concept design phase through to delivery, full financial management, entertainer management including choreography, food & beverage management, audio visual, videography & photography management pre and post event.

The Result

We were able to collaborate with Melbourne’s best.

Our styling team created a space of elegance and decadence showcasing the gold and black which included a large ceiling centrepiece which was a handmade paper chandelier, embossed napkins, hand towels & staff uniforms with GG’s initials. Exquisite floral arrangements throughout the space, luxurious furniture from our friends at Dann Event hire with a bespoke gold inspired whiskey bar, large authentic Indian canapes for the entrance and decking, plus drapes & Indian parasols for all of our outdoor food stations. We engaged Shane Delia and his team at Maha Melbourne to curate and deliver the bespoke 7 course menu, not only did Shane carefully craft the menu from scratch he also entertained guests throughout the evening with live food activations including an outdoor middle eastern barbeque and live liquid nitrogen dessert demonstration, where he would personally serve our guests. The entertainment was managed by lead singer Gregg Arthur and the 14 piece Big Swing band which kept our guests entertained all night – with the surprise entertainment being ten Ranjhe  Male Bhangra Dancers and two authentic Bhangra drummers to accompany them.

As an event agency when a project comes along like this and for it to be successful two things need to happen. Firstly, be given full creative licence to think outside the box and completely spread our creative wings, secondly you need to build a unique trust between the client and us where there is synergy, transparency and loyalty. We had these two elements in abundance so we were able to not only deliver on the client objective, but we were able to overpass their objective and create an experience that elevated them to something they couldn’t even imagine. They were ‘blown away’. In return we were also blown away by their trust in us – this event will always have a very special place in our Phoenix family. Happy Birthday Gerry.