CityView Magazine

“I never thought they’d pick mine because nobody knew me. I was a nobody.” She entered the tabletops competition again in 2006, this time with a table design themed “Ernest Hemingway by the Sea.” She used organic elements such as bamboo chairs and place mats and heavy wooden accents and glass lanterns to evoke a masculine feel not commonly found in the event planning world. Her coup de grace was placing a message in a bottle – a different quote from Hemingway himself – at each place setting. She won the competition and says that table is still her favorite of all her designs. Ross’ table designs have since been featured in Wedding Style magazine and in a coffee table wedding book titled “Being in Love Never Goes Out of Style.” Though tables are what she’s best known for, Ross frequently takes on all aspects of event planning for a client, including finding and reserving a space, setting the lighting, coordinating the parking and all of the other not-so-exciting details. She said that an event can be perfect inside, but if guests have trouble parking they’ll enter in a bad mood – and no amount of tea roses and crystal will be sufficient to cheer them. “It isn’t just about the glamour,” she said. “You have got to have the logistics, too – the permits, the electrical, the fire marshall.” It’s also important to her that the event not only be something she likes, but that it also meet her client’s expectations, she said. She works closely with clients to create whatever atmosphere the client has in mind. The most memorable event she has ever planned was a recent wedding, she said. The bride and groom had three very specific items they wanted included in their reception: A large stuffed peacock (it had formerly been a pet), crystallized fruit and a shoe tree by the dance floor so guests could kick off their uncomfortable shoes and give their feet a break later in the evening. Ross said she made the peacock the theme for the entire reception. She placed the stuffed bird itself in the center of the lounge area and then decorated the event with peacock feathers, parasols hanging upside down in the tent and peacock-inspired colors throughout. She says the reception turned out so beautiful that she plans to submit pictures of it to a wedding magazine. Still Ross, ever the wallflower, admits that for her the highlight of any event is the calm before the storm. “My favorite part is right before an event when all my helpers have left and I get walk around and tweak the tables and imagine how the guests are going to feel when they enter,” Ross said. “I just love that.”CV CityViewNC.com | 33

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