It's All About Blueberries and Lavender...By Michelle Nowak, Event Producer

A beautiful day it was indeed! GOOD GRACIOUS! welcomed guests at Vibiana’s courtyard terrace in downtown LA for the March WIPA meeting. (Wedding Industry Professionals Association) . Since Pauline Parry, just happens to be president of the association, 2 years running, it was only fitting for us to sponsor and produce this beautiful event to kick off the year in Southern CA.

As we contemplated design elements, and how we could put our Good Gracious! touch on such an exciting event, it dawned on us… spring is in bloom and so are lavender and blueberries! And it really became “ All about blueberries and lavender!”

Our talented and creative mixologist Dan Smith had been working on his concoction for weeks now just trying to get it perfect for the big day! So we gave it a name "Lavender Botanical Bliss", a colorful rim of crystalized sugars, and even included a minature bottle of Square One Botanical Spirit and the recipe so guests could take home.

We served a variety of hors d’ ouevers to include Caprese skewers, Shallot Tartin, and Gouda with Two grape Salsa

Guests were then invited into the beautiful Vibiana to listen to an industry leader, Richard Aaron, President of Bizbash who gave a most enjoyable

and educational keynote presentation. Special thanks to No Static AV and DJ Nachey who produced in an acoustically tricky venue, but of course they nailed it and the sound and music created the perfect atmosphere for this event. I love that No Static even has white speakers, aesthetically pleasing to the eyes and to match the white pillars in the venue!

With Vibiana’s beautiful white columns and stunning hardwood floors, the venue really paints an open canvas for us to play with, always a dream for a designer. So who better to call to add an additional reveal as guests walked in, than Rrivre Davies of

Rrivre Works.

Bringing in furniture, somehow turned into bringing in architecture and we couldn’t have planned it better. Crystals and gorgeous rod iron chandeliers hung from the wood beams Rrivre designed, but of course no table is complete without a tree in the middle, and touched with candlelight lanterns, those tiny little details that really make all the difference in our opinion!

Of course we could never pull off such a spectacular event without our extraordinary team of creative partners! And what a collaboration it turned out to be. We started with one of our favorite seating designs and brought out the community table down the middle with rounds on each side. BBj Linen covered the tables

in a beautiful white contour linen and blueberry twist and set the tables with their fabulous new line of chargers. Our friends at Classic Party Rentals pulled out their extraordinary line of purple haze glassware and dragonfly flatware- still our favorite! The Card Lady hand

crafted circular menus in purple hughes and Eddie with Tic Tock finished off the table with his whimsical creations as always, simple, sophisticated and glamorous.

No luncheon is complete without the wonderful wines that were provided by Liquid Catering.

And lunch began, the first course was served to guests, SURPRISE…. It’s an all vegetarian menu! Many were thankful they were tricked into eating tofu that day, because the plate was both spectacular and delicious, thanks to Chef de Cuisine Joanne Purnell and our fabulous team .


First course consisted of Curried Vegetable Pop Tart, Wild Arugula Salad with Feta Blueberry and
Cucumber Dill Soup Shooter. Second course was served in a pasta bowl as a Market Garden Spring Vegetable Expression, with an Herb Broth and Pastry Heart.


Of course no meal is complete without a fabulous dessert buffet that we specialty hand-crafted and brought in our white high-gloss table top and layered it with blue lucite and white cake stands. And you guessed it, everything that touched it consisted of lavender and blueberry colors, flavors and most of all LOVE! So Belle Chocolate Favors even supplied us with beautifully hand-customized chocolates. The Cappuccino Club awoke our guests for that wonderful LA drive home with espressos and cappuccino coffees.

All in all guests lingered to soak up all the creative juices flowing that day and left with an exciting energy which makes us love what we do! After all our guest list consisted of Wedding Professionals from all over California, we couldn’t leave them uninspired! And to top it off, we got an over-sold crowd that resulted in guests saying “I DO” to a WIPA membership! All the more exciting for what our next event will hold.

Thank you to our fabulous sponsors and to Callaway Gable Photography for the beautiful photos they provided.