As a respected photographer in Houston, I am often brought in to document the event. Due to my attention to detail, many event professionals will bring me in to photograph an event once it is completely set up. Many photographers do not have the time to get these types of images when there are only moments to spare before the guest arrives. These types of setups are important to visually show off what is possible. What many people do not realize is that large-scale, over-the-top events do not just magically appear. Many events take several hours to set up and transform, while others can take multiple days. By providing my images from a previous event to this particular venue I struck a chord with the event facility director. He was impressed with how I was unobtrusive and worked well with those during the setup. As a result, when he had another extremely involved event coming up I was contacted to document the behind-the-scenes progress as to how much goes into opening the doors to such an amazing event.
This project resulted in three days of installation around the clock to produce an amazing milestone birthday for one of their VIP clients. To pull this off the facility needed to be extremely cold to support the life of the fragile flowers that were being used. The amount of time needed to create and install the sheer volume of flowers was critical to the temperature of the space. As a result, additional cooling and power generation were needed. So in comes the multiple generators and two additional HVAC. That's right, diesel generators were temporarily placed outside the property to cool this place down for the setup and the remainder of the event as well as the secondary air conditional system. You see this was no ordinary setup. There were to be over 100,000 red roses used, new carpeting, staging, lighting, and a custom-designed curved water wall and matching banquettes, computer-controlled fountains, drapery, and of course custom lighting to celebrate a 60th birthday party. I have seen quite a few setups over the years but generally not to this extent and as many days.
