After more than 18 months, PartySlate hosted its first post-pandemic event on October 18 in Miami — and it did not disappoint. Leading event professionals, vendors, and venue teams from South Florida, New York, and beyond joined the PartySlate team at Rubell Museum in the trendy Wynwood Arts District.
Guests enjoyed Instagram-worthy cocktails, creative cuisine, on-trend installations, and news and updates from PartySlate Co-Founder and CEO, Julie Roth Novack. Event industry luminaries and tastemakers were invited to the exclusive cocktail party by a chic digital invitation designed by the talented Alpine Creative Group.
After months of working with a skilled event partner team and in partnership with onsite planner, 59 & Bluebell Events, PartySlate welcomed guests to an art-inspired soirée at the Rubell Museum — home to unique installations, myriad of event spaces that flowed in and out of doors, and lauded Leku Restaurant, who provided the cuisine.
Upon arrival, guests were warmly greeted by the PartySlate team and The Event Doc professionals, who were on hand to offer on-site Covid-19 testing. In advance of the gathering, VOW Digital Health made it easy for guests to upload their vaccination cards for a seamless check-in experience. PartySlate continues to prioritize the ability for everyone — from our vendors to our guests — to celebrate safely.
Once checked in, guests were ushered into the museum’s lush Garden and Courtyard to enjoy the smooth sounds of old-world Cuban and Latin music from La Vida, talented performers from Aragon Artists. Guests were also invited on a private tour of the museum, either self-guided or with a docent.
Industry insiders enjoyed lavender vodka-lemonade welcome drinks from The Boozie Bluebell (owned by our onsite coordinator, Katie Arbogast of 59 & Bluebell Events) and passed appetizers, including beef tartar pintxos, salmon cones, and cauliflower and truffle pil pil tartlets from Leku Restaurant. Attentive servers from Le Basque ensured that guests got to sample everything and that their glasses were always full.
After cocktail hour, the doors of The East Wing opened to reveal a bold “art of expression”-inspired, disco-influenced, smoky, moody, neon celebration — a unique vision curated by St Germain Design + Co. The room thumped with danceable tunes spun by DJ Cat Shell, also from Aragon Artists, who set a party vibe with the perfect selection of current day hits and old-school throwbacks (and also looked really cool while doing it, donned in gold sequins).
The St Germain Design + Co team outdid themselves. They conjured a celebratory mood, setting the scene for guests to interact in multiple photo spots that expressed the Miami-chic discotheque aesthetic and provided lots of stylish lounge groupings from Lavish Event Rentals, perfect for connecting with smaller groups of peers.
St. Germain Design + Co also helped line up a team of creative partners that included Just by Designs and Berkeley Florist Supply, a business-to-business company that in-the-know Miami planners rely on.
Event Factor bathed the space in a party-perfect ultra violet lighting scheme shot through with spotlights and colorful neon laser projections (which created the perfect mood lighting for the 360-photo booth, also provided by the Event Factor team). The talented team also created three conjoined stages for 80-feet of staging that almost fully spanned an entire wall of the venue. That staged was not only utilized by the DJ and for a welcome speech, but also for a rocking violin and saxophone performance that paired with pop music for a fun moment.
Just by Designs added to the theming with creative disco ball towers, cheetah-print fabric that draped the rafters, and towering V-shaped installations that provided the perfect backdrop for light and branding projections from Event Factor.
As with every corporate event, branding played an important role at the party. Guests were reminded of PartySlate when they got cocktails accented with our logo or cool branded ice cubes, grooved to the music with our brand scrolling at the foot of the DJ’s stage, and snapped pics at PartySlate backdrops. Meanwhile, we paid respect to our talented event partners on the invitation, event signage, and LED projections of affiliated company logos.
The evening included plenty of wow moments to keep guests engaged, including the much-buzzed-about cocktails. The Boozie Bluebell, in addition to providing the evening’s wine and beer selections, also gave us one of the more photographed scenes: a portable bar featuring white subway tile, gold wine racks — and espresso martinis on tap!
Meanwhile, Craft Cartel – Cocktail Caterer gathered guests at the central bar, serving creative cocktails on all four sides by show-stopping mixologists who launched a hundred Instagram boomerangs.
The evening’s cocktails included the much-ordered “Never Letting My Man Go” featuring E11EVEN Vodka (our Miami-based, high-end vodka sponsor for the evening), mango reduction, ginger juice, shiso bitters, and fresh lime juice — all garnished with a smoke bubble. Yes, a smoke bubble. Craft Cartel should be billed as entertainment because their engaging bartenders kept onlookers enthralled all evening serving up innovative sips in pretty Event Outfitters glassware.
Then there was the delectable fare. Food stations scattered throughout the museum drew oohs and ahhs from guests. Lexi Kay Paperie ensured that guests knew what they were eating, with chic signage (as well as offering cool interactive opportunities to be featured on PartySlate with scannable QR code signs).
More from the mouthwatering menu from Leku: a grill station with steak and seafood, a slider station with short rib sliders and mushroom sliders (which featured steamed, melt-in-your mouth buns), plus a jamon station from Cinco Jotas. Let’s talk for a moment about the jamon (Spanish for ham). First, the chef asked guests if they had ever traveled to Spain before serving up a taste of the country in the form of incredibly thin slices of flavorful Iberian ham from Cinco Jotas alongside crisp bruschetta.
And what’s a fabulous event without equally-fabulous desserts? Déjà vu Sweets from PartySlate Insider, Natalie Thames, created a stunning (and sparkling) cake installation and PartySlate-branded treats for guests to enjoy.
As we were busy eating and toasting, Sugarfree Studio was on-hand to capture every stunning moment and interaction in beautiful images. Meanwhile Johnny Apple Films traveled from Dallas to capture the movement of the dynamic gathering, including interviews with PartySlate Co-Founder and CEO, Julie Roth Novack, and PartySlate Insider Chris Weinberg of Chris Weinberg Events.
Though the PartySlate team was sad to leave the celebration and our host hotel, the National Hotel Miami Beach, we know we’ll be back. The event signaled a return to live events (though we predict that virtual events and hybrid gatherings are here to stay as they allow for attendance from a more widespread audience). PartySlate is thrilled to interact with the resilient event community, face-to-face again, and is looking forward to many more such celebrations.
In the New Year, we are eager to entertain event professionals in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and more cities as well as continue connecting with the industry via our educational digital event series.
Meet the vendors who produced this gorgeous gathering:
photographer: Sugarfree Studio
invitations: Alpine Creative Group
event planner: 59 & Bluebell Events
design & décor: St Germain Design + Co.
venue: Rubell Museum
décor: Just by Designs
floral: Berkeley Florist Supply
av/lighting: Event Factor
entertainment: Aragon Artists
catering: Leku Restaurant
jamon station: Cinco Jotas
dessert: Déjà vu Sweets
catering staffing/logistics, non-alcoholic drinks & additional photography: Le Basque
lounge rentals: Lavish Event Rentals
bar & catering rentals: Event Outfitters
mixology & speciality cocktails: Craft Cartel – Cocktail Caterer
cocktail truck, beer/wine & bubbly: The Boozie Bluebell
signage: Lexi Kay Paperie
onsite COVID testing: The Event Doc
COVID screening protocol: VOW Digital Health
videographer: Johnny Apple Films
vodka sponsor: E11EVEN Vodka
PartySlate team hotel: National Hotel Miami Beach