Empire Produces a Spectacular Birthday Weekend for a Private Client in Las Vegas, NV

When a private client and her husband wanted to celebrate a fiftieth birthday with an unforgettable weekend in Las Vegas with friends and family, they turned to Empire as the overall producer for the project. With a VVIP guest list of over 125 attendees traveling from as far away as Europe & Asia, every aspect of the weekend would need to be planned with the utmost personalization and exquisite attention to detail. The expectations for the weekend would be nothing short of perfection. In the weeks leading up to the events, Empire worked closely with the client to design and send a unique invitation based on the Las Vegas skyline, supported by a visually-consistent registration / guest info website and travel staff offering a personal concierge touch. On Friday the weekend festivities began with airport greeters, personal greeting at the Encore check-in, whimsical welcome packages, an extraordinary gift bag including everything from engraved bottles of Johnny Walker Blue to iPods pre-loaded with the birthday girl’s soundtrack for the weekend. That afternoon, the hosts held an informal hospitality in their tower suite at the Encore. On the first night, guests assembled for an arrival dinner at SW Steakhouse where the entire outdoor patio overlooking the Wynn’s animatronic Lake of Dreams was seated in long, candlelit banquet tables. Following the elegant dinner, some of the guests retired to the hospitality suite for gambling lessons with Blackbelt in Blackjack author, Arnold Snyder. Other guests headed to XS Nightclub at the Encore where VIP tables and bottles of champagne on ice had been reserved to dance the night away.Saturday morning started early and guests participated in a myriad of custom designed activities for every taste. Activities included personalized yoga instruction with an instructor flown in from New York, golf at the Wynn Las Vegas Golf Club, private helicopter tours of the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, Humvee desert expeditions and guided hiking in the Las Vegas hills. Other guests relaxed at the fully-stocked pool cabanas reserved at the Encore Beach Club, went shopping on the Las Vegas strip or enjoyed spa & salon treatments.Saturday evening’s event began with over 100 guests being treated to a performance of The Beatles LOVE by Cirque de Soleil at the Mirage Hotel. Guests were then transported back to the Alex Ballroom at the Wynn for the Saturday night big bash - the centerpiece event of the weekend. Working closely with the client, a major art collector and philanthropist, Empire transformed the elegant Alex Ballroom into her ‘magical, bohemian chic’ vision. All of the formal furniture in the indoor ballroom were replaced with contemporary furnishings grouped around a custom-designed black lacquer dance floor and main stage dressed in fabrics. The outdoor terraces were surrounded by over 200’ of high topiary covered with twinkle lights that glowed in the desert evening and lit the comfortable terrace lounge seating as well as the single malt tasting station and cigar areas. Exquisite crystal votive candle-holders and floral designs featuring a combination of feathers and flowers complemented all of the individual rooms’ aesthetics. The menu for the evening featured all of the couple’s favorite foods including everything from raw seafood bar and sushi stations to southern fried chicken and Asian specialties from Hot & Juicy. Many of the side rooms and wine closets of the ballroom were transformed into activity areas including henna and temporary tattoo stations, a photo booth, a karaoke lounge and even a dessert buffet that later became a pole-dancing nightclub.On the stage Empire presented a program custom-designed to the birthday girl’s tastes. In addition to toasts, remarks and a hilarious speech by a fictitious art consultant supported by a slideshow presentation, the evening featured non-stop music and entertainment. DJ’s Andrew Andrew spun a playlist of the couple’s favorite music via iPads, allowing them to control the music from the stage, the dance floor, or even the bar. The event featured live performances by the Australian Bee Gees Revue and the Funky Monks, the Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band. Guests remained on the dance floor surrounded by Go Go dancers well past 4:00AM and adorned themselves with costumes and props provided specifically for the evening’s festivities. The next morning began with a whimsical ‘Hangover Brunch’ in the Encore’s Sinatra Restaurant at which centerpiece bowls of sunglasses, Alka Seltzer, aspirin, Emergen-C and other hangover cures were served. On their arrival at the brunch, guests were amazed to receive a printed & bound photo book and USB credit card featuring all of the photos of the previous night’s events that had ended only hours earlier. The day continued more activities, guest departures for most and a straggler’s dinner at Rao’s Restaurant. Empire’s responsibilities for the program included concept and agenda development, hotel room contracting and coordination, invitation, website and collateral design, RSVP tracking, guest communications, guest ground transportation, welcome packages, meal functions, classes, excursions and activities, shows, pool cabana and nightclub reservations, menus and catering, entertainment as well as all event design and production. With the exception of the client, their extraordinary staff and the outstanding Encore & Wynn hotel team, Empire provided all personnel to manage and execute the project onsite. The net result of the weekend: an immensely happy client and a rewarding experience for all attendees and participants. The client feedback was best captured in the following email from the client’s executive assistant: “The e-mails that [the client] is getting back on the event are over-the-top, ridiculously positive. Many of them read like unbelievable infomercial testimonials, others like they had a spiritual transformation, all of them 200% positive. Objective achieved beyond expectations. You are some kind of an amazing team.”Empire is a leading producer of personal and milestone events and is delighted to deliver beyond expectations for this and other private clients.