Tinsel Experiential Design ‘s inaugural affair was a wedding in Long Island.  A Gatsby-inspired shindig snagged accidentally while the then-newbie designers were doing recon at a Brooklyn wedding fair. But that sumptuous soiree set their experiential aesthetic: not just creating photo opportunities for their clients, but memorable and tactile environmental design. Slinky satin, multiple beads and flowers with a touch of ostrich feathers hung whimsically throughout the space.  The evening concluded with a sparkler sendoff. At that wedding a few things became apparent: 1. Though at the time it was just a side-gig, they loved doing it.  2. They were good at doing it.  3. This could be a real career.

Now co-founders Liz Castelli, Adette C. Contreras, and Erica Taylor Haskins, three friends who met in an a capella group at George Washington University, have been successfully planning events full-time for nine years.  They’ve collected accolades like being featured on  BizBash’s Top 1,000 Event Pro List  along the way.

They’ve produced events for high profile clients including Spotify, Mercedes-Benz, the Tribeca Film Festival and Vogue.  And under them there’s army — all there to pull off their events incorporating experiential concepts, a word that gets thrown around a lot in the events industry these days. But for Tinsel the definition is clear.

“It’s thinking about all the senses and not just vision,” says Haskins.  “It’s tactile, something unexpected that people can physically feel, or it’s a sense of smell thing where you’re like “Oh that hit me and I didn’t even think that that would happen.” She continues, “A cocktail party is a cocktail party is a cocktail party.  But when you put someone who is lit with 30 candles on their body, you’re like “I’m going to remember that cocktail party.”

This idea of creating memories within events is both an evolved concept and the very foundation. Despite our addiction to the digital world, we are, after all, creatures with senses.  Tinsel has found clients responding to this approach in both the social and corporate spheres. “It’s the same exercise,” says Castelli.

At the Whitney Art Party this year they showed off what Castelli calls their sweet spot: the potential of flowers.  “They never really want simple flowers on the table. It’s not their audience, it’s not appropriate.” So Tinsel went Technicolor, and iridescent, draping mylar over the blooms on the table and creating what the client lovingly called “Beauty and the Beast meets Dexter chic.” The party was anchored by a candy “store” and a bubblegum pink photo booth.  The booth featured dynamic light tubes, utilizing technology to make guests look and feel straight out of a  music video. Says Castelli, “We focus a lot on the surprise and delight moments, a lot of entertainment and engagement.”

When it comes to being on the forefront of events, the team members’ personal interests in food, travel and entertainment play a role, but keeping up with the landscape is key. “We watch our peers and people we admire and try to have a diagnostic approach to our events,” says Contreras. “Not just thinking I want their business , but I aspire to doing work that’s as unique and innovative every time.”

As any event planner can tell you, flexibility is crucial.  Couple that with Tinsel’s out-of-the-box creativity and you’ll get the dinner the company threw for wedding planners last year, which initially required a green parrot for a decadent color-blocking vision.  “We started pricing out parrots and it was so expensive, I thought, should I buy a parrot? ”

In a moment of inspiration, Haskins instead put out calls to friends to see if anybody had one as a pet– in New York you never know!  There were no parrots, she said, “But literally someone was like Do you want a peacock? ” And that is how an extravagant live peacock named Dexter ended up in a photographable vignette, delighting guests.  “If I had been like no it has to be a parrot because that’s my vision , I just wouldn’t have had a parrot,” says Haskins. And they definitely wouldn’t have had Dexter.

Which might be the real lesson: Above all, be adaptable. You may just end up with a fabulous peacock at your party.

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