Would You Like To Spend Your Honeymoon Night On Top Of The World?

PR Director, Michelle Panzer of Brides Magazine, came up with the crazy cool idea to promote the 75th anniversary of Brides with a unique honeymoon suite. A partnership between the editorial and promotional departments supported the event. Genius Brides Wedding Style Director Maria McBride was responsible for designing the decor concept. Her job was to make a cozy nest, a glamorous rest for an urban princess.

Stock PR photo of Top of The Rock
before it was decorated for Brides 75th

With floor-to-ceiling windows soaring 25 feet, the Weather Room provides guests with the ultimate skyline experience. In addition to its magical atmosphere and unrivaled views, it offers access to two magnificent open-air terraces. This space accommodates as many as 300 guests for receptions and seated dinners for as many as 120.
Maria had nests on her mind since the success of her cool recent book Party Basics For New Nesters. She designed a giant fantasy bed high atop New York City in the fantastic Weather Room for the couple, and with the help of fellow designer Mark Musters, created a glam new nest for the newlyweds.

Ooh look at all the Lucite chairs for another party!
Brides actually used leather ottomans and lacquered bar tables

In a city where a couple can marry at a movie premiere and hundreds of wives-to-be scale a giant wedding cake for cash, the idea of putting a honeymoon suite inside a tourist attraction isn't all that unconventional. Commemorating its 75th year—and perhaps looking to edge out the competition with a creative ploy for publicity—Brides magazine built a bedroom inside Top of the Rock for a pair of newlyweds. They hired a concierge for the couple, who spent the end of a long evening on the town at Top of The Rock.

The deck at Top Of The Rock

Dubbed the Mile High Honeymoon Suite, the promotion opened to the public, and closed with a fabulous cocktail party.


On one night, however, Ryan and Kelley Pattee had the 67th-floor perch to themselves! Chosen by the Condé Nast publication as a couple deserving of a unique honeymoon—the bride's ailing parents prevented the two from taking a vacation after their wedding in August—the Pattees were left to their own devices in the romantic east-facing corner of Rockefeller Center's rooftop observatory.

What a view!
Even the stanchions have Swarovski crystals used as the ropes

Ryan and Kelley getting their honeymoon package to Bora Bora
Millie Martini editor of Brides is on the left

Companies like Ann Gish, Swarovski, and Veuve Cliquot provided products for the suite, while Air Tahiti Nui, Tahiti Tourisme North America, and the Four Seasons Bora Bora supplemented the promotion with a vacation package for the Pattees.


To construct the grand Dorothy Draper-inspired four-poster bed, the magazine utilized its own resources. Maria McBride, a designer and consultant with six books on bridal style to her name, headed up the project with production handled by Mark Musters, the veteran event producer and designer now working under the name Studio Mamu. "Working with a space open to the public has inherent challenges," said Maria. With only a six-hour window to load in and build the suite, Maria relied on Mark's production experience to tackle last-minute problems.


A plaster cast for a mold was used, then multiple copies were made in foam, then sectioned together, and painted in gesso and acrylic. The back and sides of bed are velvet upholstery with Swarovski crystals. The posts are wood columns, and the finials are zinc molds.

Maria makes the bed

The most beautiful luxury linens and pillows are by Ann Gish. Swarovski buttons were used for the quilting on the headboard.

Setting up the bed
Love the Draper influence!

The molds for the "plaster" portion of the bed were done by a company called Transit Culture, and then the fantastic bed was put together and constructed by the amazing Iziquerdo Studio (where Mark worked 100 years ago).

Setting up the bed

Back story and installation

Maria and the crew

I did many event at Rockefeller Center with uber wedding planner Marcy Blum, and many fun and creative projects with Maria McBride. Mark Musters was on my crew and roster of the most creative people I used, and often worked on my most important projects.
I hope you enjoyed a little back story of a major marketing and event production. We often just see the finished result, and not all the interesting machinations that it takes to create something so beautiful and ephemeral.
Maybe one day I'll pull some photos out of the vault to show some of the great projects my company did with the fabulous three "M's".
30 Rock has always been glam, but it really is so hip now too. When I worked there the place was decked out with the most gorgeous Art Deco furnishings. Now it's all lounge-y and cool.

Party Basics for New Nesters

A very dear friend, a queen visual vamp, Maria McBride, has another book coming out. It looks yummy for sure, and useful of course. Her own words taken from her blog tell you all about it best:

I spent the last year photographing my newest book, Party Basics for New Nesters, with Alison Rosa. We met shooting a flower story about three years ago. Both moms with city-raised kids, equally passionate about photography, people and politics. We also have very different but similarly shabby chic weekend houses in the same, sleepy town on the far end of Long Island’s wine country. We had much in common and I conspired to work together as often as possible. This book is not only a book about celebrations, it’s a celebration about working together. The right team makes every experience richer. My usual strategy when photographing my books is to shoot the bulk of the book before even thinking about the cover; that way the final, important photograph tells a story about the entire book. A retro-pyramid of martini glasses filled with a chopped salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and onions tossed with a lemony vinaigrette is a playful re purposing of the elegant cocktail glasses into salad bowls. To me, this picture explains exactly how I aim to design celebrations to intrigue guests and tickle my fancy.

Party Basics for New Nesters Newlyweds, new homeowners, new empty-nesters - every homebody needs to know how to celebrate life at home. Begin with feathering your nest as if you were decorating a comfortable resort. Create a haven, stocked with amenities, that you never want to leave. Stock your home with basic supplies, utilizing the resources around you, and you’ll find it easy to celebrate life on holidays or any day. With page after page of practical basics and style recipes, this book makes celebrating every season easy to do. I recommend stocking a party-ready pantry because creating any event from scratch is always more daunting. I define basic tools, supplies and simple skills that will help you host your next party. I encourage everyone to recycle, repurpose, reuse and rejoice. Party Basics for New Nesters is a party-planning guide that shows you how to celebrate your life with practical tips and simple-to-execute decorative accents.

Celebrating is in my blood. I'm the eldest child of gregarious, fertile parents, by the time I was 5 I knew life was a series of parties. I have 10 brothers and sisters, growing up with a crowd, every day pulsed with a festive chaos. We had an open door policy, tour friends were always welcome. And if having 11 children weren't enough, my mom always had a stray fledgling chick under her wing until they could safely fly away. It seems we always had a party coming up, from birthday parties to opening our doors to the neighborhood for a holiday buffet. I learned that entertaining at home is the best way to show loved ones you care—and accommodate a crowd on a budget.

I started entertaining at home as soon as we married, we were college students and had a modest income of student loans and waitressing tips but that never deterred us from having a good time. We were married a few months before Thanksgiving and decided to invite 30 people for dinner. We cooked 2 turkeys, one in our neighbor's kitchen, using my mom's stuffing recipe and her tips for de-boning birds. My husband, a surgeon in training wielded the knife and I made a respectable copy of mom's masterpiece. An affordable centerpiece of fall branches cut from the garden was all the décor we could afford or needed, it was simply glorious. Guests sat all over our tiny apartment and we had such a great time we've indulged in feeding our souls with parties ever since.

Party Basics for New Nesters is my sixth book but the first I've written without the word "wedding" in the title. My career in publishing started at BRIDES magazine, where I learned to produce photographs and events that showed readers how to bring one of the most important celebrations to life. I've indulged in glamorous over-the-top concoctions and affordable-to-execute back yard pot-luck festivities. Many years and parties later I know its not the bottom line but the way you spend the money you have that makes each party a success because if the people that mean the most to you are at your side, the celebration will always be a success.

Amen sister darling!

mariamcbride.com

amazon.com