Dinner Hosted by the Secretary of the Treasury

It was an honor when I received a call from the Protocol Office in Washington, D.C., asking me to help with the planning of a dinner to be hosted by Henry Paulson for the Department of the Treasury. The venue was The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. The plan was for the guests to enter the Hotel lobby and go to the back terrace where cocktails would be served. Then later be joined by a group of sponsors already gathered for a VIP Reception in the Alhambra Ballroom. The focal point of the Alhambra Ballroom was the fireplace.  The mantelpiece was covered with hundreds of red roses and around the room,  there were high top tables covered in midnight blue tablecloths with a julip cup filled with red roses in the center. Afterwards, all the guests would move to the Courtyard in front of the Country Club Ballroom where dinner would be served in the open air under the Miami sky. Plans for the dinner location quickly changed once we had a meeting with the Head of Security from Washington. It was too risky, too open. After several meetings it was decided that the dinner would be inside the Country Club Ballroom. I agreed with the decision because there were so many obstacles to overcome outside including the possibility of rain. When you have fifty tables or more it is not easy to move them to another setting at the last minute and a tent was not an option, it would destroy the feeling of dinning under the stars. The dinner tables were covered in midnight blue “peau de soie” tablecloths. I used silver chiavarri chairs with white cushions, white napkins, silver chargers, white china and a silver bowl filled with fifty red American beauty red roses in full bloom surrounded by white votive candles. As usual, I completed the effect of the room by pin spotting the centerpieces and up lighting the columns. A jazz ensemble played during dinner. Once we were set, the sniffing dogs were brought into the Ballroom by the security guards. It was a very tense but extremely rewarding and prestigious experience for me.

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