Interview: Celebrity event planner Colin Cowie speaks about wedding reception decorations for Lisa Mayo and Stephen Wilfong's wedding in a week

25 April 2007

CBS News: The Early Show

 

TRACY SMITH, co-host:

This morning as our WEDDING IN A WEEK gets ever closer, we need to look at possibilities for our wedding reception. Wedding planner extraordinaire Colin Cowie, whose new book is called, what else, "Extraordinary Weddings," is here with our lucky couple, Lisa Mayo and Stephen Wilfong.

Good morning to all of you.

Mr. COLIN COWIE (Celebrity Event Planner): Good morning.

Mr. STEPHEN WILFONG: Good morning.

Mr. LISA MAYO: Good morning.

SMITH: All right, we're getting closer and closer. We've gotten two tables. These all look extraordinary.

Mr. COWIE: Thank you.

SMITH: But Colin, what did you ask these guys to come up with these ideas?

Mr. COWIE: For me, it's all about, you know, making sure that this is everything about the bride and the groom. And they said that they love brown. So we took brown and we took it from drab to fab.

SMITH: You certainly did, it's amazing. Just from brown.

Mr. COWIE: Brown.

SMITH: You came up with this?

Mr. COWIE: Well, the color that--we put out a bunch of fabrics and I think this is what Lisa and Stephen kind of geared towards.

SMITH: All right. So let's talk about--this is kind of green and brown, stripes.

Mr. COWIE: Yes. We start with a great chocolate brown base. Believe it or not, this canvas, we printed this in my office on a printer.

SMITH: From a computer?

Mr. COWIE: From a computer. So this is printed.

SMITH: Wow.

Mr. COWIE: So this is our runner, which really basically anchors the whole table. And I think the flowers are very beautiful. The idea is working with geometric containers, geometric candles and placing them randomly down the table. And this is a signature style of L'Olivier, who's doing the flowers. He's does these sculpted calla lilies. As you can see here, he worked with the stems. So everything's very geometric and very square. The square plate, the beautiful green napkin. And then this is something very beautiful as well. This was created by Marc Friedland from Creative Intelligence. So these are our personalized place cards and menus.

SMITH: Just amazing.

Mr. COWIE: Yes, yes.

SMITH: Look at the texture on the back of that. Feel it. Touch it, tough it.

Mr. COWIE: Isn't that beautiful?

SMITH: There you go. It's very tactile, you have to touch it.

Mr. COWIE: And there is the actual table number itself.

SMITH: So fantastic.

Mr. COWIE: Absolutely. And I love the idea of personalizing the tables. Instead of giving them numbers, giving them names.

SMITH: Let's move on to pink and brown. This one is gorgeous as well.

Mr. COWIE: Didn't it turn out really beautiful? So this was also--she loved the idea of pink. And we loved the idea of embracing cherry blossom for our ceremony in the morning. The linens were all created by Indigo Moon. And there's tremendous detail, as you can see. We have the inverted pleat in the corner pocket, the way this parts.

SMITH: Just amazing. Little pink pockets.

Mr. COWIE: Look at the beautiful napkins. Look at the size of the napkin and the quality of the napkin.

SMITH: Yeah.

Mr. COWIE: Once again using a geometric, very modern approach to the flowers. This is something anyone can do. This is basically, it's an inexpensive wooden box that's covered with a remnant of...(unintelligible)...brown silk. Seven dollars a yard. A couple of flowers in the top. Everything looks really, really beautiful.

SMITH: Oh, that's a great idea. Once again, flowers by L'Olivier.

Mr. COWIE: Yes. And see then, this is very beautiful here. Once again, Creative Intelligence created our personalized menu cards.

Mr. WILFONG: Wow, that's nice.

Mr. COWIE: And that's how the name is shown on this one, OK? And you see the way we fashioned the table name, like this, with Gramercy. But look behind this on here.

Mr. WILFONG: This is awesome.

Mr. COWIE: A very beautiful way for us to show our host cards. As you can see...

SMITH: Just duck.

Mr. WILFONG: You want me to duck here?

Mr. COWIE: There's your name on the tree and underneath, it says what your table name is. It's real easy.

SMITH: Very good.

Mr. COWIE: Very fun, innovative, whimsical way with host cards and seating.

SMITH: Fantastic.

Ms. MAYO: I love that.

SMITH: And we match this table.

Mr. WILFONG: Absolutely.

SMITH: What do you think about this table?

Ms. MAYO: I know. It's gorgeous. I love it.

Mr. WILFONG: I picked those colors out myself.

SMITH: Nicely done, buddy.

Mr. WILFONG: Thank you.

SMITH: All right. And finally, the long table.

Mr. COWIE: So this idea is to be one very long table for all of our guests seated at one long table. But special mention here is the fabric. This is a gorgeous silk tulle with leather...(unintelligible)...stitched all the way around it. Finished with a beautiful suede ribbon. A lovely linen top. Once again, keeping their geometric idea with these beautiful wooden boxes. With all white flowers down the center of the table. Hydrangeas, phalaenopsis orchids, white tulips, all the way down. And then again Creative Intelligence created these. But this is really beautiful.

Ms. MAYO: I like that.

Mr. COWIE: This is done in a faux white crocodile finish.

SMITH: Look at that croc finish, wow.

Mr. COWIE: Isn't that beautiful? With the name on the top. But it's very simple. I think you wanted something really clean and simple and elegant.

Ms. MAYO: Yeah.

Mr. COWIE: And the same thing here. For the table number. Just slips out right there. Tells us exactly where we're seated. And I think this is also very beautiful detail.

SMITH: Oh, my goodness.

Mr. COWIE: Working with the grommets and the suede, because suede is a principal part of one of the elements the table.

SMITH: Look at that.

Ms. MAYO: Mm-hmm. Dressed up and tied.

Mr. COWIE: So the dress is...

SMITH: Little bustiers, yeah.

Ms. MAYO: Yeah, napkins.

Mr. COWIE: All right.

SMITH: OK, guys, so we just have a few seconds left. Which do you choose out of the three of these? What's your favorite?

Mr. WILFONG: I think we're going to go with the faux alligator.

SMITH: This one here.

Ms. MAYO: Yeah. We definitely like the length, the long.

Mr. WILFONG: And no animals were hurt in making our place settings.

Mr. COWIE: Not at all, not at all.

SMITH: No.

Mr. COWIE: It's all synthetic.

Mr. WILFONG: Good, good.

SMITH: All right.

Mr. COWIE: Real.

Ms. MAYO: All natural.

SMITH: Well, we are looking forward to seeing this all come together.

Mr. WILFONG: So are we.

SMITH: The tension is building. Very exciting. Colin, thank you so much. Stephen and Lisa, thanks to you.

Mr. WILFONG: Thanks for having us.

Ms. MAYO: Thank you.

SMITH: And we'll be right back. You are watching THE EARLY SHOW on CBS.