Party Pros

Less is more: For a Naples Winter Wine Festival dinner, the team projected X-ray pictures of tulips-gray, white and black-on centerpieces of glowing Lucite cubes and placed a single real flower at each setting.

Where to spot trends: The home industry. For a gold-themed event, he's using pebbled and burnished gilt wallcoverings for tabletops.

Build to a climax: "Don't give up your hand right away." A party should be a progression of elements and surprises. Guests at a wedding at Captiva's South Seas Resort were enjoying cocktails and the last traces of sunset on the lawn when the gauzy grand tent across the beach began to glow as servers lit hundreds of candles and glass hurricane lights within.

Watch the scale: In a ballroom "everything needs to be bigger than you think."

Never forget: People want to believe in the magic. "They don't want to look for

what's wrong."