Santa Barbara Glamour

Merideth and I just returned from a fabulous event at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara! It was a beautiful location and the guests loved every last bit.

We did an "Old Hollywood Glamour"-themed evening - complete with black and white photos of our favorite stars as centerpieces, and cool gobo silhouettes of Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, and Humphrey Bogart.

And then there was the cruise of the Santa Barbara Harbor on the amazing Channel Cat catamaran. We saw some cute critters!

All in all, it was a fantastic event!

--Sara

It's Event Season



The ladies of Samantha Smith Productions have been doing back-to-back events and have still managed to perform to the highest level of service. Check out recent feedback from our attendees:

"Samantha Smith Productions is a top-notch organization...they do great work."
"They were very helpful and engaging. Seemed to really care about my experience and getting me where I needed to go."
"Wow - what a friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient group."
"First-class event planners and they made it look easy. I have run events of this magnitude before - they make incredibly hard work look easy. Bravo."
"The attention to detail was so excellent; it left no room for questions to the hotel staff. Once again---they were excellent in all ways, information, details, and great attitudes. A pleasure to see and work with!"

I am so proud to be apart of such a great team! 

-Heather

Fred Segal




It would not be a trip to Los Angeles without a stop at Fred Segal - a place that I have gone to for years for inspiration. On this trip my old retail executive side came out when I saw this incredible vending machine.

This vending machine answered so many needs: to help customers when things were busy at the store, to provide product information (great touch screen), to give out samples of popular and new beauty products, as well as getting customers signed up for a loyalty program. It was great to watch customers interact with it. I went back twice. It was inspiring!

Samantha

Barbie Turns 50





Another thing I love about Fred Segal is how they incorporate a theme into their entire store. Everywhere I turned there she was Barbie. They had T-shirts, mp3 players, and many more items with the Barbie image plus they had Barbies from every year - who knew she was a brunette in 1969?

It made me wish that I had played with Barbie as a little girl so I could be nostalgic, but alas I was not. But what Fred Segal did was incorporate the theme into everything they did and it worked.

Now I want a Barbie!

Samantha

Keepsake Coasters


This past weekend I planned the table decor for a dinner party. My client stressed that she did not want the wet water glasses directly placed on her wood table. Her answer... coasters.

The standard coaster is typical and expected, but these homemade, personalized coasters served two purposes...coasters AND place cards!


-Heather SSP Event Planner by day, All Set Owner by night

Monterey...A Gem Along the Central Coast


This past weekend Merideth and I saw all of our hard work come to life, as 56 attendees joined us for a fun-filled weekend that has been in the works since spring of last year.  We were so impressed with the beauty of Monterey and the kindness extended to us by all of the locals.

Check out photos of some of the weekend's highlights!


InterContinental The Clement Monterey An AMAZING hotel with one-of-a-kind staff! They are customer service experts. 







"A Picture Perfect Evening" For table decor we used recycled film canisters (we believe in going green) and custom-made "smile!" flags. 











-Heather

New Kid On the Block


Kitchenette is a great new slow/street food-inspired lunch venue that just opened up in our building at 958 Illinois Street.

Last week a few of us went downstairs to give it a try… yum-my! We enjoyed the slow-roasted Berkshire pork sandwich with cabbage slaw, cilantro & jalapeno with Yukon gold potato salad.

The retro décor and picnic benches were a reminder that small details can make the simplest takeout lunch so much fun.

It was inspiring to see how local chefs opened their minds to new possibilities and created a simple business that works in tough economic times. It seems that SSP may have a new local lunch spot.

Check out their daily menu.

Satisfied Customer Elizabeth :)

Websites That Make Me Look Twice

This is a blog that we look at often for inspiration...

Just the other day I was reading Hello Lucky's blog and it had an article "Oh Orla"...wow! Great looking Orla Kiely products at Target this spring. Yay!

Then as I scrolled down two more blog entries and I saw Danielle on the Real Wedding blog: Danielle Spinetta and Greg Piche! Our very own. How cool, Danielle!

See Hello Lucky's blog for the details.


Samantha Smith Productions Team




people make a great company

It all starts with great people, and that we have here at Samantha Smith Productions. I feel very fortunate to work with such talented, creative, and inspiring people. 

We all work very hard, but we also laugh a lot every day, mostly at ourselves. I am inspired by everyone on this team and I look forward to what we will produce in 2009! 

Thanks everyone. 

Samantha