{"id":36277,"date":"2017-08-30T09:21:04","date_gmt":"2017-08-30T09:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bocadolobo.com\/blog\/?p=36277"},"modified":"2023-03-21T18:01:38","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T18:01:38","slug":"exclusive-interview-sugokuii-luxury-events-weddings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bocadolobo.com\/blog\/lifestyle-and-fashion\/lifestyle\/exclusive-interview-sugokuii-luxury-events-weddings\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview with Sugokuii Luxury Events and Weddings"},"content":{"rendered":"Headed by New York-born Diana Sorensen, Sugokuii<\/a> Luxury Events\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>specializes in destination weddings in Capri & the Amalfi Coast\u00a0including exclusive private parties<\/strong>, luxury product launches<\/strong>, intimate fashion shows<\/strong>, boutique openings and yacht<\/strong> services, with entrance to normally unavailable homes, luxury hotels,<\/strong> off the path restaurants and\u00a0the most beautiful & unique places Capri and the Amalfi Coast have to offer\u00a0for the most discerning brides & clients.\n\nSugokuii <\/a>Luxury Events<\/strong><\/em> has planned celebrations for some of the most well-known characters in cinema, music, art & business and is\u00a0known as one of the Caribbean\u2019s & Italy\u2019s leading event and wedding planners<\/strong>, producing extremely personalized luxury events<\/strong><\/em> and results based on each clients\u2019 perception & expectations.\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nSouth of Italy, an Island in the sun, a wedding ceremony and Sugokuii Events<\/a> \u2026 How did this all start?\u00a0How did you come up with this beautiful super romantic idea?<\/strong>\n\nDiana, our Creative Director, has spent all her summers as a child in Capri. One evening as a teenager, she was walking through the Piazzetta with her parents and the electricity went on the entire island. All restaurants and cafes brought out candles and the atmosphere, energy, and lighting remained a strong memory for her and solidified the sensation that Capri would always have a special meaning to her, not knowing then how true that would be. When we (Diana and I) in 2007 had a chance to do something new, we decided to move to Capri from London, not knowing exactly why or what to make of it but to see where it would take us. Diana had before that worked as event manager for some of the most well-known luxury brands in the world for 15 years at that point, in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Copenhagen, and was very familiar with luxury event<\/strong> <\/em>production. Living in Capri, by coincidence, we received a request in 2008 to do a wedding for an American couple, which we accepted, more as a fun challenge than anything else. After that, we started receiving numerous requests, and have since then been kept busy with this amazing opportunity.\n\nYour decorations and design events remind of Neverland and Fairytales, where do you get the inspiration from?<\/strong>\n\nOur inspiration comes from a vast palette of sources; Visiting hotels, restaurants, always traveling, magazines, books, designers, architects, our own back grounds (Diana having a lifelong background in the restaurant and hotels business, fashion, arts and my back ground as an engineer and entrepreneur. The constant curiosity, eye for details, being perfectionists but also understanding the operational aspect of an event and a business are all elements that come into play. Designing a luxury event<\/strong><\/em> with all the hundreds of details that go into creating something homogenous and balanced, yet surprising and unseen requires a strong design aesthetic and discipline, or you lose the cohesiveness. For us it is paramount to always stay true to a venue \u2013 we don\u2019t like to construct venues, but want to enhance and dramatize the natural beauty of a given venue, keeping a delicate balance between the dramatic and the real.\n\nDo you think that wedding ceremony has changed a lot over the years? How?<\/strong>\n\nNot really \u2013 I think 99% of all ceremonies stay very true to traditions in all cultures \u2013 which they should \u2013 the ceremony is a ritual; for some a religious, for others a spiritual, and for others a cultural formalization of the unity between couples \u2013 We, as event designers, must stay true to this principle and only add layers to that (design, floral, music, timing of day, choice of celebrant, etc.).\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nHow do you mix materials, patterns, textures, colors, client expectations and desires\u2026and the final result is a well-design and balanced project?<\/strong>\n\nIt starts with the client. Always. Understanding them, their vision, their likings, their dislikings, temperament, humor, family dynamics, energy, language, back ground, and then from there, it is about the venue. A venue has to reflect as much as possible, all that fits into what represents the client.\n\nOnce the venue is determined, the hard work starts.\u00a0We work in all of Italy, but our heart lies in Southern Italy. But even within that region, there are great differences when it comes to food, culture, wine, customs, architecture, nature, colors, traditions, materials they use or might even be famous for, designs, patterns, etc.\u00a0So we start from scratch each time, sourcing ideas that match region, the venue a couple\u2019s preferences.\n\n\"Exclusive<\/a>\n\nThis phase is a very time-consuming research phase which builds on our own past, knowledge, experience, aesthetics, trips we make, hotels and restaurants we visit, artisans until we have a good feeling of how to design wise execute a luxury<\/strong> event<\/strong> <\/em>at a given place.\u00a0At this stage we will prepare mood boards which we then work on until we are happy with them and at some stage prepared to present to client \u2013 then based on clients feed back, we make final adjustments and then starts the phase where we source the artisans for each element.\u00a0And slowly, slowly, an event is born, taking on its own life, until it almost takes control of us and guides us and our team forward.\n

See also:\u00a0Luxury Hotels: The Jackalope Hotel by Carr Design Group<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Exclusive<\/a><\/p>\n\n\nIf you weren\u2019t an event planner you would be \u2026\u00a0<\/strong>\n\nWe would surely both be entrepreneurs in some capacity \u2013 we both have too strong personalities to conform to any occupation where we would not be heading the creating of something.\u00a0Our entire professional life before events were characterized by doing what had not been done before \u2013 always going out on a limb and force life into ideas.\n\nOne moment, one person or project that marked your career?<\/strong>\n\nFor this carrier it was moving to Capri \u2013 we had no idea what it would lead to, how we would spend the next phase of our lives, but just made the move and worked with what life gave us. Had we not moved to Capri, Sugokuii Events would not have been.\n\nWhat advice would you give to young event planners that are starting their career?<\/strong>\n\nWhen you produce events, you are taking responsibility for a project, with client\u2019s money, which has a very well-defined end date and time \u2013 you cannot tell the client that you are delayed and that we need to move an event to next week. There are so many moving parts to create an event, so one of the most important recommendations to aspiring event planners would be to; take notes of everything during meetings (the devil is in the detail, and you don\u2019t want to tell your boss or your client that you forgot important details \u2013 and you will not be able to remember it all if you don\u2019t take notes), don\u2019t procrastinate anything (you feel you are busy now, just wait, new levels of busy will open up closer to the event, which you want to have time to manage), up to and during events, managing perfection requires laser focus and when your boss tells you to do something, you do it, regardless. No time to discuss fairness or alternatives \u2013 trust your boss knows best \u2013 after the event, you can evaluate. Finally, you need to have a natural interest in what goes into producing an event, so you are able to advise your clients \u2013 these interests include areas such as food, wine, travel, hotels, restaurants, art, architecture, interior design, culture, language, following trends.\n\nWhat are some of the most unique, exciting, or even strange requests that a client has asked you to incorporate in the decor of an event?<\/strong>\n\nA client asked us to serve champagne to all women, and to put a big diamond in one of the glasses, to encourage the women to drink \u2013 we kindly refused to do this. A client asked us to transform a mountain top into a party venue. The only way to get to the mountain top is by chairlift. We had to build a floor on the top of the mountain, bring up an entire kitchen, fly in chefs from India, and transport all items to the mountain top to setup by helicopters \u2013 it took 147 helicopter trips up and down, to load all, and to do this, we needed to first build a helicopter refueling station on mountain top, so helicopters could get fuel to fly up and down \u2013 we had 8 weeks to produce this \u2013 we usually have 8 months.\n\nComplete the phrase: <\/strong>\n\nI can\u2019t work without my \u2026<\/strong>Color printer, Mac computer, digital measuring stick and HP 42S pocket calculator (I found the last two available online 10 years ago and I have one in my safe and one I use \u2013 it is the best pocket calculator in the world and always work)\n\nI\u2019m currently obsessing over\u2026<\/strong> the colors pink, green, materials brass, and copper, antique tiles, finding the best BBQ in the world for our terrace and the 400kg sub zero fridge we had delivered by the crane 1 months ago\n\nMy favorite designer is \u2026<\/strong> That would probably be Lorenzo Mongiardino\n

Don\u00b4t miss the chance to subscribe our newsletter in order to receive our latest news<\/a>\u00a0and articles about Luxury Events<\/em>.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\"Exclusive<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Headed by New York-born Diana Sorensen, Sugokuii Luxury Events\u00a0specializes in destination weddings in Capri & the Amalfi Coast\u00a0including exclusive private parties, luxury product launches, intimate fashion shows, boutique openings and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":102491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[7614,69,6903,2868,7608,2168,7609,7610,7612,7613,7611,1428],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocadolobo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocadolobo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocadolobo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocadolobo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocadolobo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36277"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocadolobo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102838,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocadolobo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36277\/revisions\/102838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocadolobo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocadolobo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocadolobo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocadolobo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}