David Monn
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Imagine seeing the world through event planner David Monn’s eyes for just one minute of your life. Imagine walking into a room and knowing instantly how to make it better. Imagine if you could take a few handfuls of supermarket plums and grapes and turn them into a centerpiece as impressive as baskets of roses. Imagine going someplace you’ve been a hundred times and seeing new ideas and new inspiration, as if you’d never been there before.
For twelve years, David Monn’s magical way of seeing the world has been available only to a privileged group of clients through his event‑planning firm in New York City. A state dinner at the White House, openings of the Tiffany flagship store and the Fontainebleau Hotel, the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala, countless large‑scale birthdays and weddings and other celebrations—every lucky guest knows that there is no party like a Monn party. Building on one telling detail of a client’s life—for a bride, it might be a favorite candy; for Frank Gehry, it might be cardboard—Monn creates a few unforgettable, carefully choreographed hours using scent, sound, sight, touch, and taste to create what he calls “one simple truth.” It has to be “shared, lived, and felt” by everyone there.
But creating beauty in your life does not require 10,000 balloons or 3,000 hydrangeas. Monn has surprisingly simple lessons to share. As he likes to say, it starts with “not just looking at, but really seeing” the world around you. It involves understanding the importance, in everything you do, of his three favorite words: authenticity, scale, and detail. It means considering your home as not just rooms, but instead as “a living environment,” and not thinking of a birthday as a party, but rather “a milestone of accomplishment and growth.” You must genuinely believe, as he does, that “truth is beauty, and beauty is truth.”
In this volume Monn introduces us to the people and places that have inspired him and taught him “to see”; he draws from his personal archive of 20,000 event photographs to show us how he puts his ideas to work; and he lets us into the private world of his spectacular Manhattan loft—which has never been published before.
David Monn was born in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania. He worked as an interior designer and in the fine jewelry industry before launching his event-planning company. His clients include social leaders from around the world as well as a Who’s Who of brands and institutions. He is frequently invited to lecture at arts and horticultural organizations. He is a contributing editor to Departures magazine and has been featured in numerous luxury and lifestyle publications. He directed and produced two theatrical event productions for the Park Avenue Armory, In the Void and Masquerade. He has served on numerous philanthropic boards, including Arts Connection, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, as well as on planning committees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the New York Public Library. He has been recognized for his devotion to animals by the Animal Medical Center. He lives in Manhattan.
There’s no party like a David Monn party—but now your event can emulate the master’s, thanks to this luxe volume of entertaining inspiration. . . . Let the celebration begin!
Traditional Home
After more than a dozen years in the business, the elite party planner and former interior designer is releasing a new book. The tome offers decor and etiquette tips along with more than 200 photographs. . . . Now all that festive creativity can enliven your next soiree. . . or at least your coffee table.
New York Post
David Monn has been transforming mere spaces into spectacular stages for entertaining and events for over ten years. . . . In this book, you are invited behind the curtain to see how it all comes together for 36 events from weddings and bar mitzvahs to grand galas for such New York institutions as the New York Public Library and Guggenheim. While the scale is grand, there are ideas that can be translated for your next entertaining occasion. The lavish, oversized book showcases Monn style in all its facets.