All Over Albany

Mary Elise Rees Event Design

Project: Mary Elise Rees Event Design, a design studio in downtown Albany focusing on wedding and special event design and coordination as well as related community DIY workshops.

Who: Mary Elise Rees

Short bio
After years creating fine art in the form of installations and performance art and with a BFA in sculpture from Pratt Institute, Mary Elise Rees saw a need for unique wedding and event design in the region. Mary Elise Rees Event Design was officially created in November 2014. Since then Mary Elise has collaborated with Takk House to create the Knotted Event (an indie wedding showcase), worked with the band The Parlor to create a custom design for their new music video, and created a holiday window display for the Fort Orange General Store.

A description of the proposed project
Mary Elise Rees offers full wedding and event design and coordination as well as ala carte design. She uses the many skills gleaned as an artist (printmaking, woodworking, graphic design, sewing, and color theory for instance) to design weddings and events. The type of events she creates mirror her own art work process; they have many layers of meaning through the design that are inspired by the couple with lots of handmade details. Mary Elise is excited and passionate about creating a business that changes the wedding industry to be more inclusive, more creative, and more diverse. She would like to be the alternative that couples are craving. She wants to bring more emphasis to hand made and custom designs, and the local alternative vendors the region has to offer. When you see a wedding or event designed by Mary Elise Rees most often every component was designed and/or built by her, from the invitations to marquee letters to large cut paper installations. Besides just offering event design and coordination, Mary Elise Rees would like to offer DIY workshops within her design studio. These workshops would be fun events where attendees will get to learn how to make something new, maybe for an upcoming event they have, while drinking wine and mingling. Mary Elise is also hoping to have the studio open on First Fridays for events or mini art shows as well.

How would the grant money help?
If I was so lucky to get this grant I would use it to offset the costs of establishing my event design studio. Taking on a brick and mortar location for a small business is no easy task. The grant money would go towards outfitting the new studio with tools necessary to creating custom designs (approximately $400), window and street level signs (approximately $500), furniture to outfit the studio (approximately $250), and marketing (approximately $350). I purposely located my business in downtown Albany because I believe strongly in contributing to changing and improving the economic development of the region. This money would not only help my business, but by collaborating with other small businesses, it benefits their businesses as well. I believe strongly in spreading the love and paying it forward. This grant will help propel my business to the next level, a level that without the grant may take another year to reach. Providing a small business with a leg up so they can fill one of the many vacant store fronts could cause a beautiful domino effect and attract more businesses to open up in our downtown as well!

Photos: Photography- Bryer Photography, Event Design & Styling- Mary Elise Rees, Flowers- Flower Scout, Venue- Takk House, Bridal Gown- True North Bridal, Hair/Makeup- Gwen Carter