2012 Event Trends Revealed
What’s hot and what’s not this year in the event planning industry? We asked top planners to share which event supplies and party supplies they feel are on fire in 2012.
Old World Vintage Events
As for popular decorations, Ana Skidmore of Two Foot Creative thinks, “the vintage look will still be around, but with a twist.” Skidmore predicts a more elegant vintage look. Rather than rustic, with “farms and old books and luggage,” events will probably show a more “old-world vintage.” 
This is a trend mostly seen in weddings, but what weddings start, proms soon follow. Just think: your prom theme could be An Evening Under the Stars, but then you could give it a Victorian twist, with more antique colors, such as gray, ivory, and gold.
Favors that Promise to be Popular in 2012
Another popular trend is offering party favors that are edible. Candy bars that are personalized with fun messages and names and personalized candy jars, lollipops, and mint tins are vogue in 2012.
Edible favors are sure to be popular at proms, dances, after-proms, and all sorts of other events this year. Personalized candy jars are not only a fun way to add a creative decoration to your event, but are also great for keeping your attendees or guests from getting too hungry. These personalized candy jars are sure to last a long time—the image you choose is printed directly onto the lids of the candy jar. This could be a favor that is planning-committee-specific—only members of the event planning committee can take these as favors.
Another great idea for favors is personalized photo frames. You could either choose frames with a personalized message on them or you could choose frames that your friends could sign and leave little notes on, thus adding to the memories from the evening.
More Hot Decorations for 2012
Choose a variety of backdrops for your prom that will work beautifully with the “old-world vintage” idea. Rather than simply sticking with a starry backdrop, you could also use a backdrop covered in red roses or a backdrop of Victorian feathered masks. Any of these, as well as many others, will work with grey, ivory, and gold for decorations.
After you’ve chosen the backdrop around which you’ll decorate, you can move on to colors. As Skidmore said, grey, ivory, and gold will be popular during the “old-world vintage” trend. This evokes a more elegant type of event, perfect for prom. You could use gold fabric for table covers and then focus on ivory and grey as your accent colors. If you run into problems finding grey accents, try focusing on ivory and gold as your two main colors and adding small amounts of black to set off the elegance of the event. Now, put your newly-learned skills to work and plan an elegant event to remember!
