Decorating Christmas

IT IS hard to miss Christmas trees littering storefronts, business spaces, and even some homes as yet another Christmas passes by. But few spare some thought as to who might be behind the Christmas trees, the decor, the lights and feelings that these things generate.

One such group is Event Experts Ltd, a family-led event decor, management and event rental company headed by Isah Clayton.

The over 20-year-old company has decorated and created the Christmas ambience for spaces including the Hyatt Regency, Trinidad.

Clayton, her daughter, Jayna and son, Jonathan, along with their four full-time team members and “tons of part-time members” have created memories and moments for people and companies.

For Clayton, doing this and making a full-time career out of it, is just part of who she is. She remembers growing up and always being the one in her family “to fix the house.”

“Christmas time, we had these polished floors...I remember taking guava branches and creating Christmas tress out of it,” Clayton said.

She figured God gave her “that gift from the very inception of my life.”

She has always had a passion for design: whether it was designing clothing or spaces. During an interview at Newsday’s Pembroke Street office, Port of Spain, Clayton said before she began the business in 2003 she had a clothing design business.

“Once you’re in a design business, you have a passion for anything with design.”

Before Event Experts Ltd was born, she would do “small decors for friends, for church, for weddings, for parties” and then it “became a serious passion.”

Clayton said she’s always had a creative mind and that creative mind started with the design of clothing.

“I had three clothing stores and I did many, many fashion shows with the major fashion designers in the country such as Jacqui Koon How (and who I still do work with even though I am out of the clothing business) and my mentor is Geneva Henry, who is a clothing designer up to today’s date,” she said. She would do designs for her home and soon found that “this thing could really have something in it.” She was also then travelling a lot “and would see what was out in the US and try to bring little elements of that into my work. And that is how it all started.” Clayton’s first client was a wedding with a party of 600 people. While it was challenging for her, it was successful.

From that, the company began.

“It started off as Memory Makers Ltd but as the company grew, three years ago, we rebranded the company into Event Experts Ltd. The reason for rebranding is because my children became part of the business which is Jayna and Jonathan.”

Jonathan is the company’s marketing director mainly responsible for its experiential marketing while Jayna is senior event manager. Clayton is event director.

“Jonathan is more on the very outdoor type of events and Jayna is very much with the weddings and corporate events,” Clayton said.

The company does weddings, corporate events, product launches and conferences, among other events. It has done work for both local and foreign clients.

Jayna believes that she and her brother inherited their mother’s creative gift.

“She has been doing it for about 20 years and I am 26. So as soon as I was able to know myself (I) know that she was into this type of business,” Jayna said. “It has always been something she has been successful in and I learnt a lot from her. Based on what I learnt, I try to bring new ideas into the business as well.”

The mother/daughter dynamic allows them to play off of each other’s ideas. “She might come up with something that I might get an idea from that. Then we kind of go back and forth until we get a nice design to present to the client.”

Central to creating memorable moments and spaces is listening to their client’s needs, Clayton said.

“It is very important to find out what they want. We have a lot that we would want to offer but it is what the client needs. Based on their needs, we allow them to share and give us their thoughts. That way we can take what they want and materialise it.”

Ensuring their client’s happiness at the end of the event is what matters most to the Claytons.

For weddings, for example, Jayna said, “We usually send out a form to be filled out to get details of the event, the venues. Every venue is different and requires different things. The amount of guests, the theme...so we get all of the information possible from the client and then from that we merge their ideas with our own and do a written and PowerPoint proposal, where we actually show them what we suggest.”

The clients are then invited to their Sunflower Drive, Edinburgh, Chaguanas office where they show them the decorative elements in their showroom.

They also have a table scheme done, especially for weddings, where the client can actually come in and see what their table can look like.

“It is like a mini wedding for them. It is a good experience for them to get the first look of the wedding before the actual day,” Jayna said.

As Christmas approaches the Claytons know that when it comes to decor, one of the most important things is the tree.

“You anchor the space with the tree and everything else comes around that tree.”

Their years of experience in the business have also taught them that “(the tree) comes with different feelings. In a home, you get a more festive homey decor. But in the corporate world, you have so many different people in a corporate setting, so you make sure the tree has a feeling of unity and togetherness.”

Jayna also believes that her mother brought a different look of Christmas trees to TT.

“Christmas before, to me, was very simple. Tinsel on the tree, small balls, red and green only. Red, green and gold that was traditional Christmas.”

Clayton, Jayna said, began using different colours like the whites and rose golds that you’re seeing now. “This is not something you would have seen a couple of years ago,” she said.

She also credits her mother with using different decorative toppers.

Clayton explained this happened because she was employed by Excellent Stores at the time “to project the season of Christmas.” She said people would come out and look to see what was happening at the store and what the colour of the year was. “What they saw on those types of trees the country started to follow.”

The Claytons, aware that trends change every day, “continue to educate” themselves.

While they keep up with international best practices and trends through travels and suppliers, the Claytons know that “Christmas is nothing without parang.

“So when we are planning, we are also co-ordinating events...We bring in all of the culture of parang and everything that is of our own Caribbean feel,” Clayton said.

While internationally Christmas trees are “still very traditional” TT is doing its trees differently fully utilising colour.

Clayton’s experience, which she shares in a do-it-yourself video with Newsday, allows her inform TT that “there is a technique to putting up a tree.

“In our experience, if you don’t start well with the branches and opening the tree well, it just would not look the same. Make sure your branches are opened evenly straightened out so that when you put up the tree it looks full and light.”

Here are some DIY tips from Jayna, on how you can add a little extra epicness to your Christmas tree.