WHAT WAS INVOLVED?

CLIENT: The Perth Collective

CONCEPT, EVENT MANAGEMENT, INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT + HOSTING: Nikki Milne @ The Perth Collective

Gather the following ingredients:

• A room full of some of Perth’s most influential businesswomen

• A long table lunch

• Styling by the fabulous Mardie & Co

• A panel discussion as well as presentations on personal styling and photography

• The historic Guildhall event space in North Fremantle

• Carefully curated gift boxes

And you’ve got a recipe for the most uplifting and inspiring Friday afternoon you could imagine.

When The Perth Collective announced they were hosting a Winter Long Table Lunch in Partnership with the Guildhall Event Space, it was an event not to be missed. Founder Nikki pulled together the ultimate dream-team for this one, and has now set the bar so high that I’m sure it’s just about reaching the roof.

Walking into the already beautiful Guildhall, guests were taken aback by just how incredible the room looked. The table was piled high with gifts for each guest and the bar had undergone a very clever makeover to really bring the whole place to life. Mardie and Co worked with Lala Design to design and make custom panels that perfectly slotted in to the usually quite plain bar. The result was astounding and truly showed why Mardie is one of the best in the game. Bar panels! It takes a true professional to think of that. We later learnt that a beautiful gold peacock statue that had adorned the bar, was in fact the initial inspiration for the theming of the day. It stemmed from childhood days at Rottnest for Mardie and really made it feel like so much personality had been injected into that room.

After we’d walked into the main hall and had finished collectively picking our jaws up off the floor, we ventured into the sunny side courtyard to mingle with both the familiar and the fresh faces. Nikki welcomed us with her usual flair and can we all just take a moment here to acknowledge that dress! Wow! And what a perfect dress to boomerang, haha!

Nikki has recently launched Salted Creative, a content creation service for both international and local brands. Salted Creatives photographer Tazz presented her best tips on how to create that perfect image for our social media and we learnt how she amazingly grew from creating images with a $2 Kmart backdrop into now owning her own photographic studio. If you’ve ever followed Tazz’s work (you’d be crazy not to!) then you were there, secretly trying to hide the fact that you were writing every word she spoke into the notes app on your phone.

Following Tazz’s advice on how to style and photograph the perfect image, stylist to WA’s A-list Juvelle Behrendorff gave us her top tips on how to style ourselves. No longer are we classified as “bricks” or “pears” (sorry, in joke, you had to be there!) but we are encouraged to basically style according to our personality. If you’ve got a Kim Kardashian booty and are proud of it, then flaunt it!

We all left our pear and brick personas in the courtyard and ventured in for the really exciting part……. The presents! But first, we all took 10 minutes to practice our new photography skills and capture the shot that was just right to Instagram and make all our friends at work jealous. After sitting down and taking it all in, we were able to see just how much thought had gone into every single detail of the day. From the floral centrepieces to the name tags, everything was perfectly cohesive and proved that when a bunch of women put their heads together, really wonderful things can happen! Lunch was amazing, seriously amazing. Whilst perfectly light and refreshing, we sat with our comfortably-full bellies and listened to Nikki speak with both Mardie and relative newcomer, but oh so lovable, Shenay from the Little Polka Dot Pantry. The girls all blew us away with stories of how they got to where they are now, how they’ve dealt with sticky situations and how it’s ok to say “no”.

With love and thanks to our event partners

@guildhall_eventspaceVenue
@mardieco_perth Event Stylist
@lala.design Stationery
@blush_botanic_perth Flowers
@festoonlightingperth Lighting
@lola_images_photographer Event Photographer

+ guest speakers
@theperthcollective Nikki Milne
@runninginchanel Juvelle Behrendorff
@saltedcreativeperth Tazz Wright
@mardieco_perth Mardie
@littlepolkadotpantry Shenay

+ our gifting partners
@whistleandsqueakSoap
@splendour_box Wellness Box
@dilissimo.vicpark Gourmet Gift
@rawkook Peanut Butter Cups
@thegiftingcollective Candle
@dr_katherine Recipe Book

MENU
Canapes on arrival
zucchini omelette with mint + melting cheese
cured kingfish, soused cucumber and greek saffron dressing
Savoury feast
za’atar flatbread; baba ghanoush; matbucha; marinated olives; smoked almonds; radish + cucumber
silverbeet + chickpea rice
imam bayildi (slow cooked eggplant)
turkish lamb hotpot, honey and prunes
baby cos, feta + soused red onion
Sweets (served at the long table) 
chilled rose syruped watermelon
yoghurt semolina cake with lemon curd fool, Turkish delight + Persian fairy floss