Estate Event Planning in Palm Beach, FL
Twenty-six seasons of private entertaining on the island. Seated dinners, estate celebrations and collector previews, planned around a household rather than imposed on one.
What the Studio Does
A small number of households, each for a long time.
We take a small number of households each season. Introductions are welcome, and we are equally happy to say when we are not the right studio.
Twenty-Six Seasons, Six Households a Year
Aubry & Vane has planned private entertaining in Palm Beach since 2000. We take six households a season and we keep them for years — our longest client relationship is now in its nineteenth.
That constraint is deliberate. Private entertaining is not a volume business: it depends on knowing a house, a staff and a family well enough to anticipate rather than ask. A studio running thirty events a season cannot do that, whatever it says.
We also do not publish client names, photograph identifiable interiors without written permission, or discuss one household with another. Several of our clients found us because someone declined to tell them who we work for.
- ✓Six households a season, deliberately
- ✓Twenty-six seasons on the island
- ✓No client named, and no interior photographed, without permission
- ✓We work through your estate manager, not around them
Published With Permission
A small selection. Most of our work is not shown, which is rather the point.
The Part of This Work You Cannot Show You Are Good At
Every studio in this category claims discretion. It is worth being specific about what we mean by it, because the specifics are the substance.
We do not publish client names, and we decline to confirm or deny a client relationship to anyone who asks. We do not photograph identifiable interiors without written permission, and where permission is given we still avoid anything that identifies the address. Our staff and every vendor we bring into a house sign confidentiality terms before they arrive, not on the day. We do not discuss one household with another, including in the abstract.
And we do not treat any of this as a differentiator to be marketed. It is simply the condition of doing the work.
- ✓No client named; no relationship confirmed to enquirers
- ✓No identifiable interior photographed without written permission
- ✓Confidentiality terms signed by our staff and every vendor in advance
- ✓No household discussed with another, even in the abstract
Five Considerations Before Any Design
The household, first
How the house actually runs, who manages it, and what a working evening does to the people who live and work there. Everything else follows from this.
The guest list, understood
Not the number. Who should be seated together, who genuinely should not, and what the evening is quietly meant to achieve between them.
The service pace
How long a course should take, when conversation should be allowed to run, and when the room should be moved. Pace is what distinguishes a long evening from a memorable one.
What the house already has
The right answer is frequently the family's own silver, linen and pictures rather than anything hired. We ask before we specify.
The morning after
The house restored, vendors gone, staff not left with the clearing. If this part is wrong, nothing that happened the night before was worth it.
The Practice
Consistent across every household we take.
A principal on every evening
One of the two partners is present at every event we plan. Nothing is handed to a coordinator after the proposal.
Through your estate manager
We brief and work with the household staff rather than displacing them. They know the house better than we ever will.
Vendors we have used for years
The same florist, the same kitchen, the same service staff. Nobody new is introduced into a private house on a live evening.
Your own things, where they are better
Family silver, linen and pictures usually beat anything hired, and using them makes an evening particular rather than styled.
A single written plan
One document covering placement, menu, service pace and timings, held by us and shared only with those who need it.
The house returned by morning
Struck overnight, vendors released, and nothing left for your staff to deal with the following day.
How an Introduction Proceeds
Unhurried, and without obligation on either side.
An introduction
Usually through a client, an estate manager or an adviser. A direct enquiry is equally welcome.
A conversation at the house
We prefer to meet where the entertaining will happen, and to meet whoever runs it day to day.
A written proposal
The evening described as one plan, with a fixed fee. Not a menu of options to be assembled.
The season
Most households retain us for a season rather than an event, which is how the work is meant to be done.
Given Anonymously, at Their Preference
We have used them for eleven seasons. What we value is not the design, though that is faultless — it is that our staff, our neighbours and our guests have never once had a reason to discuss what happens at this house. Discretion is not a service line for them, it is the whole practice.
A seated dinner for twenty-eight in our own home, and the household was not disrupted for a single hour. They worked with our estate manager rather than around him, which nobody had done before, and the house was exactly as we left it by morning.
We open the season with a collector preview and it has to be right for both the art and the guests. They understood the lighting requirements before we raised them and worked directly with our conservator. That is not a conversation most planners can hold.
We Take Six Households a Season
If you are considering the season ahead, we would be glad to talk. We reply to every enquiry personally, and we will say plainly if we are not the right studio for what you have in mind.
Questions We Are Asked
Do you take clients without an introduction?
Yes. Most of our households come through a client, an estate manager or an adviser, but a direct enquiry is equally welcome and receives the same reply. The introduction is customary rather than required.
Why only six households a season?
Because the work depends on knowing a house, its staff and a family well enough to anticipate rather than ask, and that is not possible at volume. A studio running thirty events a season is doing a different job, whatever it calls it.
What does discretion mean in practice?
We don't publish client names or confirm a relationship to anyone who asks. We don't photograph identifiable interiors without written permission. Our staff and every vendor sign confidentiality terms before they enter a house. And we don't discuss one household with another, even in the abstract.
How do you charge?
A fixed fee for a season or for an evening, agreed in writing before we begin. We take no commission from vendors, which is what allows us to recommend using your own silver rather than hiring.
Will you work with our estate manager?
Always, and we'd insist on it. They know the house better than we ever will, and an evening planned around them rather than over them is the difference between a good night and a disrupted household.
Do you work outside Palm Beach?
For existing households, yes — we travel with clients to their other residences and have done for years. We don't take new clients outside the island.
We Would Be Glad to Talk
Every enquiry is read and answered by one of the partners. Nothing you write here is shared with anyone outside the studio.