Paul Wesley
Rusty Thomas article
by Diana Cercone
An event planner extraordinaire, Rusty Thomas transports the parties to another world, sometimes seeming to warp time and space to create the right atmosphere and set the mood. Call it a sixth sense or an artist’s unerring sense of design—it doesn’t matter. What does is that Rusty knows how to create the “wow” factor—the je ne sais quoi feeling—that sweeps guests off their circuit of same-old parties and fundraisers, and like a glass of champagne, relaxes and pops them open to enjoy an unforgettable evening of fun.
For fun, Rusty says, is the ultimate goal of any party. This he tells me as we sit in the Doylestown Library for our interview. It doesn’t matter the occasion, he says. A birthday party, a wedding, a fundraiser or an intimate dinner for four, it’s all about the guests leaving on an upbeat note and leaving with memories of an event they’ll never forget.
Name any that he has done and odds are a sure bet that the guests, hosts and organizers are still talking about it. Case in point is the party he designed a few years ago at the Doylestown Country Club. It was a benefit for the Doylestown Hospital and CB Cares Educational Foundation, now known as The Central Bucks Healthier Community Team/CB Cares. Rusty was given the theme of Copacabana and told to run with it. And run he did. He brought in trees, hung canopies of tropical foliage and gilded all with thousands of flowers. For the dinner tables Rusty had custom-made linens, some in light gold, others in bright colors with chiffon overlays. Alternating tables were trimmed in peacock feathers. Gracing each table was a centerpiece of hand-cut orchids and tropical leaves. Among the evening’s highlights was the performance by Brazilian samba dancers he had brought in from New York especially for the party.
You can finish Flowers, Flair, and Fun by turning to page 60 in the Summer 2013 issue of Bucks County Magazine.