Alison Events is the brainchild of Alison Hotchkiss, an industry vet who described herself as an adventurous multitasker who travels more than 100,000 miles per year building relationships with international venues and putting on gorgeous gatherings.
It’s also the name of her latest—and third—book, Gorgeous Gatherings, which is her first coffee table book.
Without giving away the entirety of the aesthetic book—which is cloaked in hunter green and boasts a swoon-worthy tablescape on the cover—Hotchkiss explained how Gorgeous Gatherings came about: “I connected with the old editor-in-chief of Martha Stewart Weddings and boom it was on.” The nonchalant reference to the caliber of her rolodex built throughout her 25-year career as an event space consultant, wedding planner and destination event specialist oozed a sense of panache that defines Hotchkiss’s work—and was evident throughout her interview with Vendelux.
“I’m not a rule follower, but I’m not a rule breaker, either. When etiquette calls, I answer,” Hotchkiss said. “I love luxury hotels (who doesn’t?), but I’m not at all stuffy. I’m a hustler, a chaser of awesome. I do whatever it takes to host and enjoy unforgettable experiences—even packing fabric in my suitcase to get the best pillows made locally for an event.”
Hotchkiss’s go-getter attitude and love for the finer things screams “quiet luxury.” It’s a trend that’s taken over social media—and therefore everything else, from skincare to live events—with the help of Sofia Richie Grainge, Rosie Huntington Whiteley and Emily Mariko just as Gorgeous Gatherings hit Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Anthropologie and Target, just to name a few. But it wasn’t intentional, Hotchkiss said, although “I think it defines what we do well.”
“I think clients come to us saying we want a well-designed, thoughtful party where people say, ‘That was so fun and well-thought through, I wonder how much they spent,’”
she added. Well, Gorgeous Gatherings’ 298 pages capture those moments perfectly with a slew of photos by LA-based photography duo Norman + Blake (known formally as Shannen Norman and Emily Blake). Inspo-worthy images of celebrations on the coast of Japan, on the beaches of Mexico, under the New York City Lights and overlooking the Utah desert are accompanied by blurbs of text to assist readers in not only making mood boards and building floral chandeliers, but also in dealing with the challenges of events, like dealing with inclement weather.
Gorgeous Gatherings took six months to pull together, Hotchkiss said, and comes a whole 15 years after releasing her second book, Destination Wedding Planner. When asked why now was the best time to tap back into her endeavors as an author, Hotchkiss said that “the book was a nice distraction from the monotony of my everyday job of planning events,” and served as a “really fun” walk down memory lane. At the same time, “it certainly doesn’t hurt to have side income,” Hotchkiss added, noting that “my second book was wildly successful [and] I was getting checks every four months for eight years!”
And though publishing books has been a steady achievement throughout Hotchkiss’s career, her everyday since 2003 has consisted of working as the principal of California-based Alison Events, which specializes in destination to-dos—then “dancing in my living room with my nine-year-old daughter Vivi,” Hotchkiss told Vendelux. “I’m a single mom, which means I work very hard, and I have a lot of fun,” she noted.
Ultimately, “life is an experience, and I’m all about living it,”
Hotchkiss said. To get a glimpse of how, event profs and aspiring DIY-ers alike can now order Gorgeous Gatherings on Amazon.
