When the rivers were more troubled for the Beckham family, the famous event designer (Panama, 76 years old), in charge of organizing this wedding for several months, claimed to have not noticed anything strange during the preparations. “There was never any tension,” he told the American media, surprised by the attack on his parents by a young man whom he remembers being involved in the details and treating him kindly.
The organizer of Brooklyn Beckham’s wedding in 2022 – he was in charge for 11 months, but then had to leave due to scheduling problems -, also responsible for the spectacular weddings of – among many famous names – and three of the children of the very rich Indian Ambani family, seems to be left alone with the beauty of the moments he creates. In a video call with EL PAÍS from New York, where he lives and has his office, Bailey talks about his work – he is famous, above all, for his impressive floral installations – with the distance of someone who has lived so long that he can only keep the best. He also does it with passion and humility: he came to the world of event organization by chance or, rather, by necessity. “I was starving and couldn’t pay the rent,” she remembers about her beginnings in New York in the eighties, when she still had no idea about organizing anything or working with flowers. That changed when his best friend—“even today”—, the interior designer of Cuban origin, suggested that he make flower arrangements for one of his clients, which ended up being his way of life.
“The first ten years were a nightmare,” Bailey recalls. “I was learning, it was a time of exploration.” He says that he did not know how to treat flowers, that sometimes they died and that, sometimes, when clients asked him about a flower, he made up the name. “It was a matter of survival,” says the designer, adding: “But something I knew from the beginning, instinctively, was that whatever I did, it had to be something different.” Perhaps also instinctively, the apprentice Bailey dedicated himself to photographing his work with flowers during that decade. Those images ended up making up his first book and that book reached the royal family in Abu Dhabi, who saw his arrangements and hired him.
In 2024, for , which is still considered the wedding of the century due to the opulence that was displayed, he worked with millions of flowers, with which he created more than 60 sculptures of giraffes, leopards, monkeys and tigers, each made with thousands of them (between 100,000 and 200,000). When someone hires him to make flower arrangements, he says: “The first question I ask them is what their favorite flowers are. The second, what flowers they don’t like. It all depends on the client’s tastes. [La decoración con flores] It really depends on the type of work, the location, the sensitivities. I have clients who have grown up with certain flowers that bring back bad memories. Therefore, I am not even considering using them.”
Considered a magician, a legend in event planning, at an age at which anyone else would dedicate themselves to living, Preston Bailey continues working, designing and directing, as he explains: “I think it is important that on the day of the celebration itself I make sure that every moment is full of surprises and that the guests have a wonderful time.” Regarding the process, he says that “normally, my clients call, come, we do an interview and see if we are suitable for each other. [El trabajo] “Sometimes it takes a year, sometimes six months, many times it can be two or three months, depending on the situation,” he clarifies. His favorite part, without a doubt, is the contact with people. And when he says people, he refers to clients like those who, as he explains, hired him a couple of months ago to organize a party: “They are artists, I work with very great artists and they have a wonderful vision. I learn a lot from them and try to connect with the vision they have.”
Without being blinded by glamor and after more than 40 years in the events business, it is still clear to him that he is dedicated to providing “a service.” His ethic is summed up in non-judgment and understanding: “My job is not to tell my clients what to do, but to explore with them, to get out of my head and into their heads to understand what exactly they want.” He also knows what they are looking for: “Most of them hope to do something that has not been seen before, which today is very difficult with Instagram. For me it is always a challenge. Normally, what I do is give them not one, but three different designs. I want them to have the possibility of choosing, like when they are going to buy a Gucci bag: ‘Do I like this one or this one?’. And I think that is the best way to deal with luxury clients: to give them options. One of the biggest challenges is still finding that idea that makes them say: ‘Oh my God, this is perfect!’ he sums up.
Regarding the wedding industry, he remembers that the first wedding he did cost $300. Today, according to his experience, “in New York you don’t make one for less than a million.” She is surprised by how the business has evolved, specifically hers: “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would design real weddings or that we would literally build entire buildings for an event. At first this was about putting small flowers on the tables, not about transforming, taking a location and changing it completely. We make flowers and they are important because now everything is an art installation, ceilings, walls, floors.”
“Anyone can have the perfect wedding,” he says, although with conditions: “Instagram is both a blessing and a curse. Couples who have a moderate budget see photos on the social network and believe they can do the same. They don’t understand that the work involved is at a different level. They shouldn’t expect a $500,000 aerial installation, but they can have a more modest version, made with other materials. It’s a matter of expectations.”
Although his office is in New York, he is fortunate to work all over the world. Regarding how weddings are conceived in different latitudes, he reveals: “I always say that the simplest wedding in India is considered exaggerated in the United States. Their sensibility is different, they celebrate in a different way. In the world, most weddings in Europe are considered simpler. I would not design a wedding in Los Angeles with the same expectations that there were in the Ambani wedding, because they are two absolutely different markets.”
