FEBRUARY 2019 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 53
FAMILY & EDUCATION
LAUREN SYDNEY EVENTS ART OF PLANNING BY NICK FODERA
Event planning company Lauren
Sydney Events has been a consistent
presence on Long Island’s party
scene, planning lavish bar and bat
mitzvahs, weddings and luncheons
with a confident sense of style.
The company was founded by
Lauren Abate, 43, of Roslyn, whose
path towards event planner extraordinaire
began in an unlikely fashion.
“I always had a passion for art,”
Abate recalls. “After college, I taught
art lessons out of my apartment.”
After a lean period in her 20s in
which she was unemployed, Abate
became a member of the Entertainment
Committee at Fresh Meadows
Country Club in Lake Success.. She
parlayed that opportunity into becoming
the club’s ladies president,
whose responsibilities included
event planning.
It was at that point where her love
for entertaining was first kindled. But
it wasn’t until a friend asked Abate to
plan her son’s bar mitzvah five years
ago that she saw event planning as a
feasible job on its own.
“It kind of spread like wildfire after
that.” Abate says. “I knew as soon as I did
her party that it was going to take off.”
Afterwards, Abate founded Lauren
Sydney Events as a two-person
business. She describes herself as a
“team leader” for every party she’s
hired to plan, working on aspects
ranging from the vital, such as food,
logos, flowers, and music, down to
details like the design and type of
cocktail napkins. But she leaves it to
her clients to decide how involved
she’ll be. Nonetheless, being a part
of the creative process means being
available to talk to clients whenever
needed, even at odd times of the day,
as Abate pointed out.
“I get texts at 7 o’clock in the
morning and at 10 o’clock at night,”
she says. “From the time they hire
me, even if it’s a year out, I’m there
for them pretty much every step of
the way.”
Even though Abate’s path towards
entrepreneurship was somewhat
atypical by her own standards, she
relishes the opportunity she’s been
given to provide everlasting memories
for her clients, no matter the time
and no matter the budget.
“It was just the next chapter in my
life, and it came at the best time for
me,” she says.
Lauren Sydney Events can be
reached at 516-721-6045.
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