- Planner: Spotlight Events, Port Coquitlam, BC
- Team: Paige Petriw (owner), Brittany Neuenfeldt, Amanda and Megan
- Event: The Mad Affair, the Terminal City Club's annual gala
- Date: November 7, 2026
- Guests: 350
- Theme: Alice in Wonderland, Manhattan style
- Entertainment: Aerialists, DJs, and mind reading and close-up magic by Kel Modern Magic
Who is Spotlight Events?
Spotlight Events is an event planning and design company based in Port Coquitlam. Paige Petriw founded it in 2012, and she still leads it as owner and creative director.
They plan weddings, corporate events, non-profit fundraisers and social events across the Lower Mainland and the Okanagan. Planning, design, decor, vendors, timelines, the whole night.
I've worked a lot of rooms. This vendor spotlight is my thank-you to a team that made one of them unforgettable.
Wonderland, Manhattan style
The Terminal City Club's annual gala is called The Mad Affair. Spotlight Events took the name literally.
Guests walked into a lobby that still looked like a downtown private club. Then the signposts started. Tea Party Here. This Way. Not This Way. Wrong Way. From there, every room was a different corner of Wonderland.
A hedge wall lit in red, with giant playing cards. A mushroom forest behind the DJ booth. A black and white checkerboard dance floor under purple light. A King of Spades who looked suspiciously like someone in the room.
Nothing was held back. Even the food stations sat on moss, ferns and toadstools, and the cocktail tables had vintage lanterns on bold patterned cloths.
End to end means end to end
Spotlight Events handled the whole gala: the decor, the organization and the planning. They also brought in the entertainment, which ran all night: aerialists, DJs, and magic.
Running 350 guests across several rooms, with performers in more than one of them, is the part guests never see. That's what a planner is for. When it works, the night just feels easy.
What it's like to be one of their vendors
This is the part I want other planners and clients to hear.
Days before the gala, Brittany Neuenfeldt, Spotlight's events and operations manager, sent every vendor a full timeline. She even had my licence plate registered for the club's parking lot so I could load in without a hitch. Small details, and the kind that tell you how a team thinks.
On the night, the team took great care of me, right down to making sure I got dinner.
When a planner looks after their vendors, the vendors look after the guests. You can feel it in the room.
My corner of Wonderland
I worked one room through the night, about 100 guests at a time, reading minds.
One guest thought of a celebrity, anyone in the world, alive or dead. They landed on Michael Jackson. I'd already written him down. "We didn't set this up," they told everyone around them. We hadn't.
That's the job at a gala like this. The decor makes the room. The entertainment gives guests a story to take home.
Planning a themed gala or corporate event?
If you want a night where every corner has been thought through, talk to Paige and the team at Spotlight Events. You can also follow their work on Instagram.
And if your event needs a mind reader in the room, check my availability.
FAQ
Who planned the Terminal City Club's Mad Affair Gala? Spotlight Events, a Port Coquitlam event planning and design company led by owner Paige Petriw. Their team handled the decor, organization, planning and entertainment for the November 7, 2026 gala.
What does Spotlight Events do? They plan and design weddings, corporate events, non-profit fundraisers and social events across the Lower Mainland and the Okanagan.
What was the theme of the Terminal City Club gala? Alice in Wonderland, Manhattan style, for 350 guests. The rooms included a mushroom forest DJ stage, a checkerboard dance floor, giant playing cards and aerialists.
What entertainment works best at a themed gala? A mix that moves through the rooms. At this gala that meant DJs, aerialists, and strolling mind reading and close-up magic, so every room had something happening.
Does Kel Modern Magic work with event planners? Yes. Planners book me as part of the entertainment for galas, corporate events and weddings across Greater Vancouver.
