Find the Right Light: Meet the Lighting Design Expert Specializing in Unique Events

Photo credit: Andrew Dooley

Casting your event in the right light is essential for an unforgettable affair – and nobody understands that better than Andrew Dooley, lighting design partner at Frost Productions. Dooley and his team are responsible for planning and executing some of Boston’s biggest bashes.

“We don’t have a typical clientele,” says Dooley. “That’s the beauty of this industry and what makes the world of event lighting an interesting place.”

After 10 years at Frost’s New York home base, Dooley started the Boston branch in February 2011 with business partner and design consultant Karen Shoop.

“We started from scratch basically,” says Dooley. “With a few contacts, we just began pounding the pavement and seeing what the event scene was like here. We put our name out there and slowly, but surely, clients came.”

Now Frost handles everything from weddings to galas, producing Boston magazine signature events like Best Fest and The Cue & Battle of the Burger. But no matter how many events they have under their collective belt, Dooley says the process is completely unique each time.

“I’ll sometimes overhear sales people from other places telling potential clients, ‘Normally, we do this or that,’” says Dooley. “We don’t say ‘normally.’ That’s not our style. Every new client gets a new, totally fresh design.”

Dooley says the planning stages and initial steps all depend on where the job is sourced, either directly through the client or other avenues.

“Event planners can usually give us a theme, whether it’s rustic, modern, Moroccan, whatever,” Dooley says. “If the job comes from a florist, we’ll approach it from the floral aspect. We like to know who’s doing the tables, the flowers, the linens. There are just so many variables that contribute to lighting design.”

This attention to detail and consideration for every aspect of an event separates Frost from the pack, and clients are eager to show their gratitude.

“We get a lot of thank you’s,” Dooley says. “One thing we pride ourselves on is our customer service. We have a very close relationship with our clients and we’re quick to respond to emails, proposals, and questions. We need to be on the ball and cooperative with their requests. We don’t put people on the back burner.”

In the past two years, Dooley says business has doubled through their biggest piece of advertising: word of mouth. Most jobs will come from referrals by friends or conversations will start at events for future jobs.

Despite this networking connection, Dooley doesn’t want anyone attending a Frost event to immediately recognize their brand’s aesthetic – because, well, they don’t have one.

“Boston is a big city, but it’s still a small town,” says Dooley. “Someone could end up attending 10 of our events in one year, but they shouldn’t be able to guess, ‘This is Frost.’ I don’t want Bob who’s going to Susan’s wedding to then go to a gala at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and see the same setup or a similar style. There’s never a cookie-cutter event with us.”

For more information on planning an event through Frost Productions, visit frostproductions.biz.