Above And Beyond Party Décor Turns A Client’s Vision Into Reality

With life comes milestones, many of which are celebrated as special and unique occasions. Andrea Plevin of Above and Beyond Party Décor has built her business around making clients happy by bringing their dream celebrations to life.

With life comes milestones, many of which are celebrated as special and unique occasions. Andrea Plevin of Above and Beyond Party Décor has built her business around making clients happy by bringing their dream celebrations to life.

Originally from Westchester County, N.Y., Andrea moved to Wellington to support her family. Her two oldest children stayed up north for college, and her youngest, Kylee Plevin, joined Andrea and her husband Roger in Florida as they cared for her in-laws. The entire family has since reunited in Florida.

Andrea has long been involved in the communities that she has lived in, which led to her career in party planning.

“I was very active and volunteered for any kind of function that involved decorating, and I really enjoyed it,” she recalled. “People kept saying, ‘You should do this for a living.’ I finally decided to do it.”

Planning parties keeps her busy, too. So far in 2019, Andrea has worked on more than 25 baby showers and first birthday parties alone. Many people don’t realize that doing everything for an event on their own can get expensive very quickly.

“Often, I have supplies here that they can use, and I just take them back, so it’s like a rental,” she explained. “That is going to be much less money than if they went out, bought everything themselves, and then after the party, they don’t know what to do with it.”

During her 23 years in the business of making magic, all three of the Plevin children have been involved in the company to some extent. Her daughter, Jordana Norring of Jupiter, and son, Andrew Plevin of Wellington, have both contributed many times over. “My son Andrew is the fastest at tying balloons that you will ever see,” Andrea said. “Recently, my youngest has become very involved in the business, too.”

Andrea is also now a grandmother of seven, including Dean and Brad Lamont; Grayson and Rayna Norring; and Celia, Hudson and Claire Plevin.

After growing up in Wellington, Kylee graduated from Florida Atlantic University with an emphasis on technical design. She worked in the healthcare field for years before deciding to follow in her mother’s footsteps and feed her creative side. “I’m like my mom, very creative, very hands on, very crafty,” Kylee said. “But I also balance out my mom in ways. I’m very logistic and structured.”

Above and Beyond Party Décor can handle any type of function, from a personal backyard birthday party for two, to a 500-guest event at an exclusive country club. Their unique specialty? Larger than life arches and sculptures made entirely of balloons.

“Organic arches are really in right now,” said Kylee, who explained the involvement of different shapes, sizes and layers of balloons. “To keep up with the trends, we have to adapt to what people are wanting. Sometimes that means we have to learn new and different techniques.”

For the best experience from start to finish, clients should always consider their timeline and realize that successful event planning takes time to execute.

“For large events, like a wedding or bar mitzvah, I suggest getting started at least six months in advance,” Andrea said. “Smaller events should start planning at least a month or two ahead.”

Because the schedule for party planning varies, Andrea is open to working with clientele in person or virtually. She and her daughter are quite tech savvy.

“If I have a picture, I can do it,” Andrea said. “I like talking to people, but I also text often, as more people have been contacting me that way. For people out of the state, we can literally do the entire party by text, and I don’t meet them in person until the event day.”

She explained that the planning portion is all about learning the client’s vision. The execution portion is where Andrea takes the reins and makes that vision real.

She knows the local venues and can draw many of them by memory, but that may not be the best way to translate a client’s vision.

“We work predominantly in Palm Beach County, but we have the capabilities to work outside of it, if that’s what the client needs,” Andrea said. “We also don’t put out packages because everything is tailored to the client. We are also very good at working within a budget.”

Andrea takes being a part of these important lifetime moments very seriously, and that is why clients return.

“One customer, I did all four kids’ [bar/bat] mitzvahs, and now I just did the first wedding for them, too,” she said. “It is fun, but my favorite thing is when it’s all done, and I’m really excited about how it looks. I can’t wait for my client to walk in and see the expression on their face. So many times, they say, ‘This looks even better than I pictured!’”

Above and Beyond Party Décor is located at 235 N. Jog Road in West Palm Beach, and meetings are available by appointment. To schedule an appointment, call (561) 707-6606 or e-mail aboveand beyondparties@gmail.com. To see product examples and check out the extensive photo gallery, visit www.aboveandbeyondparties.com.