21 Dec Meet Scott Rothenberger, Sustainable Wedding and Event Designer Extraordinaire
In 2009, after 20 years of accumulating experience in various facets of the design industry, Scott Rothenberger opened his one-stop shop. His vision is landscape design and installation, interior and exterior architectural services. 
He features event and holiday decorating from concept to project management, so you don’t have to hire a separate architect, landscaper and interior designer. Servicing the greater tri-state area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, Scott Rothenberger’s PLACE is a 17 time “Best of the Valley” winner.
Scott uses natural elements with vintage accessories to create a luxury rustic design
A member of many green industry professional organizations, the designer also lectures on garden design and donates work to community projects. In 2008, Scott received a citation from the mayor of Allentown for volunteering time to design “green” gardens for Allentown’s West Park.
He also designed and implemented a multiple award-winning cancer memorial garden in his hometown, Boyertown, Pennsylvania, in memory and in honor of the lives touched by cancer.
And as luck would have it, he does weddings.
Hi Scott! Please tell us a little bit about yourself and the story behind your company.
With my background in architecture, combined with 15 plus years of practicing landscape and garden design, years of event decorating, from small weddings to larger-than-life-themed galas, and a personality that loves to entertain, it all came together. This business concept was the next logical move for me professionally. PLACE collaborates with registered architects and the most well-respected contractors in the area in order to offer complete services. We offer a turnkey solution to guide you through the whole process one step at a time.
Design continuity is our hallmark and is a result of understanding our clients and their lifestyles. Whether designing something as intricate as a home or as playful as a party, my blueprint always includes one essential component: fun!
Please give us some tips for our brides on how to make their wedding design and florals more eco-conscious?
Source from local garden centers, talk with local gardeners about what is native in the area where your event is being held. Native plants require less natural resources to thrive and replenish their supply quickly… Thus resulting in a very small strain on our environment. We have a warehouse full of items that might look useless to some people, but for us we are constantly re-using and re-purposing with the addition of paint, glitter, fabric and other additions.
This Floral Arch takes it’s inspiration from the pond and local elements surrounding it, creating a beautiful design
What are your favorite sustainable design trends for 2018?
Mother Nature offers a wealth of beautiful options when decorating. When you bring the outside in and add a little spray paint and some glitter, you create something that connects you to your region. Actually, this is not new for me, I have been doing it since the beginning. As an architectural designer, I am always trying to blur the lines between interior and exterior spaces, this goes the same for event creation.
Do you have certain plants and decor as your “go-to” florals? Also, tell us about your use of vintage and re-purposed materials in your design layouts.
Bamboo has great texture and is an extremely renewable source, which is why so many LEEDS certified buildings use bamboo as a product. Scale is so important and often overlooked by many event decorators. Bamboo has the ability to add dramatic height in ballrooms with soaring ceilings. Also, I love ornamental grasses … depending on how they are used, they can be extremely elegant, delicate and feminine or rustic and casual. I recommend using flowers “of the season” for your area … if the color isn’t quite right for your vision floral spray paint comes in an endless variety of colors.
How would you motivate your clients to “go green” in their design, while staying true to their vision and keeping their event stylish and elegant?
The most important thing is to find a designer that shares your vision for the end result but uses their experience and talent to use natural and sustainable materials to create that vision. Nothing we do is cookie cutter, yet when looking at an inventory of items at our design studio they may look the same going into our trucks, but its how we manipulate those items to create completely different compositions. Thus events feel very different and perfectly suited to our client’s visions. I think of components as paint on a palette … van Gogh and Picasso may have paint palettes with exactly the same colors, but they manipulate and compose the colors on the canvas to create completely different works of art.
Are there specific charities that you work with and can recommend for re-purposing florals after an event?
Even the brides with the largest families or events with the largest group of volunteers just can’t possibly take all the fresh flowers we use home after an event. As we are cleaning up events, we pull flowers out of the vases and make small bouquets for guests to carry back to their hotel rooms or houses…. We then take some flowers to local nursing homes and the rest will be sold at our design studio “pop shop” at an incredible savings, and then 50 percent of those proceeds are given to charities that we as a company already support: Susan G. Komen Philadelphia, Willing Hearts Dalmatian Rescue, Wings 2 Peace Pediatric Hospice, Lost our Home Pet Foundation … just to name a few.
To learn more about Sustainable Event Design and to get a quote,Contact Scott Rothenberger’s PLACE
Scott in his design studio, Design by PLACE, getting ready to make some magic!
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610-428-1801
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86 Laura Drive; Barto, PA, 19504
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www.designbyPLACE.com