Arts & Entertainment
Stephen M. Tokar to Step Away from Event Planning
The legendary event designer and party planner intends to move to Europe to begin a new career
Over the past 40 years, Stephen M. Tokar and his firm Tokar Event Design have been planning massive soirees both in Cleveland and all over America. Earlier this year, the legendary event planner announced his intention to retire from Tokar Event Design and move to Europe to seek new ventures.
Tokar, responsible for events ranging from million-dollar weddings and parties hosted by Martha Stewart to massive political conventions and even a celebration for the Cavaliers’ NBA playoffs victory in 2016, has served as an event guru for over 40 years in the Cleveland area and far beyond.
Earlier this year, the native Clevelander announced his intentions to move to his ancestral homeland of Hungary to begin a new business selling religious tokens in Budapest. In an interview with Cleveland.com, Tokar explained how “(the) business takes a lot out of your personal energy” and elaborated that “I didn’t mind giving that energy, but it’s just time to move on” from the event planning business.
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Over the summer, to cement his intentions, Tokar held a massive sale of his million-dollar event backdrop inventory at his showroom on Euclid Avenue, including tufted velvet furniture, massive ornate mirrors, chandeliers, and much more, with the inventory winding up in the hands of private collectors and fellow industry professionals alike.
However, the event planning scene in Cleveland seems to be in safe hands. According to a news release from Display Group, a Detroit-based event planning firm, Display Group will be inheriting Tokar’s book of business and handling his clients and events going forward, providing an alternative for companies and organizations in need of the sort of large-scale soirees Tokar specialized in.
Find out what's happening in Clevelandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
From his humble beginnings as a flower designer at the age of 10 to his public retirement at 50, Stephen M. Tokar - and the events he has put together - have been a staple of Cleveland for 40 years, but in the words of the designer himself, “it will be nice to do something different”.
