Who

One of the city's elite event planners, Bailey is known for planning some of the ritziest weddings in New York and beyond.

Backstory

Raised by a poor family in the Panamanian hinterlands, Bailey moved to New York City in 1969 to study accounting at Pace. He soon turned to a more glam lines of work, dabbling as a fashion model and opening his own men's clothing boutique on Third Avenue. The store shuttered in 1977, but Bailey rebounded three years later when interior designers Bob Patino and Vicente Wolfe asked him to create floral arrangements for their high-powered clientele; within a few years he'd branched out into event design and set up his own planning company, Preston Bailey Entertainment Design. Now one of the city's very few name brand event planners, the tall, black and bald Bailey is known for his ability to completely transform a space with over-the-top sets and floral arrangements.

Of note

Bailey has planned weddings and parties for Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Donna Karan, Liza Minnelli, John Galliano, Bill Cosby, Laurence Fishburne, Matt Lauer, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Michael Douglas, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Joan Rivers hired him to put together a tsarist Russia-themed wedding for her daughter Melissa—the event featured a canopy of birch trees hung with blue lights and 30,000 white flowers. (The decorations alone cost $300,000.) And he's also the guy who put together Donald Trump's ridiculously over-the-top wedding to Melania Knauss. Bailey is the author of three bestselling books: Preston Bailey's Design for Entertaining (2002), Fantasy Weddings (2004), and Inspirations (2006).

Shill

Bailey is no slouch in the licensing department: His name has been attached to weddings at Sandals all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean, bouquets from 1-800-Flowers.com, and silk-screened glassware. He recently posed in ads for Condé Nast-owned Brides.com.

Vice

Sober since 1990, Bailey has confessed to having had serious substance abuse problems in the past: "Coke, alcohol, you name it. I went through the entire 'almost lose your home' kind of a thing," he once told the Times.

Personal

Bailey lives with his partner, graphic designer Michael Speir, and two cats in a rented two-bedroom apartment in Gramercy Park.