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

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.

Bailey has planned weddings and parties for the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Donna Karan, Liza Minnelli, and Matt Lauer. 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. In addition to writing bestselling books, 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. [Image via Getty, with Joan Rivers]