Michael Antonia

Michael Antonia has never stopped hustling. He was the kid who mowed every lawn, shoveled every driveway, rode 3 paper routes. He was the teenager who built bikes out of junkyard parts and sold them to his peers. He was the wunderkind who started DJing by night, while booking and producing shows in night clubs, theaters, and festivals by day. He was the college graduate who was swept up in the energetic orbit of Alex Calderwood, founder of The Ace Hotel, a collaboration which would launch him into the design world. He was the young father-to-be who started an event production company from his dining room table during a recession, and over the next five years cultivated it to become The Flashdance, one of the most highly regarded brands in the wedding and event industry. He was the producer who, even in the midst of success, continued to see holes in the industry, such as the godawful furniture at the events he produced. He launched YEAH! Rentals in 2011 to runaway success. YEAH! Rentals has also developed a retail counterpart, YEAH! Furniture, where thousands of hours of rigorous testing in the way of weddings and parties helped him redefine each design by changing materials, adjusting geometry — whatever was needed to make it both aesthetically seamless and functionally indestructible.

The Flashdance now houses 6 companies and covers nearly every aspect of event production, whether it be furniture and props from YEAH! Rentals, photo/video/design from YEAH! Weddings, or a damn good Flashdance DJ. Antonia stays closely involved as the creative director and marketing expert, while also finding time to keep his DJing sharp as ever, and get his music obsession fix working as music supervisor for the Ace Hotel.

Antonia has been featured in Paper Magazine, NPR Marketplace, Reverie Magazine, Apartment Therapy, Remodelista, Herman Miller’s blog, Refinery 29, 100 Layer Cake, and Martha Stewart Weddings and has made appearances on E! & Bravo.