Boris Kodjoe, Kelly Bensimon and Unik Ernest (Courtesy of R. Couri Hay Creative PR)

Allegedly, Kelly Killoren Bensimon can make you hot – and make you spend money. “Everyone should feel guilty if you don’t leave here without spending money,” she and her dapper co-host Boris Kodjoe said to a chic and tropically-clad audience gathered at last night’s fifth annual Edeyo Gives Hope Ball, at Lower East Side’s DL lounge.

Unik Ernest, founder of Edeyo (Eh-day-yo), an organization dedicated to improving the future of the children of Haiti by rebuilding schools and providing them with basic necessities on a day-to-day basis, definitely wasn’t about to keep the current state of Haiti on the DL.

Waitstaff festooned in bright blue and green Edeyo shirts sold colorful Edeyo merchandise and guided guests through various deluxe silent auction bids, among them trips to Aruba and Africa.

Playing what looked like long silver tubas, a band made its way upstairs to gather guests around a podium. Mr. Kodjoe invited the audience to step into the pool. It’s only about four inches deep, he encouraged everyone, you won’t need to swim. Guests stayed where they were, a few squeezing between the palm trees and perimeter of low-seated tables for a better look.

The boisterous crowd finally settled when Mr. Kodjoe threatened to close down the bar. Everyone put down their mojitos and lemonades, and Mr. Kodjoe proceeded to introduce Mr. Ernest.

Though hard to hear, we certainly got his point. “Happy birthday to everyone!” he said when presented with cake and candles. The night was definitely not about him (even though it was also his birthday): it was for Haiti, for giving back and creating awareness. It’s not something you can just put a band-aid on, he said.

Ms. Bensimon received a Edeyo Humanitarian Award for her many philanthropic efforts and Nigel Barker took home the Edeyo Hope Award for his humanitarianism and documentary work exposing the conditions in Haiti. A special video and live auction followed the presentations.

Guests meandered back into the blue-lit shadows of the palm-treed rooftop after the speech, looking out over a gray-cast Downtown, and all they seemed to be saying was “What eh day yo.”

Randy Fenoli says "Yes" to Free WeddingMoon Giveaways

Brides no longer dream in black and white. No, explained Marsha-Ann Brown, self-proclaimed Tangerine Caribbean Queen and Director of Romance for Sandals Resort, to her audience last night in Grand Central’s gold-chandeliered Vanderbilt Hall, “A bride dreams in color.”

The Director of Romance for colossal wedding destination Sandals, which has 14 resorts in the Caribbean, reinvents “opportunities of passion and fun and flavor every day.”

“I plan dreams, I plan fantasies, I plan really making dreams become a reality,” she said. “I happen to have the best job on the planet.”

(The Observer has been mulling over ways to add “Director of Romance" to its masthead.)

“It’s like pumped excitement,” she said. “I mean, I wake up and dream. It’s crazy."

"People think we’re on steroids," she added. "But we’re really on happy pills.”

In part, the tropical-themed event celebrated tri-state military couples who, in service our nation, were never able to have a honeymoon or wedding. Sandals gave away WeddingMoon packages to the nine couples present and celebrated the launch of its new web application, or wedding “inspiration” tool. (Because buying the same wedding package is like having that woman wear the same dress as you to the Frick Gala.)

“Every bride wants their wedding to be different and unique from every other wedding,” said host of TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress Randy Fenoli.

Per the zeitgeist, everything, including weddings, is about individual expression. Wedding dreams can now be built by scroll-down options for everything from bouquets, to ceremonies, receptions and entertainment. “They’ve unpackaged the wedding,” Mr. Fenoli said.

Mr. Fenoli was brimming to the top with excitement, in part because of his new show, Randy to the Rescue, premiering tonight on TLC. “It was a concept I had that I wanted to really be able to take to the girls that didn’t have it in their budget that couldn’t come to NYC to take the dresses to them," he said of the show. "TLC gave me an 18-wheeler, we filled it full of wedding dresses, and we took across country,” he said. “We did a pop-up bridal salon and once [the brides] chose the dress[es], I chose three of the brides that really needed rescuing.”

He provided the three with a “bridal blueprint” (we really do like the alliteration) to take and recreate on their wedding days.

“My mission was to set out and change these women’s lives. But what happened, and I say this a lot, is they really changed my life, because their stories were so powerful," he said.

“There’s so much that goes on in people’s lives that you don’t always get to see and hear and I actually got to be their microphone," he continued. "I felt like I was like Barbara Walters or Anderson Cooper asking them questions to get their story told, and there’re some really powerful stories and some funny moments and some tearful moments, and I’m really proud, and I’m really cautiously optimistic that it’s going to do great."