Apr 5, 2011 | Eco-Friendly Events, Family Parties, Other Events, Parties and Special Events, vendors, wedding planning, Weddings
Rickshaw Rick, as he appears on his website.
Do you want something a little different for your next celebration? Try hiring a bicycle rickshaw to take you from place to place. Having a wedding at church and the reception down the road? You could have unusual and memorable transportation.
Rick Carter of Rickshaw Rick provides a service that is, I think, unique. He has several styles of bicycle rickshaw and a number of drivers, so he can accommodate large or small parties. There are covered cabs and open ones; colorful ones and wicker ones. And they are all powered exclusively by pedal power. Now, there’s an eco-friendly option to consider for your next party!
Dec 26, 2010 | Budget Planning, Day-of Coordinating, Eco-Friendly Events, Family Parties, Other Events, Parties and Special Events, wedding planning, Weddings
In this season of many blessings, I would like to take note of a few things I am grateful for.
I am grateful to be able to make my living helping people and doing things that I love.
I am grateful for the other event and wedding professionals I am lucky enough to work with. There are some terrific people in this business!
And, most of all, I am grateful for all my wonderful clients who share their special occasions with me and trust me to make sure their weddings and family parties are as wonderful as they expect them to be.
Thank you to all of you! All the best in 2011.
Nov 30, 2010 | Family Parties, Other Events, Parties and Special Events
I know I focus a lot on the weddings I work on in this blog. That’s because I like weddings and I do a lot of them. But I do other things, too. If you’re looking for party help for a bar or bat mitzvah, anniversary party, birthday party, holiday party, or any other kind of celebration, please feel free to get in touch with me.
Nov 15, 2010 | Family Parties, Other Events, wedding planning, Weddings
I get a lot of questions from my clients about when to send out invitations. Here are a few guidelines to get you through this part of wedding or party planning:
You can send out save-the-date cards (or e-mails, or you can make phone calls) about six months in advance. If you have guests who might come from overseas or who have other situations that require more notice, you can alert them to the date a year in advance. Most people have trouble planning anything more than a year in advance, though, so if you tell people farther ahead than that, expect to remind them at about the 6 to 9 month mark.
Be prepared to put your invitations into the mail six to eight weeks before the event. Leave yourself ample time to address all the invitations if you are doing them yourself. If you are hiring a calligrapher to address them, be sure to ask him or her how much time is needed for the number of invitations you have. Then add a week, just to be on the safe side.
Your RSVP deadline should be about three weeks ahead of the wedding or party. (If you only plan to get the invitations into the mail six weeks ahead of the wedding date, you can get away with about 2 weeks for the RSVP date.) Your caterer will probably want a final head count between a week and two weeks ahead of the date, and you want to leave yourself enough time to call the people who have not responded by the deadline.
And there will be people who don’t respond. Be sure to leave yourself enough time to call them and just check in. You don’t have to remind them that they have been rude enough not to reply. Just ask them if they plan to be there (and what they plan to eat if you have asked people to tell you in advance). Don’t skip this step. You don’t want to have people show up if you haven’t planned to feed them.
Your spreadsheet is useful for making place cards, too. Photo courtesy of Artisan Events, Inc.
I find that the best way to keep track of the guest list is with a spreadsheet program. I like to have columns for name; address; save-the-date card sent; invitation sent; responded yes or no; and dish requested. The same sheet can also double as a gift tracker so you know what to thank people for and whether you have done so. And you can use it to help you make place cards.These are only guidelines, of course. Special situations may require a different approach. But you can use them as a road map to get you started on this most important part of the process.
Oct 14, 2010 | Budget Planning, Family Parties, Other Events, Parties and Special Events, wedding planning, Weddings
In a previous post, we looked at how the size of a catering company affects your choice of caterer. Here are some further thoughts on how to hire a caterer.
Can your caterer do this? Photo by Magical Moments Photography.
Once you have narrowed down your list of caterers, how do you make a final choice? The first question you want to be able to answer is, “What is your budget?” If you tell a caterer you don’t know what your budget is, they are likely to give you their most expensive menu. So, how do you have any idea what your budget is?
Catering prices are generally broken down into three parts. The first part is for food and is usually calculated on a per-guest basis. The second part is for service and should generally be a price per server per hour. The third part is for rentals. Not all contracts have that third part.
The food cost is the part that has the most flexibility. Think about what you would pay per person for a restaurant meal of a quality comparable to the caterer’s food. Most caterers (but especially smaller caterers) can give you a menu within any reasonable budget.
But the best way to figure out which caterer to hire is to meet with them and taste their food. Most caterers will do a tasting at no charge. Some charge for a tasting but will sometimes credit the amount against any future order.
Before you go for a tasting, talk to the caterer about a sample menu so they can make you something you will like. Then feel free to taste, savor, and ask questions. Use the tasting as an opportunity to get to know the caterer and their staff. And always taste the food from more than one caterer before you hire.
Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when you are looking for a caterer is that they are working for you. You should be able to get satisfactory answers to your questions and get a menu within your budget and to your taste. If you can’t get these things, keep looking until you find a caterer you can work with happily.
Need recommendations for a caterer? Check with your event planner!
Sep 10, 2010 | Budget Planning, Family Parties, Parties and Special Events, wedding planning, Weddings
Can you find a caterer to do this? Photo by Happy Buddy PhotoArt.
I find that one of the hardest things for my clients in planning events is hiring a caterer. I admit that it can be a complicated process. If you break it down into smaller steps, it gets a little easier.
One of the first things you can consider when choosing a caterer is whether to hire a big catering firm or a smaller one. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages.
A small caterer is likely to be more flexible in menus and pricing. Sometimes they can come up with a special dish just for you. You are more likely to get the personal touch from a smaller firm. There is also more variety: Small companies specialize in different things and each one is different. On the flip side, some small caterers can not handle very large crowds. They don’t always have the office staff to return calls promptly. And they aren’t on the preferred caterer list of many of the larger venues.
Large caterers often have an event coordinator/sales person on staff who is your contact from beginning to end. This person is not generally a substitute for your own event planner but is another pair of hands and another experienced professional working for you. The largest caterers also often hire extra serving staff. I just worked on a wedding with catering by Wolfgang Puck. They hired at least 20 servers for 175 guests, including one server who only looked after the bride and groom. It’s great to have extra people working at your event. But you pay for size and service. And you generally have to work with the caterer’s preset menus.
If you’re planning to hire a caterer soon, take a look at the size of the catering company. See what they have to offer. That ought to help you narrow down your choices.
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