May 13, 2019 | DIY
As long as we are talking about DIY weddings and food (see previous posts on catering, dessert, and cake), let’s also talk about DIY dishes.
Just how many plates does one couple need?? Photo courtesy of Artisan Events.
When you see the total cost of rental dishes, you might be tempted to go to Ikea and buy dishes instead of renting them. Depending on your circumstances, that might be a good choice–or it really might not be.
I know someone who bought enough dishes to serve about 50 people at her wedding. They got married in their own home, had a good caterer, and had places to store all those dishes after the wedding. It can work.
On the other hand, if you are having 150 guests at a rented venue, you might run into some unexpected difficulties. For example, keep in mind that everything may need to be washed before it is used. Your catering staff probably won’t do that for you without an additional charge. Next, think about what will happen to all those dishes at the end of the night. The kitchen staff will scrape them and pack them up in whatever boxes you provide for them. Then you or your representative will have to pick them up from the venue the day after the wedding (or take them home that night). And then someone will have to wash all of them. Ever done dishes for 150 people? It’s not fun. After that, you’ll still have to figure out what to do with 150 place settings. That might not be how you planned to spend the first day or two of your honeymoon.
And don’t forget that you’ll probably need serving dishes, as well. A lot of them!
This is not to say you shouldn’t buy dishes, but you should definitely think it through all the way to the end before taking the leap. It’s not the right choice for most weddings.
May 6, 2019 | DIY
So, last week I wrote about sweet tables. What about DIY wedding cakes?
Photo by Magical Moments Photography.
Considering how expensive wedding cakes can be, maybe you want to try your hand at baking your own. There is certainly a lot of information on the internet about how to bake a wedding cake. Some of the sites even say it is “easy.” I won’t pass judgment on that, since I’ve never tried it. What I have seen is the results.
Before I tell you about the home-made cakes I’ve seen, I have to point out that sometimes even professional bakers have cake disasters. So, amateurs should be aware of the pitfalls–and remember to freeze your cake if it is a hot day.
My experience is that home-made cakes are likely to be a little more rustic than cakes made by professionals. This may suit your aesthetics exactly, in which case feel free to ignore anything else I say.
Here is a sweet and wonderful cake baked by the bride’s sister.
Image by theblondephotographer.com.
It is a perfectly lovely cake after its own fashion and suited their country-themed outdoor wedding reception. It might have been out of place at an ultra-formal downtown reception, though.
And here is a fun one baked by the groom’s family.
Photo by Magical Moments Photography
The bride and groom wanted to use the family recipe for carrot cake for their wedding cake. This was a highly informal wedding and reception, and the cake fit right in. Again, it might have been out of place elsewhere.
Here is one more example that is slightly different:
Photo courtesy of ChristyTylerPhotography.com
The bride and groom at this wedding both had tremendous food allergies. Instead of asking a professional baker to work around their allergies (wheat, sugar, dairy, etc.) and try to come up with a recipe that would be delicious, the groom’s mother made a number of cakes from a recipe they already knew would work for them. They didn’t insist on a tiered cake but enjoyed them as regular cakes. This was a case where DIY made a lot of practical sense.
My short recommendation would be that DIY wedding cake is not impossible. The important thing to keep in mind is that the visual results may be different from what you would expect from a professional. It is probably also wise to learn some of the tricks of stabilizing and transporting tiered cakes to prevent disasters. You might also have to make more than one, in order to try out your skills. (Bonus: extra cake!) If you’re willing to take these risks, go ahead and make your own cake. If not, there are a lot of really good bakers who will be happy to do the job for you.
Apr 29, 2019 | DIY
The home-made sweet table can be both pretty and tasty
Here’s a DIY idea that actually works: Dessert! While I strongly recommend that you do not cater your own wedding, dessert is a completely different matter for doing it yourself. Better yet, get other people to do it for you.
I’m not talking here about making your own wedding cake. While I’ve seen cakes made by talented friends and family members, that’s a job that is probably best left to professionals. (See next week’s post on just this subject.) I’m talking about sweet tables.
We all know people who make fabulous cookies or pies or cupcakes. You can take advantage of this by asking people–instead of bringing gifts–to bake for your wedding reception.
DIY sweet tables, like all DIY projects, do require a little more advance planning and coordination. You’ll need to ask people enough in advance so that they will have time to bake. Your caterer will need to be alerted to the DIY nature of dessert. People who bake will need to drop off their baked goods at a specified time. (Your coordinator and caterer will help determine the right time.) You’ll probably want to coordinate your bakers so that you have some variety. It’s also a good idea to have your volunteer bakers include a list of ingredients with their baked goods so that people with allergies can find out what is in each dessert. And you’ll have to be sure the quantity is sufficient.
If you feel like you can handle all these things, the DIY sweet table is definitely an option. It might not be as fancy as a sweet table from a bakery, but it can save money and be a way to have your friends and family closely involved with your reception.
Apr 22, 2019 | DIY
I’ve written a bunch of articles in DIY weddings, and I want to share them with you again–in case you missed them before. The first one is about catering.
Don’t take for granted professional presentation of the meal. Photo courtesy of Artisan Events.
Of all the things you might want to do yourself for your wedding, the one I would recommend against without hesitation is catering your wedding reception yourself. You might think this would be obvious, but I have talked to people who thought they could do it.
I have actually heard of self-catered weddings that were pulled off with a lot of help from friends and family. I know it can be done, especially if there are people with special skills involved. So, I won’t say you should never, ever do it. I’m just going to give you a lot of reasons not to.
Caterers do a lot more than cook in quantity. They also manage the kitchen; order and return rental items; keep the food (and so your reception) on schedule; hire and manage serving and bar staff; set up tables, chairs, and linens; set the tables; and clean up and take the garbage out. Caterers also have food sanitation licenses, meaning there is a low probability of spoiled food or food poisoning from their kitchens. They know how much ice to buy and bring. Some of them own serving equipment that they provide at no charge. And that is just the minimum of what a professional caterer has to offer.
On your wedding day, you are going to be very much occupied with, first, getting married. Second, you will want to spend as much time as possible greeting your guests. You’ll probably also want to have your photograph taken with many of your friends and family, not to mention with your spouse. These things will take up most of your day, leaving you no time to be the caterer at your own wedding.
I would say that unless you are able to provide everything a caterer brings to the table, and unless you can also delegate all the catering on the wedding day to a trusted party, hire a professional and save cooking for a crowd for another day.
Mar 18, 2019 | wedding planning
Tea lights in cut-off wine bottles are both pretty and safe. Photo by The Still Life Photography.
I think there have been candles of some sort at every single wedding I’ve ever worked on. It seems that everyone loves candles! Everyone, that is, except maybe the fire marshal. Perhaps it’s because most of my work is in Chicago–which has the strictest fire code in the country–that I’ve run across this issue more than once.
If you’re planning your wedding or party decor, give some thought to this: All flame must be enclosed. No open flames are allowed. That’s what the Chicago city fire code says; that’s what a great many responsible venues put into their contracts (even outside the city); and that is the only safe way to have candles at your event.
I’ve seen this play out a couple of different ways. I recall a reception at a restaurant where the restaurant itself had a great many unenclosed pillar candles on the tables. I watched in horror as two candles on the gift table were knocked over onto the floor. We got lucky that time: They extinguished themselves as they fell and didn’t light anything on fire. I did some re-arranging after that to avoid future problems. It really opened my eyes to the problem of open flame.
Another time, a bride wanted to have tapers in crystal candlesticks on the head table. It would have looked spectacular! And the venue put a stop to it before they were even lit. The bride had to be content with unlighted tapers.
There are lots of ways to have safe (and legal) candles at a large event. Votive candles in glass are pretty typical. Tea lights in glass are also used frequently (but they don’t burn as long as votives). If you want pillar candles, try hurricane lanterns or other kinds of lanterns. Lanterns with colored glass are a nice touch. You can even put a taper in a lantern, if you like.
The other option is flameless candles, such as the newer LED candles. I’ve mostly seen pillar candles and votives made this way, and the best ones are almost indistinguishable from real candles. And they can be free-standing without glass. Use them to line the aisle or light the way up stairs. Not only will they not set anything on fire, they also don’t burn out or put soot into the air.
I’ll admit that fire safety is probably not the first thing on the mind of anyone planning a big party or a wedding. So, please consider this your reminder to put safety first and think about how to have the beauty of candles safely.
Mar 4, 2019 | Eco-Friendly Events
This could be you at the Great Wedding Recyclery!
The party is over, the wedding is a happy memory, and now you have 300 votive candles in your possession. What’s an eco-minded person to do? Rent a table at the Green Wedding Alliance’s The Great Wedding Recyclery, of course, and sell them to someone else who needs them for their wedding!
Or maybe you are still planning your wedding and looking for gently used decor on a budget. Where should you go? Loft on Lake, 1366 W. Lake St. on Sunday, April 7, 2019. First Pick access from 11:00-11:30am is $15 (available only at the door); and general admission from 11:30-1:00pm is $5. You can buy general admission tickets here.
This is at least the fifth time the GWA has sponsored this fabulous and sustainable event, and it is always a big hit with everyone. I have personally seen some amazing bargains on beautiful, whimsical, and useful items. It’s also a fun way to spend a Sunday morning. There is usually music and a party atmosphere; sometimes there are small bites.
Best of all, though, it’s an easy and fun way to keep wedding items out of the landfill. The wedding business can be very wasteful, and this is one way to make it less so. Check out the Recyclery, and green your corner of the world just a little bit.
Feb 11, 2019 | Other Events
I got photos from J. Hollander Photography from the bar mitzvah I worked on in December. I want to share some of the fun with you!
This was a family who described themselves as not being very fancy. For their son’s bar mitzvah, they decided against an upscale Saturday night party in favor of a casual, laid-back, sports-themed party, with lots of fun stuff for the kids and a good time for the adults. This one was not at all about how it looked; it was all about the experience for everyone.
In keeping with the low-key theme, they rented out the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center in Evanston, a family-centric location with a community room and adjoining gym.
The community room was where people gathered and had dinner. But the real attraction was in the next room where Playground Games had set up their inflatable games, along with attractive lighting and fun music.
We mustn’t forget dinner, though! Marcello’s did their usual fine job with the pizza buffet (and plenty of other food, too).
Their dessert buffet was a big hit, too.
In the community room, there were plenty of fun things to do. There was a selfie-station with lots and lots of sports-themed props, a large Connect Four game, and a cornhole game.
But the center of the party really was in the gym. The kids played the games, the adults watched, and, sometimes, the adults joined in the fun.
I’m not quite sure what this person is doing, but I think they were having fun:
And finally, a few photos of the details. First, centerpieces that the father of the bar mitzvah boy designed and created. He even designed a logo!
And the “guest book.”
And the party favors–perfect for a winter event!
Feb 4, 2019 | Eco-Friendly Events, wedding planning
Popcorn wedding favors? Yes, please! There were none of these left at the end of the night.
Here is one fairly easy way to make your wedding (or other party) more eco-friendly: Think about your wedding favors.
The greenest thing you could possibly do with favors would be to have no favors at all. After all, if there’s no favor, then there’s no waste. But that is not the way everyone wants to have things. So, if you are going to give favors, here are three things to consider: the type of favor, the place of manufacture, and the quantity to buy.
Probably the least sustainable type of wedding favor is the small object imprinted with the couple’s name and wedding date, especially if it is something plastic. Obviously, there are exceptions, but these types of things are the things that most people throw out after a while. It’s a lot of waste. A small object that is recyclable, compostable, or growable is a step in a cleaner direction. Something consumable or really useful might be even better. Food and beverages probably won’t go to waste–although you might want to give some thought to the type of containers they are in. Plastic cupcake boxes or nylon almond bags are likely to generate waste. Glass bottles are more likely to be recycled. Donations in lieu of favors sidestep the issues of waste entirely–and you could give money to an organization that works on issues of sustainability, if that is your wish. There is a whole range of possibilities here (and others I’m sure I’ve missed) that allow you to make your celebration more eco-friendly.
If you do decide to give your guests a small token, consider where and how it is made. Things that are cheaply made overseas have to be shipped here, which is a lot less sustainable than things made locally. You might also want to consider the ethical issues of cheaply made goods: They are generally made by people (sometimes children or prisoners) who are paid less than a fair wage. While it often costs more to buy from a local producer, at least you can verify the conditions of manufacture to be sure the creators are being paid fairly.
The other thing to consider is how many things to buy for your guests. In my experience, there are almost always favors left over at the end of the night (unless it’s a very popular food item). Often, guests will take one favor per household, rather than one per person. Some people just don’t want them. When you are deciding what kind of favor to get, take this fact into account. If you buy one per guest, you may well have to figure out what to do with the leftovers. You might want to purchase fewer than the number of guests so you don’t have to solve that puzzle. Or be sure to buy something that is easy to donate or resell.
While there are much bigger things you can do to green your wedding, this one is fairly easy and can be inexpensive. It’s something within the reach of many more people than, say, serving only organic local food. So, if you want to have a more sustainable celebration, you can start here. It’s always better to do something than to do nothing.
Jan 28, 2019 | Weddings
Sometimes I get really, really lucky and I am hired by clients who are doing something that is out of the ordinary and lots of fun. No offense to all the other wonderful weddings I am fortunate enough to work on, but the quirky, original ones are my very favorites. I have the photos from one of those from last summer, and I have to share them with you. I’d love to hear your thoughts on them!
It was a small wedding in a very simple setting, at the Winnetka Community House, with catering by Catered by Design. Stitely Entertainment provided the DJ, and Vanilla Video took the video footage. Bridal party hair and make-up are by Beauty by Jaide. And the lovely photos are all courtesy of Geneva Boyett. Now, here’s the backstory:
The groom at this wedding is enormously fond of movies. He used to be a film editor and still has a great love for all things Movie. He also loves Legos. And is a talented DIY guy. The bride is into all those things, too, but in this case, it was the groom doing a lot of the decor. They both have tremendous senses of humor and never started to take themselves too seriously in planning the wedding.
The ceremony was in the outdoor courtyard garden at the WCH.
Here is a close-up of the lush floral and greenery arch provided by MilleFiori.
And now for the unique part. Remember how I said the groom loved Legos? Well, the couple decided that, instead of having a unity candle as part of their wedding ceremony, they were going to have unity Legos. I have to say, when I first heard from them about this, I had to wonder exactly how that would work. Here are some photos of the unity Legos in the process of being assembled, with the groom in the background looking on happily (description follows the photos):
The bride and groom put in the final piece together:
In case it’s not clear what is going on there, this is what it is: The groom started with a photo that had been taken of the two of them; he blew it up broke it down into its pixels; and then he made a Lego portrait out of that picture. The final piece is about 30 inches square. Once he had created the entire piece, he broke it down into 11 segments that could be fitted together again to create the whole picture. Then, as part of the wedding ceremony, 10 special people plus the bride and groom came up to each fit a piece into the picture. And here is the final result:
Ever seen anything like that? I hadn’t! And now they have this piece of artwork that was part of their wedding to keep forever.
And then there was the movie theme of the reception. It started with the place cards. Each one is a movie ticket, with the guest’s name and the name of a movie on it (along with the time and date and “Admit One,” just like a real movie ticket).
Each guest then found the table themed to match their “ticket.” As I said, the groom is a DIY guy, so he also made the centerpieces. Each one represented the movie that was the name for the table. The place cards in the photo above name some of the movies: Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Star Wars. Here are the centerpieces. See how many of the movies you can name!
Unfortunately, the photos don’t capture the best thing about these centerpieces: They light up! My photos are not nearly as good, but here are a few showing how these looked once the lights were on.
Isn’t that fun?
And, of course, the bride and groom wanted to take the centerpieces home with them, so they had to request that the guests….
In the end, as always, it was a day about two wonderful people. And these two had a sense of humor. Here is the silly part of their first look–first the groom’s humorous reaction to the bride and then the bride’s funny take in response:
But here is how they really felt about each other:
And here is how much fun everyone had that day:
Jan 21, 2019 | Day-of Coordinating
I have some photos to share with you! You may have seen some of these on social media, but I want to share the stories that go along with them here. My sincere thanks to Artisan Events for sharing their beautiful images.
This was an absolutely amazing, multi-cultural wedding at the Morton Arboretum last summer. The bride’s family is Catholic, and the groom’s family is Hindu. The couple did their homework and had a beautiful celebration that honored both sets of traditions.
The bride had had her hands (and probably more that I didn’t see) decorated with henna. But she was in a lovely white gown for both the ceremony and the reception. The groom wore a suit. But many of the guests wore saris or sari dresses, making the assembled crowd very colorful when they gathered in the Arboretum’s Hedge Garden for a late afternoon ceremony.
The ceremony itself had elements both from the bride’s tradition and from the groom’s. A Catholic deacon welcomed the guests and performed the first part of the ceremony. Following that, a Hindu priest performed an abbreviated (very abbreviated!) Hindu marriage ceremony.
And then, it was time for a party. And, I have to say, the people at the Morton Arboretum really know how to throw a swanky celebration! The room has a gorgeous view of a pond, but it was made even more beautiful by the artistic talents of Persephone Floral.
I have absolutely no idea what was so funny during the cake cutting, but you know what they say about a couple who laugh together.
The groom’s sister gave a pretty funny toast, too.
Or maybe that last one was during the toast given by the bride’s father.
Finally, it was time to dance! The David Rothstein Band kept the dance floor hopping all evening long.
It was a beautiful wedding day, one where everything ran smoothly and the guests enjoyed themselves. And another lovely couple started their married life surrounded by friends and family, beauty and fun.
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