Jan 4, 2009 | Family Parties, Style
Simple and pretty, the decorations livened up the room
I got a call last March from a woman who wanted to do something different. She was planning for her 40th birthday and wanted to have a big party. She had gotten married a number of years ago in a small town downstate where there were few choices in vendors. You used the caterer and the baker who were local because that’s what there was. And they weren’t going to import a band, so they did without. So, she decided to make it up to herself with a big birthday party this year. Only she didn’t quite know where to start. The advantage of small town event planning is that you don’t have to go searching for anything, because there are so few choices. Here in Chicagoland, there are way too many choices.
Last spring, we got to work narrowing down her choices. She wanted a nice location on the North Shore where she could have appetizers, drinks, and a band. Fortunately, there is any number of nice locations in her area. There is a Women’s Club and/or a Community House in just about every town, and I gave her information on about a dozen of them. The Winnetka Community House has a new addition with a very pleasant party room. They have only one in-house caterer, and my client liked their food when she went for a tasting. Suddenly, the two biggest decisions were made. She said I saved her hours by narrowing down the number of venues available and steering her toward the ones I thought would be suitable.
After that came decisions about the menu, decorations, and invitations. I advised her on anything she had questions about, including invitation wording and suitability of decor. For decorations, she decided to keep things very simple and inexpensive, and it worked beautifully. She found some small artificial flower arrangements online and ordered a dozen and a half of them, and then got about six dozen votive candles and holders. The flowers were in bright pinks and oranges, and they looked very nice. The room is all in neutral colors, so the bright flowers really stood out on the white table cloths. Everyone commented on how nice it looked with the candles twinkling near the bright floral arrangements. I was impressed at how much she was able to do without spending a fortune on decor.
The party was last night, and I think it was everything she had been hoping. Family members came from all over, and friends converged. There were around 75 people there, eating, drinking, and having a good time. The band was just kicking things into high gear when my work was done. It seemed as if it was the celebration it was intended to be and a very happy birthday.
Dec 7, 2008 | Eco-Friendly Events, Style
Simple decorations can be festive.
Here are my suggestions for eco-friendly entertaining. You can adapt many of these ideas to any party, not just Christmas or “holiday,” as they call it. But since a lot of people have Christmas on the brain at this season, I’ll start with that holiday.
For Christmas-type decor that is environmentally friendly, I suggest lots of live plants. There are several traditional holiday plants (miniature live pine trees, ivy, poinsettias, Christmas cactus, etc.), and others that could be part of a holiday mix. Try juxtaposing a miniature red rose bush with English ivy for a festive centerpiece. For extra credit on the environmental side, look for live plants that have been grown locally and organically. Local greenhouses are a great place to find them.
Or, if you have plants in your yard that would work for holiday decorating, cut a few branches of fir or some holly branches for a mantlepiece decoration. And then compost or chip them after the party and use the result on your garden next year.
Locally grown, organic flowers are always a sustainable choice. In the winter, that means greenhouse flowers, too.
Of course, you will need some accents on all that greenery, and my favorite accent in the winter is light. In Chicago, there are several organizations that keep bees and sell their products, including beeswax candles. For starters, try the Chicago Honey Co-op. Beeswax is less polluting than petroleum-based wax candles, and coming from a local source makes it doubly eco-friendly. It also smells nice!
If you are celebrating Chanuka, beeswax Chanuka candles are available in specialty shops, although I have yet to find any made locally. (If you know of a local source, please let me know.)
Another idea is LED holiday lights. In my opinion, most of the white lights look too bluish to be very attractive, but the red, green, and blue ones I have seen are quite nice, and the pale yellow ones are a fine substitute for white. LEDs use a tiny fraction of the energy of traditional incandescent lights, and they ought to last a very long time. Both those qualities make them environmentally friendly.
For any kind of party, you can make your food part of your decorations. Edible centerpieces look nice and taste great. You can buy “flower” arrangements made of fruit, or create something yourself. Even something as simple as a basket of unshelled nuts or fresh fruit with a colorful napkin can provide both snacks and visual interest. If you’re playing dreidel, the unshelled nuts of your centerpiece can also be the “chips” in the game.
A completely different approach to decorating is the second-hand idea. It is often possible to find very nice decor items in second-hand shops, especially in shops in expensive neighborhoods or towns. Of course, if this requires many long car trips, that would offset the benefits of not buying new, so plan your shopping trips carefully. If you are lucky or live near a lot of resale or vintage shops, though, you might find vases, last year’s novelty items, theme knick-knacks, and other useful decorating items. This approach may require advance planning and some creative thinking.
Any decor you can make yourself from materials at hand is an eco-friendly option. If you are good with your hands, you might make an interesting decoration for your coffee table out of a second-hand vase, some branches from the back yard, a little Enlish ivy (also from the yard), and LED lights.
Also, for eco-friendly food service, nothing beats real china, linen, silver, and glassware. Yes, it uses a lot of water to clean up after the party, but it is still a better eco choice than disposables. It also looks very festive. There is such a thing as compostable disposable dishes, but I have been told that you have to have a very hot compost pile in order to actually compost these items.
But the most environmentally conscious thing you can do when decorating is remembering that less is more. The more new stuff you acquire just for decorating, the less eco-friendly your decorations will be. So, consider renting large items, instead of buying them, if you are doing elaborate decorations. But if you do find yourself with decorations you don’t plan to use again, minimize their impact by either donating them to a second-hand shop or giving them away on your local Freecycle group.
Have happy and green celebrations!
Nov 26, 2008 | Family Parties, Style
This is me, posing in front of the balloon arch at the party.
I worked on a holiday party last Saturday night. The family throwing the party usually has a big New Year’s party, but this year they wanted to do it outside of their homes and started looking for a venue somewhat late in the season. They had to have the party early in order to get the room they wanted, so they held it the week before Thanksgiving and called it A Black and Silver Affair. It was a family-style party with balloon decorations, a DJ, and a good home-style buffet. Something over 100 people showed up to eat, dance, mingle, and have a good time.
The visual style of this party is quite different from what I usually do. If you look at the photos of most of the events I do, you will see that I tend toward the classic and elegant. You might be fooled into thinking that my personal style influences every party I help design or manage. The truth of the matter is that my personal style is subordinate to the style of my clients. My background has trained me to be flexible and to realize that every event has its own requirements. This training allows me to be non-judgmental about style and taste and to work with each client to come up with the visual presentation they prefer. My background in the arts also helps me to see and understand each style from an artistic point of view.
So, if you want elegant, I can do elegant. If you want sleek and modern, I get it. If you want funky-artsy, I can help you. If you want balloons and silver glitter stars, I am all over that, too. And if you don’t know what you want, I can help you figure it out.
Nov 19, 2008 | Eco-Friendly Events
The article in Shore Magazine on eco-friendly holiday entertaining is now posted on their website. Actually, very few of my interesting suggestions made it into the article, and even fewer were attributed to me. So, I’ll write my own article and post it here. Check back in a bit for it. Still, it’s nice to be quoted in an article in a real magazine. It’s a pretty good article, too.
Aug 25, 2008 | Weddings
Looks like a wedding.... Photo by Magical Moments Photography
It might seem obvious to you what your wedding is about: It’s about getting married, right? Ideally, yes, your wedding is about getting married, but weddings are about a lot of other things, often to their detriment. Some people’s weddings are about being rich, or at least feeling and seeming rich for a day. Sometimes a wedding is about being a fairy princess. Or it is about returning favors; or outdoing someone; or having a picture-book, textbook, perfect event; or about impressing the guests. Or about Star Trek. (I’m not kidding.) Sometimes, though, the wedding is about being happy; sharing your happiness; gathering far-flung family and friends; sharing your principles; and having fun.
Your wedding can be about anything you want. I recommend that you make sure it is about you if you are getting married. Everything about a wedding that comes from who you really are will make it memorable, both for your guests and for yourself. Ask yourself, “What is important to me? What is important about the wedding day? Why are we doing this?” When you have answers, follow them to their logical conclusions, and you will add even more meaning to a special day.
Aug 18, 2008 | Eco-Friendly Events
I was interviewed recently by a reporter from Shore Magazine, a local lifestyle magazine. She is writing an article on eco-friendly holiday entertaining for the December issue of the magazine and wanted decorating tips from a party planner. I am a little surprised that I am, apparently, the only party planner in the Chicago area advertising eco-friendly party and wedding planning. Or that’s what she said. Be that as it may, I gave her some suggestions, which I hope she can use. I won’t give away what I told her, but you can find lots and lots of tips on eco-friendly celebrations on my Eco Friendly page. I’ll post a link to the final story here if the magazine puts the article on their website. Stay tuned….
Aug 10, 2008 | Weddings
A private moment after the ceremony. Photo by Carasco Photography.
The wedding that I was privileged to coordinate last night could not have been more different from the one the week before. This one was indoors, downtown, and with a more formal feel to it. It was in the beautiful winter garden atrium of a Loop skyscraper, and everything was planned down to the last elegant detail.
The bride did a great job of choosing her vendors carefully. Many brides could take a lesson from her. I know she interviewed me thoroughly and was certain to check my references, and because she did the same for the DJ, the photographer, the string quartet, the florist, and the venue, they were all stellar professionals who made sure that her wedding and reception were beautiful, flawless, seamless, and enjoyable for all. They were also all nice people who treated her and her guests (and each other) very well. I will definitely recommend these vendors for future events. (See my links page for my recommended vendors.) She even provided child care for the littlest kids during the ceremony, which was a nice touch.
It was a privilege for me to work with this couple and their families. I’m glad to see a nice couple starting off their married life so happily and in such style.
Aug 4, 2008 | Weddings
Cutting the cake at the reception. Photo by Magical Moments Photography.
I was the coordinator at a beautiful wedding this past weekend. The wedding was at Starved Rock State Park, about two hours from Chicago. It was two creative, thoughtful, lovely people marrying each other and the whole day reflected their good qualities.
Things I loved about this wedding: friends of the couple were the musicians at the ceremony; the groom had constructed a decorative trellis for use at the ceremony; he was also seen helping to take it apart after the ceremony while waiting to be photographed (!); the couple actually managed to imbue their wedding colors with personal meaning, and they worked that meaning into the ceremony itself; I saw three eagles circling over the river before the ceremony, which I thought was a good augury; the groom removed the garter from the leg of his lovely bride in a way that did not to embarrass anyone, least of all the bride. They threw a great party, but I think what everyone will remember best is how happy they were to be marrying each other.
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