I must have played Candyland 100′s of times when my kids were really small. Never did I imagine that my oldest would someday transform into a modern day Queen Frostine. As the star of “Daniland” my 13 year old sparkled at her recent Bat Mitzvah. Coming up with the theme for this vivacious candy lover was easy — pulling together all the details under one sweet theme took time, patience and a host of navigational skills I didn’t know I possessed.
For those of you just getting started, finding just the right venue is an important first step. Budget, location, size and flexibility are all significant considerations. My daughter fell in love with a particular country club — magnificent view of the golf course, grand ballroom, enormous dance floor, sweeping staircase, fabulous cheesecake — all the right stuff. However, the club was quite a distance from home, not convenient to any other daily landmarks and not accessible to any of the area freeways (probably a really bad choice if you’re expecting out of town guests). Our Bat Mitzvah to be was disappointed when we crossed this off our list but understood the whys with little complaint.
Making the right choice
There are so many types of venues to choose from: hotels, conference and convention centers, sports clubs, night clubs, gaming venues (bowling, whirly ball, etc), recreation centers, country clubs, restaurants, synagogues and more. There are steps you can take to narrow your search and help make the venue selection fun and appropriate.
10 Steps to selecting a venue:
- Decide on the type of party you want (dancing, kids, evening)
- Develop a rough guest list so you have some sense of size/needs
- Do you want one-stop shopping or will you want to bring in your own caterer?
- Is proximity to your home important? Easy access for out of towners?
- What can you spend per person for food? Does the food need to be kosher?
- Get referrals
- Make site visits
- See a party in action and preferred venues
- Is there chemistry between the Catering Director/Venue Party Planner and you/your family?
- If you find it, book it!
For information about the author http://mitzvahplanner.wordpress.com/about/
Love it! Welcome to the blogosphere. Looking forward to more content like this to help for my son’s Bar Mitzvah.
Wish you would have been blogging a year ago, would have saved me time, energy and money! I will catch you the next time around i have a party!
Thanks for the comment. Feel free to pass along to friends. Also, I am adding to the Mitzvah Mistakes so anything you want to share with me would be appreciated.
Roz