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Summer is such a great time to entertain.  You have the warm daytime sunshine as well as refreshing nights.  Here are some summer party ideas including a couple of cocktail catering presentations to help you with any special event planning for summer cocktail parties.

Create conversation and interaction with your special event planning.  One refreshing cocktail catering presentation for cocktail parties is to present a new twist on an old idea.  Skewer a piece of cooked shrimp and instead of serving it with a bowl of cocktail sauce serve the shrimp in a shot glass already filled with the sauce.

Other summer party ideas that include shot glasses for cocktail catering are soups, whether they are hot such as lobster Saki shooters (I recently enjoyed at a cocktail party) or cold soups such as shots of gazpacho or cucumber.

For cocktail parties where you may want to serve a refreshing natural and nutritious dessert, why not accompany a platter full of fresh fruit with a shot of a fruit smoothie?

More summer party ideas for cocktail parties include serving refreshing melon balls wrapped with prosciutto or cucumber cups filled with humus, seaweed salad or salmon dip.  (For quick and easy cocktail recipes check out pages 80 to 86 in Budget Bash.)

Lollipop-styled desserts are another cocktail catering suggestion to add to your special event planning summer ideas.  Brownie bites, chocolate chip cookies or bread pudding are all delicious bite-sized desserts you can serve on a stick and tray pass or present on a platter at a dessert buffet.  Clean up is easy too since no silverware or dessert plates are needed just a simple cocktail napkin!

Other desserts that can be served in small individual portions with a creative flair are crème brulee, chocolate pudding or tiramisu presented in demitasse cups with demitasse spoons.

Summer party ideas for your special event planning décor can be fast, easy and inexpensive.  Instead of using a tea-light with your glass votive, drop a Cymbidium orchid in the glass instead.  Or place an orchid weighted down with water and colored glass beads in a small glass vase.

Floating candles in water are always fun for your table décor and you can use colored glass beads on the bottom or add a flower in the container as well.  A great decor idea for cocktail parties I recently read about in Real Simple magazine is to use parchment paper as a luminary wrap with a votive candle holder.  For information and instructions, just pick up the August 2010 issue.  (More quick and easy décor ideas can be found in Budget Bash.)

I hope you found these special event planning ideas for cocktail catering helpful for your next summer event.  Summer party ideas do not need to be complicated or take much of your time.  Cocktail parties are a great way to gather a group of friends for an intimate and casual event, and when you throw your next cocktail party remember the Budget Bash mantra: make it simple, delicious, stylish, fun & economical to all!

Summer is under way and what isn’t a better time than now to throw cocktail parties.  Here are some cocktail party ideas that don’t take much time to produce and won’t break the bank!

For starters, let’s look at the cocktail party menu.  Keep it light and simple.  Slice chunks of various kinds of vegetables, skewer them, place the skewers in a simple marinade of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, season with salt and pepper if desired and then grill or roast the marinated skewers.

Want to mix it up a bit? For outdoor cocktail parties, stick the finished skewered vegetables in a bed of wheat grass and there you have a grilled vegetable garden!  Or place the finished vegetables on a platter and decorate the platter with loose flowers such as cymbidium orchids or Gerber daisies.

I recently attended a cocktail party at Brookfield Properties where the caterer created a great cocktail party menu that included Macadamia nut crusted chicken lollipops.

Other menu items can include European cheeses with dates and figs, sliced toasts and crackers.

Have some fun serving your appetizers by using a shot glass at cocktail parties. Create a conversation piece by serving either skewered shrimp with a shot glass of cocktail sauce or soups such as gazpacho or cucumber served in a shot glass.  Good old-fashioned milk and cookies where the tray includes shots of cold milk with a side of mini cookies is always fun too.

And since it is summertime, for your outdoor cocktail parties it’s always fun to include tray-passed mini-burgers (can be beef, turkey or veggie) and of course the all-time favorite mini-hot dogs.

Other fun cocktail party ideas include creating an all white themed summer event with a white fabric gazebo such as Brookfield Properties recently produced at their cocktail party.  You can rent a 10’ x 10’ canopy and then use sheer fabric to swag the sides of the tent.  You may need to bring in a tenting company to help with the small tent but you can buy the fabric yourself to create the swags.

Add some color to your white cocktail parties with colored glass décor items such as vases and marbles for your buffet display as seen in the first picture.  Flowers too can be fun and colorful yet simple such as the arrangement pictured below. (For more flower arranging ideas check out pages 59 to 64 in Budget Bash.)

And for drinks, here are some cocktail party ideas that are refreshing and cool for the summer.  One cocktail party menu idea is to make your own spa water.  Just add any of the following to water and let sit for a bit:

•    Fresh raspberries or strawberries
•    Citrus such as lemons or oranges
•    Cucumbers
•    Herbs such as mint or basil

If you prefer serving alcoholic beverages for cocktail parties, think about adding to your beverage menu sangria, mohitos or flavored martinis such as lemon, cucumber or watermelon. (For some cocktail party martini recipes, look at pages 87 and 88 in Budget Bash.)

I hope you found these cocktail party ideas helpful for your summer cocktail parties.  Keep your cocktail party menu fun and light and when throwing a cocktail party remember the Budget Bash mantra: make it simple, delicious, stylish, fun & economical to all!

Here are a couple of pictures to illustrate wedding flower centerpieces using pink wedding flowers.  Wedding flower arrangements vary in price and when you are on a budget, it is important to think about what types of flowers to use for your wedding as well as the quantity of flowers in each wedding flower arrangement.

When thinking about what type of wedding flower centerpieces you would like to have at your wedding, try and coordinate the colors of your wedding with your wedding flower arrangements.  One simple inexpensive wedding flower arrangement using pink wedding flowers is the above flower arrangement using a pink cymbidium orchid and submerging it in water with votive candles and pink rose petals surrounding it.

In Budget Bash, I give detailed instructions on how to create this wedding flower arrangement.  It is an inexpensive way to create an elegant look on your table and you can make these type of wedding flower centerpieces on your own.   Plus you can reuse the vase, rocks and votive candle holders again for other events you may throw after your wedding.

Using all pink wedding flowers as your centerpieces gives you the options to use pink hydrangeas or pink roses.  It is less expensive to use all pink hydrangeas for wedding flower arrangements because they are larger and use more room in the vase as oppose to pink roses.  An added bonus using hydrangeas for your wedding flower arrangement is that the flower itself dries so beautifully and you can make pretty wreaths with the dried flowers as another reminder of your special day.

Add some color to your pink wedding flowers by wrapping the inside of the glass container with a tea leaf or other such greenery.  Another idea for your wedding flower centerpieces is to place some contrasting colored rose petals around the vase.  If you are considering an evening wedding, add votive candles to create a romantic soft look to your wedding flower arrangement.

Another idea for your wedding flower arrangements is to use succulent flowers and intersperse them with pink wedding flowers such as cymbidium orchids or roses.  What is great about using succulents is that you can then keep the plant after the wedding and have a living reminder of your special day.  Either re-plant the succulents in bigger pots or your backyard if you have one and watch your wedding reminder continue to flourish and grow as your marriage does!

I hope you picked up some ideas for wedding flower centerpieces using pink wedding flowers.  You can keep your costs down with your wedding flower arrangements by using simple floral decor such as all hydrangeas or submerge cymbidium orchids and surround the wedding flower arrangement with rose petals and votive candles.

Until next time, remember the Budget Bash mantra:  make it simple, delicious, stylish, fun and economical for all!

For red carpet events, it is important for the non profit company you are planning an event for, to have clear and consise signage on the red carpet.  Not only for the non profit company but its supporters and sponsors as well.

Thus, when the image of the celebrity gets picked up from various media outlets, the logo of the non profit company is seen as part of the background image.  This background image is called a step and repeat and is commonly used for all red carpet events.  To help off-set event production costs when planning an event, many times a non profit company will include sponsors on the step and repeat as part of their premium sponsor package.

It is amazing how some red carpet events step and repeats are seen over numerous media outlets multiple times, and often for large-scale events, these images can sometimes be used a year later.  Thus when planning an event for a non profit company, consider using a well produced step and repeat and provide the charity with widespread coverage to the public.

For more information on planning an event for a non profit company, check out Budget Bash and learn about inexpensive decor ideas, constructing budgets and more.

Recently I produced a red carpet event and thought I would share some of our charity fundraising ideas with you.  The event was for PCRM and like other red carpet events we produce, many hours of planning went into creating this successful non profit event.

One of the main non profit ideas was to make this non profit event stand out among the crowd since PCRM was being introduced to a new audience on the West Coast. Thus it was important for this red carpet event to adhere to the highest level of professionalism in terms of food, service and design.  We accomplished this by bringing in one of the top live TV show producers who in turn assembled a top-rated production team making the television portion of this event seamless.  Here is a link to the highlights of the show.

Other charity fundraising ideas we used to maintain our budget was to create elegant floral arrangements at cost and recycle the glass containers.  We even used one of the floral designs from Budget Bash, which is to submerge a cymbidium orchid as seen on page 61.

Like all other red carpet events, we placed “asks” for sponsors for our bar.  Because this was a vegan non profit event we had very strict parameters in terms of what beverages we could serve but found generous sponsors for our liquor, beer and wine.  Other sponsors such as Candle 79, Millennium and Sublime restaurants were kind enough to let us “borrow” their recipes in which Tal Ronnen and Global Cuisine Catering created our delicious three-course dinner menu.

Additional non profit ideas included our live and silent auction which also adhered to a vegan code to ensure our patrons were not offended from what we offered to help raise funds.  We used lighting effectively as our main design element for this red carpet event as well as vegan friendly drape and linen.  We incorporated our design elements from the save-the-date card as well as the invitation to create our timeless yet elegant room décor.

And what are red carpet events without an after party?  For this part of the event, we quickly transitioned our cocktail area into a night club with a white dance floor, white faux leather couches and a vegan dessert station. Additional charity fundraising ideas included sleek modern-looking informational kiosks to help translate, explain and support PCRM’s mission statement.

I hope you found the video to this red carpet event interesting and that you picked up a few non profit ideas for your next non profit event.  I learned a lot from producing this event especially in terms of healthful eating habits and incorporating aspects of a vegan diet into my everyday routine.  Until next time, remember the Budget Bash mantra: make it simple, delicious, stylish, fun & economical to all!

In my previous post I discussed some of the preliminary steps when planning a wedding reception and thought I would now provide more detail in regards to the wedding planning budget and determining a wedding planning checklist since most often the two are intertwined.

It is always best when determining your wedding planning budget to start with an initial number and decide what elements you want t include at your wedding reception.  For example, I am working with a bride right now who had a preliminary budget in mind and found her wedding reception venue.  From there she was able to create her wedding planning checklist to include the elements most important to her.

Thus, with an $18,000 wedding planning budget that included the ceremony, luncheon, open bar, cake and wedding reception venue, this bride had an additional $12,000 to spend for her wedding reception.  Her wedding planning checklist for the basic remaining elements for her wedding day include the following:

Wedding Reception Flowers – Her idea is a twist on the usual table flowers.  The bride wishes to use the money normally reserved for table flowers and have a simple inexpensive table arrangement and then donate the balance of the flower budget to charity.

Invitations, Escort Cards and Thank You Cards – This is an area in which you can save on your wedding planning budget by creating these elements yourself on the computer or use a local stationary store or on-line service.

DJ – A DJ is less expensive than hiring a band as well as musicians for the ceremony and cocktail hour.

Gown – Can always rent versus buying a gown and then not have to worry about cleaning or storage!

Make-up and Hair – So many choices since make-up and hair is so personal. Most often, the least expensive mode for hair and makeup is to go to the salon versus having someone come to the wedding reception venue that day.

Photographer – Always nice to have a professional, but if you are finding your budget running low and you know someone who can handle the job, then you can chance it.  My recommendation is to interview different photographers at all different rate levels and select the one that best suits your purposes.  Maybe if funds are low, the professional photographer can do the ceremony and family shots and then friends or family can take the wedding reception shots.

Officiate – Got to have one to make it legal.  No way around this no matter what your budget is.

Of course there are additional items that can be added to your wedding planning budget such as party favors, specialty lighting, room décor and specialty rentals.  (For more information and cost-saving tips about these items, check out Budget Bash.) However, the above listed items are the basics of a wedding planning checklist, and most often, including the wedding reception venue, comprise the majority of the wedding reception budget.

I hope you found these tips helpful and until next time, remember the Budget Bash mantra: make it simple, delicious, stylish, fun and economical for all!

There are so many steps involved when planning a wedding.  In fact, it can be overwhelming and stressful for someone unfamiliar with special event planning.  I was asked by Great Places Directory to write about wedding planning and this article is the beginning of a series that will help explain how to plan a wedding.

One of the first steps when planning a wedding is to determine your wedding planning budget.  It is important to be realistic with this budget – don’t expect caviar and champagne and yet only spend what you would for hamburgers and beer!

No matter what type of wedding you are planning you must decide in the beginning how much you want to spend and stick to that budget.  This dollar amount will help you stay on track with your wedding and make your life a lot easier.  If something doesn’t fit in the budget, then you will need to take creative steps to find alternatives or eliminate it all together.  (More cost-saving tips can be found in Budget Bash.)

As a special event planning coordinator, I am often asked how to plan a wedding and when to start a wedding planning budget.  My first response is to consider all aspects of the wedding itself from the dress and invitations, to the venue, the menu as well as the guest favors.  In fact, here are some of the basic budget line items to consider when planning a wedding:

Dress
Invitations, escort cards and thank you cards
Food and Beverage
Venue Fees – including parking and ceremony site
Officiate Fee
Music for ceremony and reception
Flowers
Event Rentals such as a special chair, linen or upgraded china to name a few
Room Décor and upgraded lighting
Photographer and Videographer
Cake
Special event planning or wedding coordinator fee
Party Favors
Hair and Makeup
Special Event Insurance

With each one of these line items, there are numerous options a bride should take into account when she starts to consider how to plan a wedding for herself and her fiancée.  And don’t forget, these days many fiancées want to be part of the wedding planning process as well.

In the upcoming articles on this topic, I will provide more details on the wedding planning budget in efforts to help ease your stress when planning a wedding.  Wedding planning is a job within itself and it is important to consider all aspects of the special event planning budget so that your lasting wedding day memories are a joy to remember.  Until next time, remember the Budget Bash mantra: make it simple, delicious, stylish, fun and economical for all!

Earlier this week I was at an event at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica CA.  I think this space offers some nice options as an outdoor wedding venue.

Wolfgang Puck Catering provided the delicious food at the event.  We were served a variety of interesting and creative appetizers from spicy tuna sushi cones to mint-pea soup with crap served in an egg shell as well as blue red velvet mini cupcakes for dessert.  Keeping with an outdoor wedding venue theme, they also served raspberry lychee nut lemonade.

It is important when selecting a wedding venue especially an outdoor wedding venue to consider the weather, time of year and your location.   You want to ensure you have an alternative if the weather is not cooperating on your special day.

Other important details to consider with an outdoor wedding venue are the cost of event rentals, catering and lighting to name a few as well as any noise or permitting issues.   More details on wedding planning on a budget can be found in Budget Bash – Simply Fabulous Events on a Budget.

What I liked about the Annenberg Community Beach House is that it offers many on-site alternatives whether for an outdoor wedding venue or an interior wedding space.  There is a private home on the property for rent as well as an outdoor pool area.   When considering wedding planning on a budget, you can easily plan a small wedding with lovely cocktails and appetizers with the spectacular Pacific Ocean just a few hundred feet away.

Other wedding planning on a budget options at this location include accessible guest parking as well as tables and chairs on site.  The floor to ceiling windows are a great decor bonus since the view to the ocean can’t be beat.

I hope you found these tips for wedding planning on a budget as well as my experience at this outdoor wedding venue helpful.  Until next time, remember the Budget Bash mantra: make it simple, delicious, stylish, fun and economical to all!

Many of the same steps required for corporate event planning can also be translated to corporate conference planning.  We were recently hired by the skin care company, Aesthetics Plus to produce a training day for their estheticians here in Los Angeles.

We started out by asking what the budget was for this corporate conference, then researched venues and selected a final round of three corporate event planning sites that would meet the needs of this skin care company.  Aesthetics Plus decided upon having their conference at the Los Angeles Music Center, a Patina Group venue.  (Other important event planning budget requirements can be found on pages 5-10 in Budget Bash.)

This corporate conference for aesthetician training purposes included a meet and greet, information about the skin care company and the latest skin care product information, product sales and guest speakers to name a few of the corporate event planning elements.  And let’s not forget the all important lunch catered by Patina Catering.

One of the important elements in producing this corporate conference was to create an elegant event within the provided budget parameters.  The skin care company wanted to ensure that for their initial conference, a polished event look and feel was established as a footprint for future corporate event planning conferences.

When I walked into the room this morning, I was wowed by the transformation of the event site by the client’s use of signage and product placement.  They even had a signature chocolate candy bar at each place setting for that middle of the day “pick-me-up.”

To keep the conference moving and stay within the time allotment of the room rental, we decided to serve a box lunch which met all dietary restrictions.  It is important with all events whether they are social or involve corporate event planning that each attendee’s dietary needs are met whether they are vegetarian or not.  We did this by offering a selection of the following:  Cobb salad, turkey sandwich or fresh tomato, buffalo mozzarella cheese and basil sandwich.  Each lunch was served with bottled water in addition to ice tea.

To make sure each attendee received the correct lunch, we not only labeled the lunches at the buffet, but the skin care company also labeled the attendees’ name tags with their luncheon selection.

Finally, it is important for any corporate conference that the attendees can easily find the venue where the conference is taking place.   Aesthetics Plus accomplished this by providing a link on their invitation to the event site’s directional website.  I can’t begin to tell you as a guest how many times I have been either lost or late to an event because of poor directions or a wrong address.  It is always best during the event planning process to ensure the correct venue address is provided, and if possible, an accurate site map as well.

Again, whether you are planning a social event or a corporate conference, many of the same corporate event planning elements are involved.  Learning upfront the client’s budget and sticking to it, ensuring that all guests are comfortable with the selection of food provided at the event and that the guests receive the correct address and most current driving directions in order to arrive to the event on time.

This skin care company met these requirements and provided a great atmosphere for their attendees to learn and have fun in.  Until next time, remember the Budget Bash mantra:  make it simple, delicious, stylish, fun and economical for all!

In keeping with the green theme for your St Patricks Day party, I thought I would provide you with some ideas for your dinner table decorations using succulent plants.  However, please note that in this article about St Patrick’s Day decorations, green will be referred to as good for the environment green.

Daily we are reminded about our environment and the importance of recycling, reusing and reducing everything we use.  Florists and restaurants are now getting on board with this mantra as well.  Recently, I have noticed various restaurants using succulent plants as table decorations on their dining room tables.  Bar arrangements and front desk floral arrangements are incorporating succulents as well.

According to Sherene Hulugalle, (who’s flowers are featured in this article), owner of Wisteria Lane Flower Shop, the idea of using succulent plants for table decorations is that once the flowers fade, the succulents can be re-planted and will keep growing.  Also, succulents don’t use as much water and will last longer and their colors will be more vibrant.

Another fact about succulent plants is that they last a long time as long as they are in well drained soil and watered regularly. They can thrive indoors as long as they have indirect sunlight.

Here are a few ideas for table decorations for your St Patrick’s Day party.  Incorporate succulent plants with cymbidium orchids in a flower arrangement as seen above.  The green aspect will be the succulents and to bring a bit of color in, use a pink orchid in the arrangement for your St Patrick’s Day decorations. (Other simple flower ideas can be found in Budget Bash – Simply Fabulous Events on a Budget.)

Using wheat grass is another idea incorporating green table decorations at your St Patrick’s Day party.  Use wheat grass on your dinner table and then place votive candles sporadically within the grass.  At the 5th Annual SAG Awards, we did this type of flower arrangement on the tables.

Be sure to place something underneath the wheat grass to keep the table dry.  Also, I suggest you use tea light votive candles to ensure there is plenty of room from the flame to the top of the glass votive candle holder.

Why not add a bit of color to your wheat grass arrangement with succulent plants?  You can place Zwartkop which has hues of purple within the grass.  Or you can also use a pretty ribbon and tie clusters of succulent plants such as Echeveria and then place them on the table.  Surround the Echeveria with black rocks to add texture and contrast to your St Patrick’s Day decorations.

Another idea is to place a row of simple one potted Carmen succulent plants down the center of the table for décor.  Then incorporate a combination of green and white votive candles along with pillar candles.  This centerpiece will bring a sophisticated look to your St Patricks Day party table decorations while keeping within the green theme.

I hope you found these ideas for St Patrick’s Day decorations using succulent plants helpful for your table decorations and until next time, remember the Budget Bash mantra: make it simple, delicious, stylish, fun and economical to all!