reception planning

Wedding Planning

With so many steps to take in planning your dream wedding, including touring the best wedding venues in the state, finding unique venues, searching for the best wedding vendors and of course finding your ideal wedding dress and wedding rings, you’re likely wondering how long it takes to plan a wedding. According to the wedding industry survey company TheWeddingReport.com, the average couple spends 14 months planning their Big Day.

That survey reveals that couples are tackling the biggest, most important tasks of their wedding plans very soon after their engagement, starting their research right away via talking to other engaged wedding couples about their favorite outdoor garden wedding venues, elegant wedding venues, wedding professionals and wedding details. They’re also searching Pinterest and top wedding blogs to get inspiration for their wedding day vision. Read more…

Honoring Parents

In the past, parents were seen as the hosts of the wedding, based on their names being featured on the wedding invitation. They may have participated in the ceremony, and stood in the receiving line, and the father danced with the bride.

Now, according to top wedding trends, there are even more ways to honor your parents, and their lifetime of love and support, at your wedding celebrations, regardless of how much they may be paying for the wedding itself. Today’s bride and groom are more likely to pay for much of the wedding themselves, but they still want to pay lovely tribute to their parents and step-parents, as the case may be. Read more…

Wedding Menu

When thinking about your wedding menu – for your cocktail party, your wedding reception dinner, and your wedding cake and desserts, be sure to keep in mind your guests’ special dietary requirements.

It’s now become far more prevalent for our New Jersey and New York City wedding couples to customize their wedding catering choices with a large selection of food items that their gluten-free and vegetarian guests can enjoy. Brides and grooms have read horror stories on wedding websites, wedding blogs and wedding message boards about weddings at which dietary-restricted guests could only pick on a small number of foods. They certainly don’t want that for their own wedding guests, nor do we. Read more…

Kids Wedding Menu

If you think that kids’ menus at weddings consist of just chicken fingers and mini pizzas, think again. Today’s kids actually enjoy more adventurous foods in their everyday lives, so they’re perfectly happy with most of the items on your fine cuisine wedding menu. Perhaps with the exception of the raw seafood bar, and of course with parental supervision over kids’ food allergies. (Which is why we suggest placing food ID cards by each of your cocktail party menu items and carving stations.)

Here are some of the top trends in kids’ wedding menu choices:

• Sushi. Since many parents prefer cooked sushi choices over raw for their kids, arrange with your wedding caterer to provide displays of cooked-item sushi choices.
• Crab cakes, salmon cakes, lobster cakes, cod cakes…in sizes big enough to require two bites, not small balls posing choking hazards for kids.
• Hummus and pita bread
• Pastas with classic or creative sauces
• Meatballs
• Sliders, either as burgers or pulled pork, and we’ve seen requests for veggie burger sliders for the kids’ choices as well as the adults.
• Macaroni and cheese is always a hit with kids.
• Mashed potato and mashed sweet potato bars let kids create their  own creamy ‘sundaes’ with their choices of toppings.
• Chicken tenders with a trio of kid-friendly sauces.
• French fries cut in spiral styles or with unique flavors.
• Mini pizzas topped with a variety of combinations, from four-cheese to vegetables to tiny bits of sausage.
• Crudites and cooked vegetables served with fun flair at cocktail party stations.
• Fruits cut into kid-friendly shapes, such as smiles, stars, and cartoon characters. Read more…

Carving Station

Your wedding cocktail party menu is one part of your Big Day that guests look forward to the most, and they have great expectations that the food will be excellent, the presentation elaborate, and the choices plentiful. Since guests travel so far to attend weddings, it’s smart to talk with your wedding caterer about creating a cocktail party menu that will surprise and delight your friend and family. Read more…

Wedding Video Trends

Wedding videos have never been more beautiful and stylized, thanks to the talent of our top wedding videographers in New Jersey. While your wedding video style will have a lot to do with the creation of your footage – you may prefer classic footage, or you may prefer footage with more of a sense of humor – one main rule exists: you want to capture everything about your Big Day, from the ceremony to the reception ballroom to the scenery to the food and décor. Read more…

Wedding Signs

Personalized weddings feature décor touches that bring the bride and groom’s personalities and the style of the wedding into your Big Day, so consider a new top wedding idea: decorating with signs. Here are some of the top ways that you can design and display signs all around your wedding location:

• A large sign at the entrance to your wedding ceremony or reception ballroom can feature your custom monogram
• A large sign at your entrance can feature not just your names, but a romantic quote you’ve chosen as an inspiration for your day
• Signs can direct guests to your garden ceremony area, to your reception room, to your cocktail party or other areas
• A sign can direct guests to your smoking section at the far end of your venue
• Use framed signs on your guest book table, again featuring your monogram or a romantic quote
• If you’re using an alternative to the guest book, such as cards on which guests write their wedding wishes, your sign instructs them as to how to use the cards Read more…

Every bridal party wants to throw a spectacular, unforgettable bridal shower that suits the bride’s personality and style, and provides guests with fine cuisine and great entertainment. Here, we offer some of the top new bridal shower trends that can make your bridal showera stand-out crowd-pleaser that the bride will love.

Bridal Shower

• Choose a fine dining experience with the best buffet dinner or a gourmet Sunday brunch. Excellent cuisine makes a bridal party a success, and even on a budget, chefs can help tailor your menu to impress.
• More bridal showers are planned as brunches, which offers an array of delectable fine cuisine menu options, and multiple desserts, plus wine and champagne, and the earlier time of day allows guests to still have some of that weekend day to their own planning.
• There is more emphasis on food and wine pairings, with sophisticated menu options paired to great vintages.
• Offer unique bar menu items, following the top wedding trends of offering champagne and champagne cocktails, mimosas, bellinis, mojitos, prosecco, creative martinis and sangrias.
• Create a signature drink – one of the top wedding trends – and name it after the bride
• Offer not just a cake, but additional dessert items as well, such as family-favorite tiramisu, bananas foster, chocolate-covered strawberries, and other sweet treats. Read more…

Gown and Accessory Trends

Inspired by celebrity wedding trends, today’s brides wear not one wedding dress, but two or more, changing from a ceremony dress into a chic, stylish dress for the reception. At our wedding venue, we’ve seen brides wear cultural wedding dresses for the ceremony, then change into either a traditional wedding dress or shorter, sleeker dress for the reception.

Here are some additional 2^nd-Looks for your wedding reception, garden wedding, or cocktail party wedding:

• Go romantic and lacy with your first wedding dress, then change into a sparkly dress suitable for the nighttime reception lighting.
• Wear a sleek, fitted wedding dress for the ceremony, then change into a dress that’s easier to dance in for the reception.
• Wear a traditional white wedding dress for the ceremony, then change into a colorful dress for the reception.
• Wear a traditional wedding headpiece and veil for the ceremony, then remove it and change into a tiara or jeweled hairclips for the reception Read more…

Being Introduced Into the Room

Making an unforgettable entrance to your wedding reception is now a top trend. While there are some couples who happily embrace the traditional method – the emcee announces each bridal party member, parent and the couple by name, and everyone cheers as these honored people walk into the room – many of our New Jersey and New York City wedding couples ask for a more creative Grand Entrance.

Here are the top new trends for making your entrance into your wedding reception venue:

• The deejay or band plays an upbeat song for the bridal party’s introductions, at which point the couples dance their way into the room. When it’s the parents’ turn to be announced, the music switches to a different, upbeat song chosen just for them. The wedding couple then gets a different song. (Our favorite New Jersey wedding deejays and bands can provide you with lists of song ideas.) Read more…