How would you design and produce an event?
Let’s illustrate it using the example of the event I planned more recently – a bat mitzvah.
Considerations:
- Bat/Bar Mitvahs - as a rule - consist of religious and secular parts. Depending on the family, there may more focus on one of these two parts, or both may be equally important. - In this case, the family is not religious, but respects traditions.
- The child must read and interpret a part of the Torah and is required to showcase a project linked to Jewish culture or history and related to his or her own interests and passions. - In this case, the girl’s passion is fashion and the design of clothes and she created a project which she called “American- Jewish designers and their style that inspired me”.
- Due to the nature of such a celebration, various generations attend the ceremony and the reception. - In this case, all of the girl’s classmates were invited and also close family and friends: all with different interests for post-ceremony entertainment.
- This event is very significant in a person’s life and in the life of their families and therefore lasting memories of it are important.
-The family of the girl love entertaining, food, and music.
Organization
- To align the theme with passion for fashion, we decided to organize a Runway show: she would design and create several outfits that her friends would then wear and showcase to the guests.
- The venue needed to have three different spaces: one for the ceremony, one for the children’s reception, and one for the adults’ reception. They had to be close to each other so that the two parties could reunite several times throughout the evening.
- Entertainment, music, and menus had to be catered to various generations.
- Cake, Challah, and Kosher wine all had to be sourced.
- Attentive photographers and videographers had to be found to ensure the entire event was captured for lasting memories.
- The runway required talented make-up artists and hair stylists
- Table settings, menus, and signs had to be printed to align with the theme of the evening.
- All audio/video had to be tested ahead of time to avoid IT issues on the night.
- The timeline had to be planned to make sure that anyone who wanted to participate (ie, sing), could, but that this wouldn’t take up the entire evening.
- And obviously we wanted to create a specific atmosphere for the whole Bat Mitzvah event - intertwined with the girl's personality. I wanted to come up with some logo, some symbol of the whole event so the guests would be surrounded by it as soon as they walked in.
The Results:
- Venue: Marriott Hotel in Newton. Logic: The family and many relatives and friends live nearby. The hotel has a huge ballroom, which easily divides into three parts using air walls. Adjacent to it, there is a spacious beautiful hallway with a river view of the river – an ideal space for a cocktail hour.
- Branding: a family friend is the talented watercolor artist Misha Lenn. He was able to create a special watercolor picture for the event, reflecting the theme of the Bat Mitzvah and of a festive celebration: the girl is depicted in the center in a dress she sewed for herself for the service. This picture was exhibited at the event in the service hall, its reproduction was on the invitation, hotel direction signs, on the service program, on the menu, and on the table numbers.
- The color palette: the girl’s favorite color is blue: she asked for everything to be done in blue and silver tones. The main colors were royal blue, light blue, baby blue, and silver. Fresh greens and delicate lilacs and white flowers added a feeling of freshness and spring.
- The Service: the stage, the podium, the A/V were all thought out. During the service, two songs were performed by friends and relatives. A family friend, who is a professional singer and singing teacher, rehearsed with the performers and accompanied them during the service.
-The Runway: Presenting her Bat Mitzvah project, the girl talked about Ralph Lauren, Zack Posen and Marc Jacobs and about how they inspired her. Her friends then walked down the runway to present her dresses to the audience, to rave reactions and applause. For the project décor, our designer installed mannequins dressed in silver mesh with fresh flowers attached, in the same color scheme as the presented dresses.
- Other Decorations: The young adults’ space was decorated with various lighting effects, lasers, a rotating mirror ball, huge glowing balloons, and a monogram with the girl's initials. Luminous objects and confetti decorated the tables. The main colors were blue, silver, and purple. The adults’ ballroom was decorated with flowers, mannequins, a stage for musicians and a large projection screen. The tables were decorated with vases of various sizes and heights full of bouquets, candles, and table numbers, decorated with the logo of the evening. Various light effects were used as well. In the center of both spaces were large dance floors.
- Cocktail Hour: During the cocktail hour, guests were served hot and cold appetizers and Champagne. The open bar was a popular spot, as well as the various food stations.
- Music and entertainment for children: For children, we chose Siagel Productions' services. We discussed games, songs, favors and talks in detail, accounting for the fact that the children will be join the adults twice throughout the evening..
- Music for adults: A talented musician-saxophonist, soloist and DJ in one person, and a female soloist were invited. The song selection for adults was discussed and prepared in advance.
- The Photo booth. The Magic Mirror photo booth with many funny props was quite popular with everyone, both children and adults alike - and we ended up having a memorable album full of the guests’ pictures.
- During the 4-course dinner, the children came to the adults' venue twice: for the Candle Lighting ceremony and for the Hora. To light the candles, a special table was designed, where the candles were installed into specially-made bobbins, threaded in a color scheme of the Runway dresses.
During the evening, adults and children enjoyed a variety of entertainment, the open bar remained open for the whole evening, as did the photo booth. Two photographers and two videographers carefully recorded all the moments of this joyful and memorable celebration. The fun lasted almost until midnight. Some fancy personalized take-away favor bags were given to the guests at the end.
Credits: Event Planner & Production - Primavera Dreams; Venue - Boston Marriott Newton; Rabbi - Avi Teken; Designer - Florissima; Lighting - Retonica; Rentals - PEAK; Hair Stylist - Finelines Salon; Make-up Artist - Amy Bagdasarian; DJ/Entertainment - Siagel Productions; Live Music: Arslan Haydarov & Alina Sorokina; Music Coach - Alexander Prokhorov; Sewing Coach - Yulia Eidinov; Cake - Icing on the Cake; Bat Mitzvah Party Dress - Pink Domino; Photographers: ESB Photo, Gregory Rudoy; Cinematography - I Do Cinematography; Photo Booth - Pic Me Boston; Watercolor - Misha Lenn