Choosing Your Wedding Cake
Monday, January 23rd, 2012Your wedding cake is one of the most essential elements of your wedding day. It will appear in your wedding pictures, and will be a focal point for your guest as they arrive into the reception area. As you decide on your cake type remember that it is what will pull together the colors and theme of your wedding. Your wedding cake should be as individual as you. Take time to shop around and decide on a bakery, the cake, style, and decorations. Here are a few factors to keep in mind while you cake shop:
.Create a checklist:
.What is your cake budget
.How many guests
.How many tiers/designs
.What colors/decorations
.What is your cake top?
.When is Your Wedding?
.When is Your Wedding?
The date and location of your wedding will affect the type of cake you choose. If your wedding will be taking place in the summer, mousse or ice cream cake will not be a good choice. Discuss with your baker the types of cake that will be in season.
.Choose a Reliable Bakery
You can begin your research online. This will allow you to obtain customer feedback, and view images of the bakery’s work. Make sure to select a bakery that provides a wide range of cake styles. Once you have chosen a bakery, visit the location and meet with the staff. This is your opportunity to provide sketches, ideas, and samples of your colors to leave with the pastry chef. Make sure to get everything in writing.
.Give Yourself Time to Pick Your Wedding Cake
If you have already chosen a color scheme and the wedding venue, then it’s a good time to get the cake designed and ordered. Your cake should be ordered 6-8 weeks in advance.
.Go Cake Tasting
This is one of the most important steps before finalizing your cake. If the cake will consist of multiple flavors, taste all of them. Flavors like chocolate, strawberry and vanilla will vary depending on how the cake is made, its formulation, its frosting, and more.
.Cake Size, Icing, Decorations
Wedding cakes come in all shapes and sizes—the options are limitless. When deciding on the size of your cake, keep in mind the number of guests attending. The type of icing you choose can be a simple sugar and flour recipe, or even a rich cream cheese icing. Today, many couples are choosing to match their icing color with the overall theme of the wedding. You can decorate your cake based on the décor and theme of your wedding, go with crazy and outrageous decorations or decide on lace, embroidery appliqué or elegant drapes or swag. The decision is all up to you so have fun with it!
Making Your Event a Success
Thursday, December 15th, 2011Have you ever wondered what makes an event a success? There are many components to achieve a successful event such as matters concerning your guests, food, entertainment and the very beginning preparations. With the involvement of speakers, attendees, audiovisual presentations, catering, and venue selections, any event is a complex affair. However, with the right combination of all the event elements yours can become a hit!
Some Tips To Help Get You Started On Your Event Preparation Can Include:
-Create A Checklist—Include food, bar, entertainment, venue, invitations, guest list, etc. Use your checklist as you plan your event. Make sure you add details as you go along and check off the tasks that have been completed.
-Plan In Advance—Send the invitations out and advertise ahead of time. The larger the event, the more time you should give yourself. Allow at least two weeks for a small private party and three months or longer for a significant event in which people have to travel. This gives your guests plenty of time to plan and prepare.
-Guests should be made aware of the purpose and theme of the event. Provide this information on the event’s invitation, poster, or flyer. This information will help your guests know how to dress and prepare for the event.
-Choose An Appropriate Venue—Begin by asking yourself, is there enough space for your guests to mingle, dance, and provide entertainment? Is there a bar and facilities for serving food? Is there enough space for a sit-down meal or is it limited to stand-up? Does it have adequate climate control and restroom facilities?
-Have an adequate number of bartenders and servers.
-Make sure that there is enough food that it is high quality, and that it fits the theme or mood of your party.
-Appoint hosts if you having a large event. Have friends or associates help greet guests and even introduce them
to other guests.
-Think About Having Name Tags—Providing name tags allows attendees not acquainted with one another to feel more comfortable approaching someone they might not know.
-A media presentation is a great enhancement to any event. You can choose from high-tech audio-visual productions to slide shows to exhibits to posters.
-Entertainment can make or break an event. Consider a mix of entertainers to provide a variety of entertainment. Some popular choices are a DJ or a live band. Most recent trends show that event planners and hosts are choosing magicians and stand-up comics.
-Review your checklist regularly to make sure that everything is running smoothly.
Last but not least, remember to show appreciation and gratitude for the groups and individuals who helped to make your event a success!
Building A Lunch Menu
Friday, October 28th, 2011Whether you’re planning a baby shower, sports event, or an office party, a luncheon is a causal alternative to the late day dinner parties. The menu is usually lighter, served buffet style where guests grab a plate and serve themselves. There are different buffets to choose from to create the perfect luncheon. Keep in mind that it is important to include menu items that will hold up for longer periods of time—and don’t be afraid to step out of the box and try new menu ideas.
Caterers offer several buffet options to create a lunch menu suited for your guest. Some options include:
Deli Buffets: this option is popular and includes a majority of finger foods that pleases any crowd. The menu typically includes mixed green salad with different dressings to choose from, fruit salad, potato salad, antipasto or chips, three types of sandwich meats with a bread choice, and a dessert tray.
American and Ethnic Buffets: allows the event planner to select foods that go with the overall theme of the event. Some popular themes include: American burgers and fries, Italian pasta, pizza, Tuscan style chicken, Southwest tacos and fajita stations, Asian spring rolls, stir fries, rice and noddle dishes. You should also include a selection of appetizers, entrées, and dessert options.
Box Lunches: work best for working lunches where the guests can remain focused on the objective of the meeting. Box lunches offer at least four varieties to choose from, such as turkey, roast beef, ham and vegetarian sandwiches, including a piece of fruit with a cookie, and chips. Make sure to include condiments and utensils.
Build Your Own Lunch Menu: may include the option to go with a buffet style or plated meal. The menu normally includes lettuce salad options, fruit salads, and soup. The entrée consists of chicken, pork, beef, salmon, or Caesar salad with grilled chicken. There is also an option of sides including vegetables, potatoes, pasta, or rice. Don’t forget to include dessert.
No matter what type of meal you select, offer guests a variety of drinks to go along with their meal. Suggestions include assorted soft drinks and juices, bottled water, coffee and tea.
Have fun planning a luncheon, there is a lot to choose from to meet your needs and make the event as smooth as possible!
Catering help required for any type of event: How to choose?
Saturday, April 9th, 2011Catering business have become huge in sometime and due to that there is a lot of competition, which makes its hard to choose the best out of all. When getting a caterer for an event one has a lot in mind and the one major thing they worry about is that things should not mess up.
When it comes to catering for wedding, it ought o be excellent as it’s the most important event for two individuals and people would remember these events for good or bad food served. The first thing that you must do while choosing your wedding caterer is to check the menu they offer. Wedding caterers should be flexible in adding or subtracting items from the menu. While you hunt for caterers for wedding catering then you must not forget to see their experience in serving and providing services for wedding catering.
Every event has its own unique style so the catering has to be very innovative and experimental as menu is different depending on the event. When you plan to hire catering one thing you must see how many events have they catered. And also go through their website for reviews from customers regarding the services.
When it comes to corporate events then catering has not only to be good food but also for good arrangements to suit the mood of the occasion. Corporate catering needs to be handled in the most professional way in terms of catering and managing. Corporate events cannot look fancy at all so the catering company must understand also good food and pleasant atmosphere is essential in corporate catering. Not everyone can be trusted for the same.
There are some consequential factors that you must consider while hiring catering services. The first thing that must be considered is the experience of the catering services in catering business. If they have good experience then it becomes obvious that they know their work very well and mistakes are a rare factor for them. So, they can be trusted.
Seven Basic Rules for choosing the catering service
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010Are you planning a party at home? Or are you planning the party in your office? Well, under both the conditions it is very necessary that you hire a right and professional catering service. A party with good quality food completely relishes heart mind, body and soul completely from top to the bottom. Make sure that you have the best catering service available for your occasion, and for which you need to follow seven fundamental rules of choosing the catering service. Here are the rules:
Rule#1 – Search on Internet – There are many private and qualified catering services available online, and all you need to do is to shop around and search for the best one that matches your party requirements. Keep in mind that you search through the details of every catering service that you have short listed for the purpose.
Rule#2- Does the Catering Service Provider has the Necessary Experience? – Make sure that you check out in detail about the experience of catering company. Is the catering service provider experienced? What type of catering experience does the service provider has in its kitty? Is the catering service provider adept at providing Continental, Traditional or Sea food catering or just any type of catering service?
Rule#3- Is the catering service Located in Your Area? – A catering service located in the vicinity of your home or office will serve out to be a cheap option, and moreover it will be very accessible to approach. Here again, you should explore the antecedents of catering service providers in your area to get fair idea. Catering in Philly will be a good option if you are residing or located in and around Philly. Likewise, catering services in Philadelphia, Bucks County PA can turn out to be the right option for you if you are located in the Pennsylvania area.
Rule#4- Make sure that Catering Service is Affordable – Affordable catering service should be the preferred choice in case you are hiring catering service in your area. Even if the catering service provider is expensive, make sure that you have discounts available out there. This will save you money and also get the best quality food to enjoy.
Rule#5- Catering Service should be Complete Value for Your Money – Is the quality of food being offered good? If not, then obviously you to bid adieu to the services of such catering company.
Rule#6- Catering Service should offer Variety in Food – A catering service provider offering variety in food will always be preferred and should be preferred to the catering service
Rule#7- Catering Service should Provide Hygienic Food – Hygienic and tasty food provided by catering service provider will show that it is a professional caterer. There’s nothing more left to say.
Once you have followed them with complete seriousness, you are ready to host the most delicious and memorable party of your life time.
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Event management with affordable catering service
Thursday, October 14th, 2010A properly managed event should and will always have professional full service catering. An event without catering service fails to fit in the category of corporate catering. Full service catering for any corporate or non corporate event is available on internet, and you need to search for only the professional event management companies who have the adeptness in organizing catering as the part of any event. However, the crux still remains on how you should go for event management solutions that also integrate affordable catering services? Here are some of the key tips that you need to consider when choosing event Management Company:
- • Make sure that the event management company has not only got the experience in organizing the events, but should also be good at managing corporate catering services, or for that matter, can also offer full service and affordable catering service. Affordability is the second prime consideration here if you are planning to hire an event management company.
- • The professional event management company should be professional in every little sense. The company should provide quick catering services without making any compromises on the quality of food items offered.
- • The event management company should be ready to offer customized catering services for corporate events, wedding parties and holiday parties, besides, affordable catering services to all kinds of big and small events. Most of the times event management companies just list themselves as affordable catering services provider, but in real sense they do not list the costs of hidden services.
- • There are separate event management companies that offer affordable wedding catering services for wedding and engagement parties. Such companies do not provide catering services for the corporate events. Therefore, when choosing the event management company for any wedding party which will also include the catering services, then you should be completely aware that the event management company is offering its services in organizing wedding events.
- • Besides offering completely affordable event management and full service catering solutions, it becomes very necessary that the company is time efficient so that it minimizes any last minute delays in the events.
- • The event management company which is otherwise professional in all respects of catering and organizing the events, and ability to communicate the things in the right manner. A professional event management company will give all the event hosting services.
- • Make sure that you get the price quotes from event management companies in order to get complete information about the services and the prices charged for those services.
It is very important that you go for the best event management company that is offering quality based and affordable catering solutions. This will save you time and provide complete set of services.
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All at one place from floral design to event decor
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010Floral designing is the part of event decoration, but in most of the cases many of the event management companies do not offer floral design services, and as the result extra expenses are levied on the user at the end. The problem doesn’t settle down out here, but it has deeper roots. When you go for floral decoration, you just waste your time in search of a professional floral decorator who can give a completely dynamic look to your party and occasions. An event management company should provide integrated range of services which includes catering, floral design decoration as well as event planning and decoration. Once you find one completely integrated floral company, you don’t need to run here and there in search of separate services.
With many catering services available out there on Internet and elsewhere, the most important factor that comes into the picture is how to choose the best catering services provider. Choosing the right and professional caterers isn’t that easy a task, and it requires some real smart planning.
The best means to search for an integrated event design and management company that also offers flora design services is Internet. There are plenty of online stores on Internet that offer you best floral designs and you need to just make the choice out there. All it takes to make the choice is few minutes, and ultimately you get happy event designing moment for all purposes. There’s nothing more exhilarating than a well planned and well designed party. A well organized party occasion gives meaning to your party, and also offers life long remembrances. The whole idea out here is to bring good times at one place. Flowers form an indispensable part of every occasion, and they bring a real difference to the environment. A part without flower decoration looks dullish and out of place, and therefore, you should give top priority to the floral decoration.
By hiring an integrated services event management company, you get all the reasons to have the best solution for all the requirements of your party. Now there’s another important question- which type of event Management Company will offer integrated floral design solutions for your occasion or party? One simple and straight answer to the question is that only a professional event management company can offer you such type of services.
If an event management company is not offering all the services, then the best solution that you can look for is to go for comparison shopping. When you go for comparison shopping, chances are fair that you come across affordable floral design company which is also the company offering event management services. Make sure that when you hire any event management company for planning an event or occasion whether in your home or office, the company also offers floral design services.
Guidelines to choosing a best catering service for events
Friday, September 10th, 2010Food makes or breaks any event. Be it a corporate conference or an informal wedding ceremony or an outdoor picnic. No occasion can be complete without good party catering from a trusted caterer in town. With a little research it is not too difficult to find Philadelphia” href=”http://www.cateringbymarios.com”>caterers in Philadelphia as there are several around which would fit your bill for any budget, event size and type.
If you follow our step-by-step guideline on how to choose the right caterer then a good one is just a block away:
Event type: This is the first question to ask – is it a corporate seminar or conference? Or is it a wedding or cocktail party catering? Does the occasion demand an elaborate outdoor setting which could be the case for weddings and holiday parties or is it a small indoor affair? The number of guests too would differ accordingly.
Budget & Menu: After the event type the budget is the next most crucial step. The pricing will also depend on the number of items in the menu. Again, if it is a classic sit-down dinner you will have an elaborate menu planned with fancy cutlery and party trays to go with it. This would scale up the costs. If it is a standard corporate catering menu it is open to negotiation. You should be clear on the planned menu and the theme of the event in question. It is better to find out whether there are any hidden or extra charges for catering services. Like, are the taxes inclusive or exclusive and is there a way to bring the costs down.
Coordination: After you take a decision on which caterer to hire the next important step will be to chart out a plan for coordination and execution. This will involve the real task of coordinating with the caterer, giving him the details of the event. Make sure there is no confusion about date, time and place. This will help in eliminating any misunderstandings at the last minute. To prevent shortage of food or extra leftovers you need to confirm the total number of invitees at least a week or 3 days in advance. Statistics dictate trends towards a 75% attendance out of the total number of invited guests.
Also, an ideal caterer would take in account food preferences or trends in concept cuisines prevailing in Philadelphia at present. The wind is titled toward vegan and diet stuff, so ensure that the caterer is capable of meeting the popular and specific needs of the invitees.
Staff: Verify whether the catering company offers wait-staff or serves. You can request staff to serve the guests at an additional cost.
Wastage of food: Many caterers are strict about not leaving the prepared food leftovers to you. In such a case, you can request and show your tie-up with organisations which take care of the leftovers and provides it to the needy. This would serve a philanthropic purpose as well and play up to your advantage if it is a corporate event.
Lastly, you should verify their previous track records and testimonies. It is also advisable to go for a food tasting session to one of the events catered to by your chosen one.
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Find a Wedding Catering Service at affordable prices
Friday, August 13th, 2010Planning a wedding is a mammoth but a very exciting task. The highlight of the ceremony is the party catering. Though, wedding catering can get very expensive it can be scaled down to your budget by keeping a few steps in mind.
Firstly, you need to find a caterer who will function within your budget. The food should also blend with the wedding theme, décor and scale of the ceremony. There are many good full service caterers available in and around Philadelphia. The wedding could have an outdoor theme which would call for a picnic catering or it may be a destination wedding demanding holiday caterers.
With some negotiation and smart menu planning you can easily get your desirable wedding caterer to deliver in your chosen budget. The thumb rule is wise selection of menu items which will make all the difference to the price strategy. Like for example, choose items keeping seasonal fruits and vegetables in mind so as to bring the cost down per item. This way the caterer does not need to use expensive canned ingredients which are not available in a particular season.
The way a meal is served can also make a huge hole in your pocket. A classic sit down dinner has many more elaborate menu items as compared to other arrangements like food stations. A food station is a popular concept serving a particular type of world cuisine. These could be limited in number and they serve full meals which are quite filling. Like, a pasta station is a must-have by all caterers in Philadelphia.
You may cut your catering bill by requesting a simple set up for the food stations and sitting tables. By using a single color for tablecloths, usually white, will cut down on hiring expensive upholstery. Also, no need to order for expensive dinner services and party trays, the caterer can use the standard cutlery available.
Even the time of the post wedding reception can make a difference. If you’re planning your wedding reception for 7 pm, your guests will be expecting a dinner set up. You can consider a morning reception, brunch, or an afternoon cocktail reception. This would make it a smaller affair in terms of an elaborate menu and require less food.
If the catering contract allows, buy your own liquor and ask a friend to be the bartender. Generally, they are stringent only for a certain amount of liquor which you have to purchase from the wedding caterers and the rest can be brought by you. Limiting the guest alcohol choices to wine and beer will bring down cost further.
The wedding cake can become an elaborate affair and good things don’t come cheap. Choosing one flavor instead of several and decorating it with fresh flowers will cut back costs. Instead of a fancy designer three – tier cake you can go for a sophisticated but smaller cake for the cutting and have a general cake laid out on the table for consumption by guests.
So it is as simple as this to get wedding catering of your choice in your preferred budget.