by Vrej Sarkissian CEO of LA Banquets Imagine you’ve just attended the wedding of the richest couple in town. To thank you for your presence, the couple has sent you home with a small metal box containing...a few sugar cubes? Today, you might scoff, but hundreds of years ago, medieval European aristocrats lavished their guests with such gifts! Bonbonnieres—small boxes made of precious metals, stones or crystals—were filled with sugar cubes or simple candies. Since sugar was one of the rarest commodities at the time, they were quite extravagant treats! The wedding favor tradition has endured for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. And many of the favors themselves have been around just as long. Jordan almonds for example, have been served to guests at weddings and banquets since at least the 1500s! But unless you’re planning a medieval themed wedding, leave the sugar cubes and Jordan almonds in the Middle Ages with a few modern wedding favor ideas. Celebrate your “hoppily ever after” with custom craft beer Inviting a beer loving crew? Brew your own special blend of beer for your wedding and let guests know how “hoppy” you two are together. Serve the “I Do Brew” during the reception and send guests home with their own bottle. Don’t forget to save an extra case to enjoy after the wedding! Get lucky on the wedding night...with lottery tickets Hope all your guests get lucky with scratchers or lottery ticket favors. Purchase tickets for the lottery to be drawn the date of the wedding or the closest date after. Insert the tickets in a little card with a note like, “We’ve been so lucky in love. Share in our good fortune.” If the draw will be the night of the wedding, call out the winning numbers during the reception. (We’ll let you decide if you want to include a disclaimer stating that by accepting the favor, your guests agree to share any and all winnings with you!) Giving is better than receiving with charity donation favors In lieu of giving to your guests, give to those in need. Making a donation to a respected charity in the amount you have budgeted for favors will make a far greater impact than any little knick-knack. Print a note on a photo or card and distribute them to your guests to let them know their presence at your wedding helped someone less fortunate. The best wedding favors represent you and your future spouse, while reflecting the themes of your ceremony and reception. Traditional favors will always endure, but wedding favors are a great venue for a bit of fun and whimsy in an otherwise traditional wedding. And remember, you can always include the Jordan almonds in your candy bar! Almond Joy Photo Credit to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/enovember/
By admin
September 12, 2013
by Vrej Sarkissian, CEO of LA Banquets What’s your definition of a large wedding? 100 guests? 200? How about 300 or 400? The most spacious of our LA Banquets venues easily accommodate 500 guests, and weddings that size are a weekly occurrence. When your guest list swells in size, it doesn’t mean you have to let go of the intimate wedding you always envisioned. Over the hundreds of weddings I’ve seen at our venues, here’s what I’ve learned about making large weddings feel intimate and fun. 1. Facetime: Meet and greet with your guests I can’t stress how important it is for the bride and groom to personally greet and talk to all of the guests. This is true for weddings of any size, but particularly so of large celebrations. Stop at each table during dinner or after the cake cutting and thank everyone for coming. Ask your photographer to come around to each table with you and take pictures with your guests. You might need to cut down on dancing time, but your family and friends will remember and appreciate your gesture. 2. Family Style Dining You can’t have a wedding without food, and for a large wedding don’t even think about a buffet. With a guest list in the hundreds, buffet lines will become unmanageably long leaving you with cranky, hungry guests. A timed and plated dinner service is also difficult to orchestrate for large weddings and can break up the natural rhythm of the event. One of the best ways to make a wedding feel more intimate is to serve dinner family style. With family style dining, you recreate the atmosphere of dinners at home with everyone sitting around the table, passing food and conversation around. Each table will feel like its own intimate dinner party. 3. A Separate Lounge With the music thumping on the dance floor, your guests may tire of yelling to each other across the table to have a conversation. But you don’t want to turn the music too far down either. A separated lounge area with comfortable seating will provide your guests (and you!) a place to get away from the main action for a bit. Guests can mingle in a quieter setting, catch up with far-flung relatives and relax for a few moments. If weather permits, consider an outdoor lounge area as well. 4. Photo Fun with Photo Booths Some of your friends and family may be shy about dancing, but they don’t need to miss out on all the fun. Photo booths are a great way for your guests to interact with each other and entertain themselves. And you’ll get likely a lovely scrapbook of all the silly photos. For large weddings, focus on creating a fun, inviting atmosphere and the intimacy will follow. Take time to meet with your guests and personally thank them for attending. Large weddings are all the more reason to celebrate! flickr credit: http://goo.gl/XuWJ0E http://goo.gl/W07Vsy http://goo.gl/kVcV8D http://goo.gl/11SIvU
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---by Vrej Sarkissian, CEO of LA Banquets--- The newest wedding trend has nothing to do with flowers, dresses or decor. Not even food, or going green. Brides and grooms now increasingly want “unplugged weddings.” At the unplugged wedding, guests are asked to put away their phones and cameras during the wedding ceremony, and often during the reception. Some couples even enforce the “no tech” rule by confiscating phones before the ceremony begins. This trend is already common practice at high-profile weddings, where celebrities don’t want images leaking out to the media, which either destroy their illusions of privacy, or void the cash payouts they stand to rake in by selling the photos themselves. For the rest of us, unplugged weddings are a reaction to another prevailing trend: experiencing life exclusively through the smartphone screen. But unless your name graces the covers of the weekly tabloids, your guests may think you think too highly of yourself if you’re asking them to surrender their phones and cameras. If you’re unsure about an unplugged wedding, consider the following before printing up “no phones” notices in your wedding day programs. The “Screen” Life isn’t as Sweet There’s an argument to be made for putting away phones to truly be present in the moment. Yes, all too often we’re distracted by our phones, Instagramming and live Tweeting every instant of a new experience. But a draconian decree may leave your guests so indignant they’ll only be thinking about when they’ll get their phones back, instead of freeing them to contemplate the beauty of your marriage. (Hopefully no guests have to be asked to turn off the ringer for the duration of the ceremony.) Your Guests are Stepping on Your Photographer’s Toes Wedding photographers, however are thrilled “unplugged weddings” are catching on. As one photographer thoroughly explains, your well-meaning uncle standing in the aisle trying to capture the “I dos” on his iPhone (or iPad!) may ruin your professional photographer’s shot. And when you consider how much you’re paying for those professional photos, you want to do everything you can to make sure your photographer gets the shots you want. A More Intimate Look Embracing and incorporating technology in your ceremony and reception though can give you a more complete story of what happened at your wedding. Looking through each guest’s particular photos and social media status updates opens an entirely new perspective of your wedding experience. By creating a unique (and clever) hashtag for your wedding, your guests can create an instant digital scrapbook you and your family can enjoy the next day. You’ll miss out on this if everyone’s phones are tucked safely away. Like all trends, it’s up to you to decide whether to you wish to follow suit, tweak it to your own tastes, or ignore it completely. Whatever you choose, hopefully it won’t be a decision you regret when you’re looking at your professional pictures fifteen years from now. __ Photo via Sakosan Photography.
by Vrej Sarkissian, CEO of LA Banquets At LA Banquets, we strive to keep our venues looking fresh, modern and elegant. So even when we’re not actively changing or updating some aspect of the ballrooms, you can be sure we’re planning our next renovation. All this …
by Vrej Sarkissian, CEO of L.A. Banquets Browsing through the news a few days ago, I came across a story about moms who cite Pinterest as a source of stress in their lives. As a virtual place to share and find beautiful images of parties, food, and craft projects, Pinterest should be a haven for relaxation. But as moms try to replicate that level of fantasy perfection, and do it all themselves, they find the reality doesn’t often match their pinned perfection. And it’s not just moms. Every day I see brides who suffer from “Pinterest stress” too. Overwhelmed by all the “inspiration,” brides are driven to anxiety, or worse, jealous competition. Brides convince themselves they have to plan the most fabulous, unique, Pinterest-worthy wedding Pinterest has ever seen. Often without regard to what their budget allows. Many of these stresses stem from the sheer number of wedding related do-it-yourself projects brides undertake. From handmade centerpieces to home preserved jam wedding favors, wanting to DIY aspects of a wedding to achieve a uniquely personal look is a natural inclination. Not everyone has Martha Stewart skills and patience for crafts though, but Pinterest makes many brides feel that handmade and DIY is the true mark of a great wedding. For brides who aren’t naturally handy or creative, DIY can pose a real challenge and endless headaches. I’ve seen brides try out calligraphy for the first time with 350 invitations to hand-letter. The result is usually spilled bottles of ink and ruined sheets of expensive paper. And besides taking up a lot of time, DIY projects don’t always save any money. Especially if a frustrated bride or couple ends up finding a vendor to take over a failed DIY project. Wedding planning is difficult enough without adding the extra stress of trying to create a Pinterest-perfect DIY wedding. I say this to all the brides out there: There’s no shame in saying “I don’t” to DIY. Stand up to the Pinterest pressure and create the wedding you envision, not the one Pinterest says you need to have. Your guests won’t appreciate all the little handmade touches if you’re too exhausted to celebrate. Just remember Pinterest is a tool to help you plan, not the point of your wedding itself. Stay true to what you want and need, and be aware of time and patience limitations when it comes to DIY. Save the elaborate projects for your vendors and save yourself the headaches. Don’t worry if your wedding doesn’t match up to the Pinterest fantasy, because the real thing will be so much better.
