It's all about the FOOD!

Food is a big deal...probably the biggest deal of any event. No matter how nice everything else is, if the food isn't good, that is what people tend to talk about and remember. It's always the "but" at the end of the review of all the positives!

So much of the time, we just accept what we are presented with - I say ask for MORE! If you go to check out a venue for an event, they will likely give you their pre-set and pre-printed catering menu, with restrictions on outside catering as well as the items on the menu and some minimums and all that...but times are tough and its a buyers market - NEGOTIATE!

I would start with an idea of what food you WANT at your event. Is it Indian, Greek, Middle Eastern, is it from a particular restaurant or a particular dish? Then, try the following:

1. Do you allow outside catering?
   
2. Throw out there that you have people with "dietary restrictions" maybe they only eat Halal meat, or maybe they are vegetarian etc...
3. Mention that this might be a deal-breaker and you'd like to find out if an exception can be made, or if you can speak to the chef regarding dishes that are NOT on this catering menu!
4. Make sure if they are playing hard-ball that you find out if they have ever done outside catering or special recipe's in the past
5. Try and get another hotel to agree to it and use that as leverage - well, the Costa Mesa Westin is willing to make an exception for us...why can't you?

Once you get access to the chef, its allllllllllll good! Chef's love to COOK its their passion! They are SICK of the items on the catering menu and are excited for a challenge! When I got married in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico...I knew I had to have at least one event with Indian/Fusion food. Now, I know that a lot of ingredients that go into Mexican dishes also go into Indian (i.e. cilantro, onions, green chillis etc...) so I got creative...Hmmmm can we stuff this empenada with potatos, peas and masala?
After convincing the wedding coordinator at the hotel to allow me to set the menu, I had access to the chef. He and I got really creative and I spent the next few months sending recipes, and he worked on figuring out what ingredients I needed to bring him. I arrived 5 days early with an entire bag of Indian and Indonesian spices and sauces and herbs. Then, I insisted on a tasting...and I brought the major critiquer's of our family!!! We had so much feedback that the chef had to take notes....but, noone could stop talking about the food that night........sigh, it was all worth it!!
Here was our fusion menu:

Hord d’ Oeuvres:

• Turkey Kabobs
• Samosa (empanada with potatoes, spices, peas inside) Hot (served at cocktail)
• Chicken Satay with ginger peanut sauce
• Coconut Shrimp
• Peanut Masala: Salted peanuts, with lime juice, diced onions, cilantro y green chilli diced-cold
  
• Guacamole with chips

Menu: DINNER BUFFET MENU

• Grilled Eggplant Rounds With Ginger Curry Dressing
• Tandoori Tofu Cubes
• Grilled Lamb Chops With Mint Dressing
• Sautéed Shrimp With Bubu Bali Sauce
• Seasonal Fish Filet With Coconut Curry Sauce (Sea Bass)
• Steamed Rice
• Assorted Grilled Vegetables With Garlic Ginger And Shredded Coconut
• Sautéed Bell Peppers And Tofu With Yellow Curry
• Vindaloo Chicken

Sides:

• Wheat And Flour Tortillas
• Papadom (Provided Upon Arrival Nov 25^th)
• Baby Greens/Dressing
• Raita: Tomato Cucumber And Red Onion With Cumin Scented Yogurt Dressing

Destination Weddings

It has become more and more of a trend in the past few years to have a "Destination Wedding". It is not only trendy, but can also be very practical. It is an amazing way to get just a small intimate group together to celebrate your special moment with. Not only that, but you can do it without offending the masses you HAVE TO invite. Whoever is closest to you and wouldn't miss it for the world, will be there.....Isn't that ideal? Now, it is no silver bullet, it takes a lot of work and planning, and it can also be expensive. Not to mention, the expense that you put on your guests. So, what I recommend if you are thinking about a destination wedding, is to take the following steps for narrowing down locations:

• Make sure you have been to the place before - first hand experience is priceless.
• Try and find other brides who have been married there in the past, or are further along in the process than you are, to get reviews from: www.bestdestinationwedding.com is excellent for this!!
• Look into weather/best time of year for travel

• Check airfare, peak timings, how many airlines fly non-stop from the cities that most your guests are from
• Try and calculate total cost per guest that attends that THEY will incur, and rule out locations based upon this
• Choose a place that people would WANT to go to and visit and see things
• If travel time is long, try and plan it on a long weekend
• Last but not least....make sure the immediate families are ok with this, or can be convinced that it is what will make you and your fiance happy. Though you are the star of your wedding, your family has a lot vested in it as well, and can make it easier or harder for you depending if they are on-board with the plan or not!

The Basics: Article 2

So...once you have a vague idea of where, what, when and who for your event, you need to consider getting an event coordinator. This mainly relieves you of the stress on the day-of. Many Wedding Planners offer packages for:

• Full-service (they help you with everything, go everywhere with you, contract all of your vendors, set up meetings and viewings and tastings etc)

• Partial-service (this is something less than full service, but more than day-of

• Day-of (self explanatory)

Think about just how much help you will need, and how many events you need help with. Most wedding planners (including myself) are willing to be flexible to suit your needs and price-range.

Also, make sure you get a notebook or use a laptop, so that you can stay organized. No matter what the event is, there are always a lot of details, contracts and prices to make a note of. It is smart to get multiple quotes for all your needs from different vendors and put them in a spreadsheet for easy comparison.
***I highly recommend Google Doc's for this. It is free, web-based, and all you need is a Google account. It is specially useful when you have multiple people to collaborate with and share documents with.***

I had a full-service coordinator for my Indian Destination Wedding in Cabo San Lucas, MX. Because she didn't have much experience with Indian/Hindu weddings, I ended up doing a lot of the leg-work, but could not avoid having just a day-of coordinator, because I needed her help speaking in Spanish to vendors, and wanted her to be in the loop when it came time to have the event.
When you have a destination wedding, a coordinator is a necessary expense, because you are not physically located in the place where you are having the event, and cannot swing by anytime to look at the place, taste a cake, or have a hair trial!!
I found that when I finally did get to Cabo and put things completely in her hands to handle, she was amazing! She and her assistants all communicated over walkie-talkies, decorated my mandap (Indian term for altar), and everything flowed well because of them.

I will write a seperate post about this point, but I have noticed that more and more Indians are going for Destination Weddings. I think it is because it allows you to have a smaller wedding without offending anyone because they were all invited, but only your closest people will attend! We invited about 400 to our wedding and the turnout in Cabo was 110 people. It was perfect!

The Basics: Article 1

Something I have noticed with planning events is that, no matter what the event there are certain basic things that need to be decided upon regardless. It's sort of like a checklist that is generic and applies to any event, whether it be a birthday party, a wedding, a shower or a tea party!
You gotta start by thinking about the following first...

- When is the event?
Most are driven by some kind of date - especially birthdays or pre-wedding events. Even though this seems to be easy, it isn't always that straightforward. Look at a calendar and determine if you want it to fall on a weekend, or a 3-day weekend. Also think about weather, is this a summer event or an indoor event so it doesn't matter? Do you want to base the date on people's availability? Especially the core people who HAVE to attend? Or, do you want to set the date and change it if you have to?

- Where is the event?
Again, not as straightforward as you may think. A dinner party may be held in a home or in a restaurant, or even in an empty hall where you have everything catered. Sometimes this is dependent upon who is coming and when it is, so sometimes all these decisions have to go together. If it is a wedding, there is a lot of research to be done...is it destination, or local? Is it indoors or out? What does the capacity of the room need to be? Basically the question is, what are your deciding factors for each of these questions...as much as you can list out, the better, so you can begin ruling out possible venues/locations.

- Who is invited?
It is hard to draw a line sometimes, but guestlist and a column with "Probability of attending" is great so you can get an idea of numbers...again this feeds into your answers for the other questions and will help eliminate some venues :)

Welcome to RingLit

This blog is about event planning. Tips, experiences, ideas and everything else I can comment on!
Indian weddings are especially interesting, so I will focus on those sometimes as I have a lot of experience with Indian events and traditions.
ps. love this song: http://www.imeem.com/bombayduborchestra/music/8zD2G_S5/bombay-dub-orchestra-feel/