What to keep in mind during this year’s simcha season By Becky Raspe
T
hough 2020 brought about the COVID-19 pandemic, many families still had happy lifecycle events to celebrate, from engagements and weddings to anniversaries and b’nai mitzvah. And as the pandemic continues – and hopefully recedes – families, party planners, event venues and vendors alike are getting creative in order to celebrate safely.
With health, fun and creating a personalized event in mind, Gene Natale, Jr., owner and founder of Burning River Entertainment Group in Cleveland; Karen Troyer, director of sales, and Tammy Bloebaum, director of catering, at Cleveland Marriott East in Warrensville Heights; and Elizabeth Coughlin, director of catering sales at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, share their predictions for aspects of the planning process ahead of another unique year of parties.
CATERING Pandemic safeguards caused event food service to go through a complete overhaul to keep guests and servers safe. To make sure attendees still leave events satisfied, many events are going with single-serve and smaller portions, the professionals explain. • Coughlin: “We’re seeing individual food displays, as well as grab-and-go items. It is kind of like food and wine pairings, but with the drinks and food immediately in the same vicinity. It has been interesting and fun to look at what people are doing in those perspectives. A lot of parties have been utilizing grab-and-go and cute bite-sized foods, too.” • Troyer: “People have a vision for food items, but we do have to make some adjustments there in offering packaged and
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single-serve items. So, it’s about working with your vendors on the packaging to meet the guidelines, but to also make sure the packaging fits into the overall feel of the event.” • Bloebaum: “One of the words we use for 2021 in events is ‘individualized,’ and I find myself using that word a lot when it comes to food practices and serving. With cocktail receptions, (before) you’d see big mountains of food where people would reach over each other. But now, we’re doing individual crudite cups served by a server in gloves and a mask, so you’re not touching other people’s foods. It’s about individual care.”
DECOR AND DESIGN Since events are much smaller, you see more customization in ceremonies and events, all the way down to party favors. But some of the bigger changes in party planning and hosting come from how events are structured using decor and each venue’s available space. And when in doubt, get creative with your visuals when utilizing the extra space made necessary due to social distancing. • Coughlin: “We’ve seen larger venues (like the Cleveland Museum of Art) thrive because of extra space that can be provided for smaller groups. Sometimes, that discouraged smaller groups in the past
A January 2021 bar mitzvah where entertainment included 6 foot dancing squares on the floor, marked by glow in-the-dark tape in a black lit room. Burning River Entertainment Group because of all of the excess space. But this encourages social distancing and allows guests to feel safe in the space.” • Bloebaum: “We are used to traditional seating of eight and 10 at events, but now we’re seeing creative ways to seat people. Like doing a hollow space, where (the table) creates a space in the middle, giving the distance needed to sit with other people. Individual cocktail tables have been great, too.” • Natale: “With lighting, we have seen a lot of requests for custom lights and monograms and things like that to project on the walls or floors.”
ENTERTAINMENT Every party still needs something to engage guests, or you’ll just have a group of people sitting around in a room filled with silence or chatter. While entertainment methods like dancing might be out the window in the traditional sense, finding ways to keep the energy going can lead to unique party aspects, many of which that rely on visual engagement. • Natale: “We did a bar mitzvah in October 2020 where we did virtual reality video games, airbrush apparel and had a DJ playing songs, with only a little bit of actual dancing. The party mostly centered around the VR stuff. Another mitzvah in January called for more visuals, like a room set up with black lights, focusing on games and activities that encouraged social distancing.” • Coughlin: “We’re seeing a lot of people rethink the entertainment piece, incorporating entertainment that is
