Different Formats for Your Dinner Service

When deciding on dinner, most couples think of two options: guests can either wait in a long buffet line for a variety of starches and a roast beef carving station, or, they can enjoy tableside service typically divided into three to five standard courses including appetizer, salad, entrée and dessert. While both buffet dinners and plated meals will please most guests, they are definitely predictable. Here are a few options to spice up the dinner presentation at your wedding:

DINNER STATIONS
Hiring a variety of chefs to customize and prepare dinner right in front of your guests is always a crowd pleaser. The guests get to interact with the food preparation choosing what sauce to put on their pasta, or what temperature they would like their Ahi. Stations are a unique presentation of food which will not only fill their stomachs, but also entertain them as well. When selecting a station style menu, be sure to choose a station for each “course”. You could have a Sushi Station for an appetizer, tossed salad display, a risotto bar for the starch and then for the entrée, have a chef boil lobster or crab legs. While this is an impressive style of service to most, the men on your guest list will be talking about the meal for days after your event.

FAMILY STYLE
Just like it sounds, family style dinner service is where large platters of food are placed in the center of each dinner table. Guests take their food and pass the plate to the next guest. This style of service is a great compromise between plated and buffet style meals, as it offers the variety of a buffet with some of the formality of a plated dinner. It is also the best way to get your guests talking and interacting during dinner. When planning a family style menu, make sure to stay away from messy items like pasta, or any meats with heavy sauces. Offer two to three meat options as well as two to three sides. One salad should do.

TASTING MENU
While most tasting menus are coursed out like a plated meal, some people prefer to serve them family style as well. Take your pick, but no matter how the meal is presented, you cannot go wrong with small tastings of eight to 10 different dishes. This is perfect for your guests if they love trying a little bit of everything. Consider a theme such as an Asian inspired tasting menu with Pot Stickers, Miso Butterfish and Green Tea Brulee or and even an Indian menu with Tamoori Chicken and a variety of Curries. No matter how you design the dinner, be sure to provide a printed menu at each place setting so each guest will know what they're eating.

Who Will Clean Up Your Dressing Area?

You might think a planner would sleep in a bit after a big event as we often get home at wee hours in the morning, but I'm really not used to that luxury and I attribute it to the dressing room clean up. You see, after almost every event, some item goes temporarily missing. Be it a guest book, makeup bag, jewelry, etc. Couples very often leave their dressing area to be cleaned up by staff or the wedding party so they can dash off to their first night together as husband and wife. The one problem with this is, often, there are way too many cooks in the kitchen in regards to the clean up. Every person believes they are doing the couple a favor by taking home the guest book that was supposed to be retrieved by the mother of the bride or the wedding planner. Expensive jewelry gets slipped into the aunt's purse for safe keeping and makeup bags get mixed in with other wedding party's items. Groomsmen pick up random cell phones and sister's grab the gift envelopes. While, I always, always, try to control the situation to keep things like this from happening, this scenario is so common that I am very used to the 7am phone calls from panicked brides after they realize that one of their treasured items has gone missing (or sometimes even the drunk groomsmen who woke up without his cell phone or tuxedo jacket). At this point, I always recommend calling mom, bridesmaid's or any other "helpful" member of your wedding party. 99% of the time, the item is located in the hands of someone the couple knows who "forgot" to mention they were taking the item home with them and the other 1% of the time, the same type of "helpful" friend took possession of the item early in the evening, only to leave it sitting at their chair at the dinner tables never to pick it up again. Either way, I have planned over 200 weddings and have yet to have an item go missing for eternity. But, in hopes of putting an end to the morning after panic, I wanted to make a suggestion. First the disclaimer that I know you brides out there do not need one more thing for your to do list, but I promise it may stop a few tears and undue stress if you take the time to do this one more little thing. Here it goes:

Create an inventory list of your items. List everything out and assign people to be responsible for them. For instance, I almost always am responsible for getting items such as the guest book, champagne flutes, cake knife & server, etc. to a preassigned car for safekeeping. But, go a step further. List out things like gold hoop earrings, one black bra, a green hoodie, a pink glittery cell phone, etc. and assign each item to be picked up for you. Put it in a checklist format so your maid of honor or whoever you assign can double and triple check everything. And, though I know you shouldn't have to clean up after yourself on your wedding day, I still highly recommend taking a couple of minutes to put all of your items together before you walk down the aisle. Otherwise, whomever cleans up the dressing room, will never know that the purple makeup bag is yours and the turquoise makeup bag is your sister's or vice versa. If you can put all of your items in one central place, there is less chance of items getting mixed in with other people's things. And, lastly, if you are able, communicate to your mom, bridal party, etc. not to touch any of your items. Let them know that Aunt Cathy is in charge of packing your luggage or your best friend agreed to take the gifts home. With a little bit of organization and communication, you will have a much greater chance for a peaceful morning after!

Make Your Day the Inspiration

The other day I was chatting with one of my favorite florists about wedding designs and our clients. With both of us being fans of all things unique and charming, we were discussing how many brides are nervous to do anything unconventional. So often our clients will be up for anything in the beginning only to get nervous to be the first to try something new or to introduce guests to a completely unique experience. Whether it's because mom is a little more traditional or simply because they are scared of the risk, in the end a lot of couples choose to take the easy way out by copying another event to a tee because it's the safe thing to do. While there is nothing wrong with using another couple's wedding as inspiration, I mean, even I do it, but, I say, to all of the design intimidated Bride's out there: Let's design a wedding that other couples will copy off of. Let's come up with something so spectacular that bride's across the nation will say, "I have to have a cake like Jack and Sue's" or, "I have to have the shoes I saw in this one wedding!" Be inspired by others but when all is said and done, don't be afraid to make a statement of your own.

Wedding Day : Premiere Tuesday, June 16th on TNT

Okay, by now you must think I'm getting some sort of stipend from the show Wedding Day, but it's not the case. I just love the concept of this show...again, think Extreme Home Makeover for weddings. Also, Diann Valentine is one of the hosts, and if you are a reader of my blog, you already know what a HUGE fan I am of Ms. Valentine. Seriously, she is one of the most talented women in the industry.

I had the chance to connect with the Diann this week and she was telling me about some of the amazing couples she worked with this season. The first is a couple who first were planning to marry several years ago when the bride was in a major car accident four days before the wedding and was in a coma only to wake up not remembering her entire family including her fiancee. Well, her fiancee stood by her side and in comes Wedding Day to bring their day to life. She told me many other stories, but I don't want to ruin the surprise. You have to watch! I mean, I have chills just writing about this! So, tune in, Tuesday, June 16th on TNT. I know it's going to a huge hit!!

Congratulations Diann! No one is more deserving of your success!

Digital Princess Productions & Broke-Ass Bride

I am in LOVE with this video created by Digital Princess Productions for Dana over at Broke-Ass Bride. Maybe it's because I grew up listening to The Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff or maybe I just love a couple with a sense of humor, but either way, I had to share immediately!

Fresh Hubby of LA from Digital Princess Productions on Vimeo.

You're Hired (Or Not!)

Day in and day out, I get several requests for employment. So many in fact, that it's near impossible to respond to each of them, but I do respond to some and wanted to give you hopeful planners out there some guidance on how to stand apart from the rest. Here are a few of my hot spots and pet peeves that will get you noticed in a good or even bad way:

1. Don't address your cover letter with "Dear Sir or Madam". My company name is Beth Helmstetter Events and my name is Beth Helmstetter. It doesn't get any easier than that. If you can't take the time to write what at least appears to be a personal email to me, I won't be able to find the time to respond to you. Now, this isn't just true in my case, but is true in any job you are applying for. It's resume writing 101 in fact and I just can't take anyone seriously who hasn't done enough research or can't be bothered to take the time to write me an individual note.

2. Research the industry. If you don't know what The Knot or Style Me Pretty is or if you are not familiar with industry leaders like Mindy Weiss or Colin Cowie, spend a little more time getting to know the industry before calling on planners to intern with. The wedding business is a major industry with many key players. I take my business and this industry very seriously and will only give my time to those who do the same.

3. Know a lot about my business (or any planner's business for which you are applying). Beth Helmstetter Events specializes in intimate and destination weddings and we have a great love for all things charming that reflect the personalities of our clients. If you write me a letter talking about the lavish ballroom events, golf tournaments or the corporate retreats you would love to plan, I will assume you know nothing about my company.

4. Show me what you've done to prove your interest in the industry. Have you started your own blog about wedding design? Have you participated in educational programs to learn more about the industry or have you worked for little or no money just to get a little experience with planning? These are the type of things all wedding planners did in the beginning and if you are serious, you should too. Every day I get letters from people who have dreamt of becoming a wedding planner for years, but it is rare that I get a resume that shows what you have done to further this dream.

5. Be realistic. There is nothing more offensive than receiving a letter from someone who thinks my job is to play with flowers and taste cake all day long. Sure, that is a part of our job and can be a lot of fun, but there are many other things that go along with the job such as creating detailed timelines, managing tight budgets and developing and redeveloping floor plans. My mind is bogged down with concerns such as whether the venue has enough electricity available for both the great lighting we have designed and the 10 piece band the client is dying to have. My job entails things like renting portapotties, bringing in generators and arranging shuttle buses. Glamorous, right?! It involves being able to work with clients whose aesthetic you may or may not relate to and bringing it to reality no matter how you feel about their personal style. You will be managing vendors who do not want to be managed and working with mothers of the brides or other family members who may not understand or appreciate the value you add to the planning process. But, most importantly it is often an extremely stressful career and the hours tend to be very long. On the wedding days it is typical for my team to work a 12 to 16 hour day, only to get up the next morning with bright and shiny smiles on our faces to work the morning after brunch. Now, don't get me wrong, there is not anyone I know that could possibly love this job more than I do, but it's not all peonies and monogrammed hemstitch napkins. It's hard work and a lot of responsibility and resumes and cover letters that do not acknowledge this understanding, rarely get a second look in my office.

While, I'm sure this may come across as a little blunt, I wanted to give all of you out there that are actually doing your research a little glimpse inside of what I'm looking for when I take on an intern or assistant. After reading this, if you are still interested in working with me, then keep sending those resumes. We are not hiring at this moment, but things change on a daily basis and if I see someone who really sparks my interest, you never know, I may just find a way to work you into the team. Good luck and no matter who you end up working with, happy planning!