Top Ten Banquet Halls in Miami
With its beautiful beaches, palm trees and lively cultural scene, Miami makes a great place to have an event. Lavish ballrooms, lush gardens and historic buildings are just a few of the fantastic event venues you’ll find in this exciting multicultural city. Here are the Top Ten Miami Banquet Halls from Eventective.
1. Coral Gables’ Venetian Pool
The world’s most beautiful swimming hole is also a gorgeous setting for your Miami wedding. Transformed from a coral rock quarry in 1923, this 820,000 gallon pool features a coral cave, grottos and two waterfalls.
This historic treasure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and includes a palm-fringed island, beach, cobblestone bridge and Venetian-style buildings.
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The Pros and Cons of Buffet vs. Sit Down Catering for Your Event
Food and beverage expenses are often the largest single item in an event budget. More often than not, this is as true for weddings as it is for other types of events. As you plan your event and finalize your budget, it is especially important to play close attention to your catering decisions, as even small choices you make can have a big impact on the total cost.
Many brides and event hosts often agonize over the relative merits of serving meals to guests while they remain seated at their tables (known as “sit down catering”) versus having guests get up from their tables to serve themselves from one or more food stations (known as “buffet catering”).
Before you start planning your menu, it’s a good idea to make a decision about whether sit-down or buffet catering will work best for your wedding or other type of event. This fundamental decision not only impacts your total budget, it also determines the range of menu choices you’ll be able to make.
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How to Create a Destination Wedding of Your Own
Destination weddings gained popularity in the late 1980s, as warm-weather destinations in Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean became increasingly accessible to greater numbers of people. While the rich and famous had always enjoyed opulent weddings in exotic locations, the destination weddings trend made it possible for the less well-heeled to tie the knot more fashionably than they might at their local church or conference center.
The concept is pretty simple. Rather than getting married in their home town and then jetting off to romantic honeymoon spot, the bride and groom would invite their closest friends and family (destination weddings are typically on the smaller side) to join them at a nice resort for a long weekend. After the festivities were over and their guests departed, the newlyweds would stay in place for their honeymoon.
Besides obvious advantages like greater convenience for the bride and groom, destination weddings can be less expensive. With all of their guests paying for overnight rooms, the bride and groom often get a lot of freebies from the resort. And many wedding-related services just cost less in overseas destinations like the Caribbean and Mexico.
But there also are disadvantages. With the costs of airfare and at least a 3-night stay, destination weddings can be expensive for guests. In order to block rooms and get decent airfares, all of the arrangements need to be made well in advance. And sometimes it’s hard to decide who should make the cut for a shorter guest list.
If a destination wedding at a posh resort is not in your budget, all is not lost! There are ways to borrow ideas from the destination wedding trend to create an exceptional—and even exotic—wedding much closer to home. And with a little research and planning, you can find ways to stretch your budget if you absolutely must have a destination wedding of your own.
Seven Steps for Planning the Perfect Event
Every event—from the smallest birthday party to the grandest wedding—requires some planning and organization. How well you manage the details determines whether you have an outstanding event or just an average one. Whether you’re planning a party around your kitchen table or are part of a team of seasoned experts organizing the wedding of the century, the fundamental process for planning a successful event is more or less the same. Regardless of the type of event you are planning, here are seven steps to help ensure your event is successful and your planning process is fun and stress-free.
1. Create Your Event Wish List
Before you start finalizing any arrangements for your event, it’s always a good idea to have a concrete sense of what kind of event you want to have and, most important, how much you want it to cost.
Cupcake Weddings
Valued in excess of $20 million, the world’s most expensive wedding cake was exhibited at a bridal show in Beverly Hills in 2006. The diamond-laced masterpiece was not eaten, however. (And, presumably, the diamonds were relegated to other purposes.)
That’s a far cry from ancient Roman times, in which weddings were finalized by breaking a cake of wheat or barley on the bride’s head. (Talk about Excedrin moments!) The happy couple would then complete their union by eating crumbs of the cake together. In later years the custom morphed into simply breaking cakes over the bride’s head, rather than bashing her in the noggin. Nevertheless, a tradition of completing a wedding ceremony with a cake of some sort had been established, and it continues (in various forms) to this day.
In medieval England, Bride’s Pye was a popular feature at many weddings. But how anyone other than inmates at the county jail would eat a slice is beyond belief: inside a decorated crust the Pye contained a mixture of oysters, lamb testicles, sweetbreads and pine kernels. (Not your typical vegan fare.) By some accounts, the Bride’s Pye filling included a wedding ring that would be found by the next woman to be married. (Pity the poor soul who swallowed it accidentally.)
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The (Often Unhappy) History of Weddings at the White House
On November 30 a spokesman for President Bill Clinton reported that former first daughter Chelsea had become engaged to her longtime boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky. Following rumors last summer that the two had gotten married, the announcement was not greeted with much surprise. But one can only imagine how much more newsworthy it would’ve been had the 2000 election turned out differently.
If the Clintons now occupied the White House, Chelsea would have been the 24th child of a president to get married during her father’s (or mother’s) term in office. And if her ceremony were held in the White House, it would have been only the 10th time in U.S. history that the child of a sitting president had decided to do so—and the first such ceremony since Tricia Nixon’s famous wedding in 1971. (The children of President Reagan and both Presidents Bush who married during their father’s term did not get married in the White House.)
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Weddings Haven’t Always Been So White
It’s often assumed that the title of Billy Idol’s 1982 pop hit “White Wedding” refers—in spite of the song’s angry overtones—to a timeless cultural convention. The fact of the matter is that white weddings are actually a fairly recent tradition, and date back to the mid-19th century.
Scholars cite Phillipa of England as the first princess in history to have worn white on her wedding day, in 1406. A daughter of Henry IV, Phillipa was married off to Erik of Pomerania (in modern-day Sweden) as part of an alliance between England and Scandinavia.
But it was another more recent and more famous English royal, Queen Victoria, who is credited with popularizing white weddings. For her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840, Victoria eschewed the silver gown traditionally worn by British monarchs and opted instead for a white satin dress overlaid with lace. Victoria’s was the first British royal wedding to ever be photographed, and as pictures of Victoria in her wedding dress circulated the tradition took firm hold on both sides of the Atlantic.
Wedding Traditions Change Over Time
Planning a wedding has always been a deeply personal experience for every couple. A wedding should speak of a relationship’s uniqueness and each betrothed’s personality.
Many couples feel they have to follow tradition, simply because that is how it has always been done, even though they are likely unaware of the origins of most wedding traditions. Traditions have simply endured.
However, the celebration of joining two lives in the 21st century bears little resemblance to a wedding at the start of the 20th century. Some couples opt to stay true to the traditional church ceremony and formal reception. Other couples may decide on a destination wedding where Mickey Mouse will serve as the best man or Elvis performs the nuptials.
Whether you choose traditional, contemporary or somewhere in between, always remember it is your wedding. Read the story »
Hiring a Caterer
Food is one of the most crucial elements of your event. It’s the part of your event that your guests will remember the most, so serving great-tasting food is of the utmost importance.
When people reminisce about your wedding or party, the last thing you want is for them to recall is how the mashed potatoes were powdered and the chicken was so rubbery it was like biting into a pencil eraser!
Remember, the quality of the food will reflect on you, so it had better be good.
The importance of hiring a reliable and skilled caterer cannot be emphasized enough. The caterer takes care of feeding your guests so you can focus on being a good host.
Do your research and hire a qualified professional with expertise and experience, or else your event could turn into a nightmare of bad food and angry guests.
Top Ten Banquet Halls Chicago
A lavish Grand Ballroom, beautifully landscaped patio areas and 17,000 sq. ft. of meeting space create an attractive meeting location for weddings and corporate events alike. The unique outdoor Lakeside Pavilion is perfect for outdoor wedding receptions, while the ballroom features elaborate iron chandeliers, grand staircases and built-in granite bars, perfect for lavish events.
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