Recently, I attended a luncheon for event coordinators at
the Century City Hyatt Hotel in Los Angeles. This event
gave me some great party planning ideas and a recipe for a
twist on strawberry cheesecake that I would like to share
with you. The event décor, set-up and catering
ideas from this event would also work for wedding parties
or any other special event you may throw.
We were lucky enough that it was a typical sunny California
day and that X-Bar, the hotel bar, has a great outdoor
patio. The event décor was simple yet effective one
of the party planning ideas I discuss in Budget Bash. The
event coordinators from the hotel used the existing lounge
furniture and created multiple seating pods for the
luncheon. This is a great event décor idea for
saving money because by using your existing backyard or
home furniture for wedding parties or other special events,
you provide comfortable seating and dining areas for your
guests to mingle and eat in.
Another cool event décor element was that the hotel
event coordinators used metal lighting trusses, flipped
them on their sides, stacked them and then placed
plexi-glass on top to create buffet displays. The
triangular-shaped buffet was placed in the center making
the food easily accessible to the event coordinators from
where ever they were sitting. Other creative and fun party
planning ideas at the event included interactive panini
stations whereby the chefs served filet of beef, scallop,
duck confit and mozzarella, tomato and basil paninis.
These food stations are a great catering example of serving
sandwiches but with updated flair, style and taste.
Believe me, I went up to the panini stations at least three
times in the course of an hour. These panini stations are
also great for luncheon buffets at wedding parties since
you can control your costs by selecting the type of panini
you serve. In addition, by catering small sandwich
portions on little plates, the guests will have a variety
of selections and more often than not become full quickly.
The desserts were another example of creative party
planning ideas. They were mini-desserts that you could
easily pick up and eat without a fork. One of the concepts
I discuss in Budget Bash is that sometimes you can get away
with using just cocktail napkins with your catering if you
are looking to save money on rentals at wedding parties or
other special events. A sampling of the desserts served
were peanut butter cheesecake squares, black forest cake
squares on sticks (they were essentially lollipops) and a
creative twist on strawberry cheesecake. The strawberries
looked like chocolate covered strawberries, but when you
bit into one, there was cheesecake filling in the center.
Needless to say, I had to eat three strawberries to ensure
that I could recommend them to other event coordinators.
What's great about this recipe is that it is easy to make
yet very impressive and delicious. The catering department
at the hotel was kind enough to share this recipe with me
and here it is.
Chocolate Covered Strawberry "Cheesecake"
Halve 12 Driscoll strawberries
Scoop out center and fill with your favorite cheesecake
filling. If you don't have a cheesecake filling, you can
mix equal parts of cream cheese and powdered sugar together
to create one.
Place strawberry halves back together, and dip in melted
chocolate to create a holding seal.
Gently rub or sprinkle Graham Cracker crumbs while
chocolate is wet and then cool before serving.
I hope that you can take some of these party planning ideas
and incorporate them into your event décor and
catering for wedding parties or other special events you
might plan. As event coordinators, we are always on the
hunt for the next best thing, and I plan to post more of
these event ideas for you to use and incorporate at your
own parties. Until next time, remember to be a guest at
your own event and to make it simple, fun and delicious!
----------------------------------------------------
Andrea Wyn is a special event planner with over 15 years of
industry experience. She has been the Awards Event
Supervisor for the Screen Actors Guild Awards(R) since
2000. Her book, Budget Bash-Simply Fabulous Events on a
Budget, is available at http://www.budgetbashbook.com . She
has an MBA from the University of Chicago & a BA from UCLA.
To learn more about Budget Bash & events go to
http://www.awynningevent.com
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