EXPERT ADVICE
Best practices, tips and unique ideas for the BEST. PARTY. EVER.
The Best Buffet Options For Your Child's Bar/Bat Mitzvah
We see every aspect of a mitzvah as an opportunity to express your child’s personality and interests, and we don’t think food should be an exception! When it comes to food, you want to make sure you can offer something everyone will like, but most importantly, something your child will love!
We see every aspect of a mitzvah as an opportunity to express your child’s personality and interests, and we don’t think food should be an exception! When it comes to food, you want to make sure you can offer something everyone will like, but most importantly, something your child will love!
With buffets, you can offer a variety of food that’ll be sure to have something for everyone, while also focusing on some of your child’s favorite foods and getting creative with the different flavors that are offered! Here are just a few of our favorite buffets we’ve had in the past and ones we think you should consider for their future mitzvah!
Appetizer:
Sushi
Charcuterie (Cheese Boards)
Dinner:
Pizza
Sandwiches / Subs
(MORE!) Sushi
Pasta
Dessert:
(Make Your Own) Ice Cream
Donuts
Cookies
Candy
Milk Shakes / Smoothies
If you put as much thought into planning the food options as you do with everything else at your child’s mitzvah, you and your guests will be able to enjoy every aspect of the event, and make that just as memorable as many of the other moments of the night!
If you’re looking to plan your child’s bar or bat mitzvah, Xtreme Event Group will take care of all your event entertainment needs. Schedule a consultation with one of our mitzvah planning experts today.
Photo Credit: Omar Gonzalez Photography / Sean Sime Photography / Joy Yagid Photography / Photography by Jen Davis
The 5 Things You Should Ask Any Vendor or Venue
We believe keeping these five things in mind during the search process, will prioritize your needs, your budget, your child’s interests, and the vision you have for their mitzvah, and make finding the perfect fit easier than before!
When contacted by future mitzvah families, we do our best to make the process easy and make sure to personalize the event to fit their needs and their child’s interests! Below are a few of the things that we are always happy to go over when chatting with our families, and five of the most important topics we believe you should go over when talking to any vendor or venue!
Photo Credit: Photography by Jen Davis
1. Value
As we’ve suggested in the past, we believe it is important to create a budget that you can stick to. To make that easier, it is best to allot a certain amount to each aspect of the planning process and your event needs. While we do suggest creating a strict budget, we realize that’s easier said than done. Sometimes it helps to be flexible especially when you consider the value of what you are getting. When choosing a venue or vendor, you may find options that fit within your set budget but they don’t offer exactly what you’re looking for or match the quality you envisioned. It’s important to look at a variety of venues and vendors to see what they offer and which will give you the best value for what you pay and what you need.
Photo Credit: Peter Fotolux
2. Availability
Nothing is worse than finding the perfect venue and then realizing they’re all booked up! If you know your preferred date, make sure to ask about that before getting into too many details. Most likely if venues or vendors are not available on that date, they will have other options available for you, and at that point, it’s up to you if you’re able to be flexible and switch that date around! Make sure to keep in mind when your family would be available, if you had any trips planned or previous plans made, or if there is anything that would conflict with the other options available.
3. Flexibility
Speaking of flexibility, typically venues and vendors offer multiple packages to accommodate a wide range of needs and preferences. See what packages they offer based on your budget, needs, and your child’s preferences. If they don’t already offer packages that fit this, see if they are able to be flexible to help create the perfect party for you!
Photo Credit: Peter Fotolux
4. Reviews
With company reviews being so easy to find nowadays, there should be no reason you don’t look at them before booking with someone! Whether it’s on Facebook, Google, or their direct website, being able to get a good understanding of how their customers felt before, during, and after working with them, should be easy and so important before saying yes to using them for your son or daughter’s mitzvah! Looking at reviews can put your mind at ease if you had any doubts before or can save you from an unpleasant experience if you notice previous customers have had many in the past.
Photo Credit: Omar Gonzalez Photography
5. Previous Work
Similar to finding reviews, a vendor’s previous work is typically very easy to find and is a great way to see what they’ve done in the past and if it fits the vision you have for your event! Most companies know the importance of this and will showcase their work on their website or social media pages. When looking, be sure to take your time and look through more than just a few examples, as that may not showcase all that they can do! Although these vendors may be able to be flexible and offer you more than what they show, looking at their social media beforehand is a great way to get a general idea of what they’ve done and what they are used to doing. If you cannot find any previous work, make sure to ask them when having your initial meeting and before signing with them.
We believe keeping these five things in mind during the search process, will prioritize your needs, your child’s interests, and the vision you have for their mitzvah, and make finding the perfect fit easier than before!
Mitzvah Games (That Are Actually Fun!) - Cocktail Hour
We believe that cocktail hour is a great opportunity for our team to not only get to know our guests but to also allow them to get to know each other through games. Here are a few of our favorite cocktail games, that we think do this best!
At a bar/bat mitzvah, the party may seem like the best part of the night. And don’t get us wrong, as a mitzvah entertainment company, we love the dancing, dinner, and party games, but cocktail hour is where family and friends come together, get to know each other, and that's truly where the fun begins.
Photo Credit: Jen Davis Photography
Not everyone at a bar/bat mitzvah may know each other and that’s okay! That is what we’re there for! We believe that cocktail hour is a great opportunity for our team to not only get to know our guests but to also allow them to get to know each other through games. Below are a few of our favorite cocktail games, that we think do this best!
1. Poster Drop
You may be able to guess what you have to do in this game, just from the name itself! In poster drop, a member of our team holds a rolled-up poster in both hands and as they drop it, the kids try to catch the poster before it touches the ground. It may sound easy but it’s harder than it looks and is a great way to get the kids laughing, active, and ready for what’s in store for the rest of the night! This is a favorite of ours to start the night with, because it allows our team to go from group to group, engaging with our guests one at a time, getting to know each of them a bit better.
Photo Credit: Jen Davis Photography
2. Human Knot
Once a popular Tik Tok, this game involves teamwork, communication, and is guaranteed to create laughter and a few silly moments along the way. The rules are simple, a rope is tied and interlocked to you and your partner’s hands, untangle yourselves without removing your hands from the rope. We believe this game is best when played with someone that the kids may not know so that they can bond through working together and carry that with them through the rest of the night!
3. Levitation
This one may sound a little silly, but trust us, it’s one of our favorites for that reason! Everyone playing sits in a chair, turns to their side, and leans back onto the person next to them. As they are doing this, our team goes around and starts removing chairs until there are none left and the kids are all “levitating”. It’s a fun one to play but it may be even more fun to watch, as eventually one of the kids falls after their chair is removed, creating a domino effect that has everyone falling over and begging to try again!
4. Trivia
This interactive trivia game is a great way to get everyone involved and let the kids use their phones one last time before the party starts, getting it out of their system! With so many kids, trivia is still easy to manage through Kahoot, a site that allows us to ask questions about the guest of honor, have all the kids answer at once, and display the correct answer on the big screen for everyone to see. Trivia is a fun way to find out “who knows the guest of honor best”, allowing the kids to compete and get back to the focus of the night - the guest of honor!
Photo Credit: John Carlos Borja Productions
At Xtreme Event Group, we believe having a fun and engaging cocktail hour where everyone can get involved is so important if you want to start the night off right! And as we’ve shown here, a great way to do that is through playing bar/bat mitzvah games.
If you’d like to learn more about the games, bar mitzvah activities, and other entertainment that we can offer at your child’s event, schedule a call with one of our experts today!
Mitzvah Games (That Are Actually Fun!)
As a bat/bar mitzvah entertainment company that loves engaging with our guests through games, here are some of our favorites to play during the party!
A good mitzvah entertainment company should be able to take your vision and bring it to life, as well as, understand the interests, hobbies, and passions of the guest of honor. And with saying that, we realize not every guest of honor may want to dance the night away at their mitzvah. So as an alternative, a great way to drive engagement between kids and adults would be incorporating games into your event, that can still be fun, high-energy, interactive, and cohesive for all of your guests. As a bat/bar mitzvah entertainment company that loves engaging with our guests through games, here are some of our favorites to play during the party!
Photo Credit: Captured Event
1. Coke and Pepsi
This game may be simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun! In fact, it is still the most popular mitzvah game there is! The guests playing will be split into two different sides, “coke” and “pepsi”. When your side is called, you run as fast as you can to your partner on the other side. The last person to their partner is out! We try to incorporate the guest of honor’s passions, interests, hobbies, and chosen bar/bat mitzvah themes into the game as well, to make it more meaningful and personal to your child’s mitzvah.
Photo Credit: Photography by Jen Davis
2. Twenty One
A relay race with a twist! The object of the game is to stack cups with your team until they form a pyramid of 21 total cups. The first team to do that wins! While that may sound easy, it’s probably not as easy as you think! Each person can only stack one cup at a time and as they run to their teammate, the cups have a tendency to fall over, leaving your team to now fix the cups one at a time. While we typically start Twenty One with just the kids, we like to have the adults play against the winning team. This is a great way to get the adults involved, and it’s always entertaining to see how competitive they get during the game!
3. Scavenger Hunt
This game is set up similarly to musical chairs, and who doesn’t love musical chairs?? The main difference being, rather than circling around the chairs and finding one once the music stops, you must find an item called out and run back to find a chair before they are all taken! The quicker you find the item, the quicker you get to a chair, the better chance you have of staying in the game! With Scavenger Hunt, we make sure to involve both the kids and adults in unique ways so that everyone gets a chance to play.
Lucky for you, these are all games that we offer, as well as many others! When thinking about games for your child’s event, the best mitzvah company or bar/bat mitzvah DJ will typically have this covered! But it doesn’t hurt to know what to expect at a bar mitzvah party and to look over these bat mitzvah games and activities with your child to see which they would prefer! While we did name our top three party games, we know each child is different and we make sure to pick what games we feel will best suit them and the rest of the party guests to create the BEST. PARTY. EVER. Be sure to check out our blog next week, where we list our favorite mitzvah games during cocktail hour!
If you’re looking to plan your child’s bar or bat mitzvah, Xtreme Event Group will take care of all your event entertainment needs. Schedule a consultation with one of our mitzvah planning experts today.
The 5 Biggest Regrets From Mitzvah Families After Their Event
A tool we think you need to make sure that you are nothing other than happy once your son or daughter’s mitzvah is over.
After years of looking forward to it and after months and months of planning it, the day has come and gone and how do you feel? Probably a little tired from dancing, a little relieved that there is no more planning, a little sad that it’s over, but hopefully satisfied with how everything turned out. We hope after all of the time and effort you’ve put in, your child’s mitzvah is as special as you as always hoped it would be. However, we know that not everything always goes as planned and there may be some things you wish you had known earlier to prepare for or things you could have done to prevent those last-minute surprises. So with that, we want to give you 5 of the biggest regrets mitzvah parents feel that they’ve made when planning their event - a tool we think you need to make sure that you are nothing other than happy once your son or daughter’s mitzvah is over.
Photo Credit: Joy Yadid Photography
1. Not Hiring Help
Although there are 4 other things on this list, hiring help may be one of the most important. If you’ve ever planned an event, which we’re sure you have, you know how overwhelming it can sometimes be. While you may feel inclined to do all the work yourself knowing how special this day should be, relying on people who plan mitzvahs for a living, will help you truly make it as special as it can be, with less stress to you and with probably more resources than you could have provided. Hiring help will take more off your plate, knowing the day is in expert hands, and truly allow you to enjoy it when it comes!
2. Not Sticking To A Budget
Creating a budget and sticking to one are two different things. While the first is good, the second is even better. The trick is to create a detailed bar/bat mitzvah budget early so that you know how much to put aside for each aspect of planning and if something were to come up later on in the process, you know where you can take from if need be. This works best when you coincide your budget with a projected timeline. And although it is good to stick by your budget, it is also good to know what items you can and can’t be flexible with when it comes to how much to spend or whether or not it’s worth it when receiving an estimate.
Photo Credit: Peter Fotolux
3. Involving Your Child Too Late In The Process
When planning a bar/bat mitzvah there is a lot to keep in mind and sometimes it can distract from what the event is all about - your child. At the end of the day, a mitzvah is held to celebrate your son or daughter. This means it is important to ask them what their expectations are for the day and what things they would really like to be included. It is important to note that this should be done early so that you can account for their preferences when creating a timeline and setting a budget, as well as involve them with any part of the planning process that you feel necessary. Be sure to still stick to your budget and if that means not involving everything they’ve requested, ask them for their favorites so that you know what to exclude if needed.
Photo Credit: Captured Event
4. Not Telling Your Vendor & Planner What’s Most Important To You Early In The Process
When hiring bar mitzvah vendors or bat mitzvah planners, it is important that through the hiring process you feel that they are a good fit and that they understand your vision for the event. Because of this, make sure that you feel comfortable with who you hire and that in your first meeting or in the ones soon to come, you tell them the things that are crucial in what should be involved. This way they know exactly what to include to make the day what you hope it will be!
5. Not Enjoying The Moment
Other than hiring help, enjoying the moment is by far the best advice we can give! After all of the work you’ve put into planning, you deserve to enjoy the day you helped put together! But even more importantly, this day is about your child, your family, and what it means to your community. It is a special day for all and you should let the planner part of you step aside, and enjoy the moments you’re creating!
Although mitzvah parents have made these mistakes in the past, we hope with these tips, you won’t have to! While there are many aspects to planning a mitzvah, these are some of the biggest and some of the best to get you started! Good luck and let us know if you need any help creating the best bar/bat mitzvah along the way!
Photo Credit: Ira Casel Photography
If you’re looking to plan your child’s bar or bat mitzvah, Xtreme Event Group will take care of all your event entertainment needs. Schedule a consultation with one of our mitzvah planning experts today.