Happy Halloween

Just wanted to wish everyone a safe and Happy Halloween!  Please let me know of any events you attend :)

Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween

Last week I covered the best Halloween events in Cleveland, so this week I wanted to highlight an event I wish I could go to.  As I mentioned earlier, I LOVE anything Disney! So I must advertise  their Halloween event.  Every season, Disney comes up with creative ways to celebrate the holidays.



This Halloween their Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween event is going to be held in the Magic Kingdom.  This special event is being held September- November from 7pm to 12am.  Children are encouraged to wear costumes and walk around the park and trick or treat.  Mickey throws a Boo to You Parade featuring all the villains and haunted mansion characters and finishes the night off with a firework show.  This event is Not-So-Scary and is appropriate for all ages.  I know many of you live in Cleveland, but go to the website and check out the fun events.  One of my best friends is at Disney right now and she will be attending this event this weekend, she will have to fill all of us in on how it goes :)

Visit this link for more information.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/magic-kingdom/special-events/mickeys-not-so-scary-halloween-party/

Rotaract Safe Trick or Treating Event

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! I spent mine mostly at work, but it was much needed.
So to my surprise my roommate held a Halloween event this weekend and used a couple of my tips. Yay!!  Emily Cermak is the President of the Rotaract Club here on campus and every year they do a Halloween event for the children of Berea.  This year they held there event on Sunday October 24, 2010 on the Union lawn from 2-4.  They were scheduled to hold this event in the SAC, but there were scheduling issues and since the weather was so beautiful today, they decided to hold the event outside :)  So a lesson there, be prepared to have things go wrong at your event and always have a back up plan.  When the weather corporates that makes everything a lot easier.  Anyways, to promote her event she made flyers and contacted Berea schools to have them promote this event, a great way to create invites and promote an event.  The admission for this event was one canned food, which will be donated to the Berea Food Bank.  This event was a huge success, over 50 children showed up in their costumes and enjoyed the many activities at this event.  Children got their faces painted, got to brew potions, stick their hands in the nasty bowls, and pin a nose on a pumpkin.  Emily was excited about the turn out  of children and cannot wait to  donate all the canned foods to the food bank.  This event will continue next year, so if you missed it look for it next year :)

Tips for Halloween Parties

Continuing with the Halloween themes of my blogs this week, I thought I would pass on some tips for throwing a Halloween party.

1.  Make creative invitations. Make homemade invitations and include candy or something clever to get your guests excited! Make sure you include some activities at will be at the party.  Always make sure you clearly state if costumes are mandatory.

2.  Decorate.  Depending on how you want the atmosphere to be at your party, scary or fun, decorate with ghosts, pumpkins, and dark lighting. Go to this website for some ideas http://www.halloweenexpress.com/decorations-props-c-5.html

3.  Make sure to have the right music.  Usually for Halloween parties, scary music of ghosts and screams is perfect!

4.  Plan activities.  Your party will be more entertaining if you have a activities such as a costume contest, a scavenger hunt, a scary movie playing, or guessing what is in the bowls blindfolded.

5.  Theme your food.  Make sure all the food you serve is Halloween themed.  For great ideas visit this website  http://www.foodnetwork.com/halloween/package/index.html

6.  Serve themed drinks.  Make up you own martinis and mixed drinks for adults and different juices for children.  This website will help you with some great ideas! 

http://www.drinkoftheweek.com/drinks-by-occasion/halloween/

7.  Send your guests home with a gift.  Whether it be a old fashion treat bag or Halloween bakery, be creative because everyone loves going home with a present.

I hope all of these tips help you plan a great Halloween party. Let me know if you have any other great tips for me to share with everyone.  Also, let me know how your party goes!!  

Halloween Events

Haunted houses, scary movies, and haunted hayrides are a few things that come to mind when most people think about the month of October.  Me, I think of carving pumpkins, apple cider, and watching classic non-scary  Disney Halloween movies.  But I will go with the majority vote and assume most people like to attend scary Halloween events, so below I have provided a number of great Halloween events for you and your friends to enjoy.  Since I will not be attending any of the following events (because I'm scared), let me know how the events go :)

Halloweekends at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio-  This is probably one of the only events I would think about attending, because I have heard you can avoid the haunted houses and enjoy the rides.  But be aware there are many monsters roaming the parks at night, ready to get a good scare out of you!

Halloweekends are open every weekend in October.
Friday 6pm- 12am
Saturday 12pm- 12am
Sunday 10am- 10pm  
For more information visit their website . . .      http://www.halloweekends.com/



   




7 Floors of Hell in Berea, Ohio- Voted best and biggest haunted house in Cleveland.  This event is just right down the road from Baldwin-Wallace at the Berea Fairgrounds, some students can hear the screaming in their dorm rooms ahh!!  Basically this is a series of 7 haunted houses, and depending on how many you want to go into depends on how much your ticket is.  Beware of this haunted house it is SCARY!  This haunted house is open every weekend in October Thursday and Sunday 7pm-10pm and Friday and Saturday 7pm-12am.
For more information visit  their website  . . . .  http://www.7floorsofhell.com/index.html


  






Boo at the Zoo at Cleveland Metro Park Zoo-


  This event is more family friendly and targeted towards those with little children.  There are 






tons of Halloween decorations around the Zoo and crafts set up for the little ones.  Children 




also receive a trick or treat bag to take home!  Boo at the Zoo is open the last two weekends of




October from 6-9.  Hurry and grab your tickets, some days are already sold out!




Visit their website for more information . . . 






 http://www.clemetzoo.com/events/event.asp?event_id=7












     










Enjoy your last couple weekends of Halloween festivities.  Let me know of any events I did not mention, or your 



experience at any other Halloween activities.

Boston for the Weekend

Happy Monday everyone!! I hope everyone had a great fall break, I know I did.  I spent the last five days in Boston, Maine, and New Hampshire with my family. We had a blast and I wanted to share my event experience with all of you.  We arrived in Boston around 5 pm Thursday night, exhausted and excited for the next couple days.  On Friday and Saturday we had scheduled 10 hr bus tours.  Friday was the Fall Foliage tour and Saturday was the New England Coast tour.  Both tours were planned through the same company and I wanted to applaud the company for a great job well done!  When planning events for a large group there are so many factors of things that can go wrong and everything needs to be organized. Both tours were educational, organized, and enjoyable.  The bus picked us up at our hotel and dropped us off where we needed to purchase our tickets.  We then were organized on to the correct bus for our tour and we took off. The bus made stops and allowed 15-45 mins at each stop depending on how long everyone wanted to stay, which was nice to have the freedom to stay and go when we wanted.  Around 1:00 the tour had scheduled lunch at a cute little country restaurant that highlighted the food of that state.  Everyone had a great meal and good service in a timely manner.  Once the tour was over, we were all dropped back off at our hotels.  The convenience of both of the tours was spectacular.  They basically did everything for their guests and made the bus trip as enjoyable as possible.  So if you are ever in the Boston area look up Viator ( www.viator.com ) bus tours.  Here are some pictures below of the places we saw :)

While I was in Boston, some great events were going on here in Cleveland.  Saturday was the Cogswell Hall Event " A Moment In Time" and Sunday was the Today's Bride Bridal show.  Let me know if you attended and have any feedback about either one of these events :)

Today's Bride Bridal Show

I am leaving for Boston in about 2 hours and  before I leave  I wanted to let everyone know about an event this weekend.  Since my last post was about weddings, I thought it would only make sense to advertise a wedding event for this weekend. Today's Bride Magazine is hosting one of the biggest bridal shows in northeast Ohio this Sunday at the Sheraton Hotel in Akron, OH.  Basically for those who do not know, a bridal show is like a trade show for brides.  Salons, dress boutiques, photographers, florists, wedding planners, restaurants, hotels, etc, anything you can think of while planning a wedding, they are all there and ready to answer any questions.  Bridal shows are a great way to see the different vendors all in one day.  It helps new brides open their eyes to what the trends are for the year and who they need to be talking to about their wedding.  

I work for a restaurant in Twinsburg, OH and we hold many rehearsal dinners and wedding receptions in our private rooms.  We attend bridals shows every year, which helps boost our reservations.  So if you plan on attending this bridal show look for the Blue Canyon Kitchen and Tavern booth and stop by!

Sunday, October 17, 2010
Embassy Suites5800 Rockside Woods Blvd
Independence, Ohio
10:00am - 4:00pm 80 exhibitors    $10 admission
Fashion Show at 11:30, 1:00, 2:30

Hope everyone has a great long Fall break! Get out and attend some events and let me know about them :)

P.S Do not forget about the Moment in Time event for Cogswell Hall this Saturday Oct 16 from 530-1030.  Learn more about it in earlier posts.

Wedding Planner Visit

Last Tuesday  a professional wedding planner came into my class to talk to us about event planning.  She gave great advice and had great stories to tell, so I thought I would share with all of you! Here is some interesting tips and advice she gave . . .

           If you book your wedding on a Friday or Sunday chances are you can save almost 50%.
          Always pick flowers that are in season, they will be less expensive.
          Always add extra security for larger weddings.
          Food, Food, Food!!! Always make this one of your top priority.
          Have a WOW factor.
          Do not settle for a location, make sure it is perfect!

A couple new wedding trends she talked about were . . .
          Fall weddings
          Photo booths at the reception
          Candy bar of bride and groom's favorite candy
          Late night snacks served at 10, usually sliders, pigs in a blanket, nachos, warm pretzels, or pastries.
          Destination weddings
          Cupcake displays, instead of a wedding cake.

A couple stories she shared were. . .
          She once had to put a centerpiece together that contained live goldfish.
          She had to call the cops on the groom, who was later arrested at the reception site.
          One wedding the guest were throwing chairs across the dance floor at each other because of an argument.
          One bride and groom wanted to be flown in by helicopter.

She was a great speaker who I learned a lot from, hopefully you did too!
If you are a bride to be, a great website she recommended was www.theknot.com 

If you are just interested in event planning and weddings, check out this website!  I have had a knot account since I was 16.  It is a great resource for the latest trends in weddings. Go check it out!!

        

Baldwin-Wallace College Homecoming

Every Sunday I am going to try to review an event over the weekend that I attended and say what went wrong and what went right.  This weekend was Baldwin-Wallace's Homecoming, which means tons of events! The morning started with visitation day for all the perspective high school students.  BW students gave tours, answered questions, gave free lunches, and escorted the students and their families to the football game.  On the other side of campus the parade started, which included all fraternities, sororities, campus organizations and of course homecoming king and queen nominees.  The parade ended at the Finnie Stadium where people lined up to tailgate before the big game.  The football game started at 2:00, announcing the results of the king and queen at halftime.  Ending with a win, everyone went home happy and tired from the exciting day at BW!  So all in all this event was great!  There were many different aspects for tons of different people.  Whether you were a prospective student, current student, parent, alumni, coach, or athlete everyone had a great time!  The weather was perfect, which made the turnout of the event even better.  When analyzing an event food is always a factor, but with a gorgeous day and a football game, you cant go wrong with hamburgers and hot dogs.  Baldwin-Wallace's Homecoming was defiantly a success!

A Moment in Time

Here is my first blog about an upcoming event.  I'm really passionate about non-profits so expect a lot  of posts on non-profit events!  Most non-profits only receive money from their annual fundraisers, so I would encourage as many people to attend these events and support Cogswell Hall's mission :) A lot of BW students will be helping out at this event, so go support them too!

October 16, 2010

Saturday 5:30pm - 10:30pm
Detail: Cogswell Hall, an affordable housing solution for adults with low income facing critical life challenges in Cleveland, Ohio, is hosting their annual benefit “Moment in Time” on Saturday, October 16, 2010. The event will be held at Stages Restaurant at the Cleveland Playhouse from 5:30 – 10:30 pm. The benefit focus is to raise essential funds to help to meet the additional needs of residents, as well as raise awareness about the Cogswell Hall programs & services in the Detroit Shoreway community. Moment in Time is an evening of amazing live music, delicious gourmet dining, and a unique silent & not so silent auction. The band “400 pieces” and jazz students from the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music will keep the crowd on the dance floor. 400 Pieces is an upbeat party band that specializes in high-energy music from the 80’s, 90’s, and present.

Introducing Event Spot

Ever since I was in 6th grade I wanted to be an event planner.  I have always been obsessed with Disney and weddings and thought why not work for Disney and plan all of their weddings?  My total dream job! Movies like The Wedding Planner, 27 Dresses, and Bride Wars always swayed my interests towards weddings, but movies like Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid always swayed my interest towards anything Disney!  So now that I am Junior at BW its time to figure out which way my career will go!  After many PR classes, trips to Disney world, and event planning internships, I have come to the conclusion that my passion is to plan events whether it be for Disney or for a bride :) So through my blog I will highlight events around Cleveland and even numerous Disney events.  I will focus on tips to planning events and showcase upcoming events.  So come along on my journey through the world of event planning!