What a great New Jersey wedding Ceremony!

Is frightening, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great time to have a wedding! Winter typically means lower rates for your wedding venue and sometimes the professionals that will be doing your flowers, photography, and music. We get lonely in the winter; we yearn to see other human faces and leave our respective buildings!

Winter presents you with wonderful opportunities for color themes,(white, silver, blue, snowflakes; you get the picture…), musical selections (”Baby it’s Cold Outside”, “Let it snow”, etc…), the welcoming aroma of hot cider or chocolate when your guests enter your wedding space. It gives your New Jersey Wedding Officiant (shameless plug alert) a chance to talk about winter as a time of contemplation and the subtle signs that the rebirth of spring is on the way. It provides your guests with a delightful break from the zen like quiet (okay, okay, I’m an optimist; maybe the grey slushy mess) that happens in this stretch before April will EVER show up!

So go buy those bridal white snowboots, reserve the four wheel drive white Jeeps, and make those plans!

the coolest, coolest innovative way to create a cocktail hour that will surprise and delight your guests is to present them with a food and beverage pairing presented together.

At Epicure, we present large trays with “couples”; mini marguritas with little quesadilla cones; sushi and steamed dumplings with saki shots; chocolate truffles with small snifters of port; “slider” burgers with chilled beer shots. How fun is this? It also helps ease the crush at the bar, and give them all something exciting to talk about. (besides your wedding ceremony, done by your New Jersey Wedding Celebrant, of course….smooth, eh?)

This shouldn’t be a hard thing for your intrepid caterer or banquet hall to do, and what a style difference! These adorable little glasses are from www.Beau-coup.com, a wonderful source for innovative and imaginative favors.

How’s this for a new twist on wedding receptions? Not quite buffet style, not sit down style, not quite a cocktail party, but some of all three. Seating is casual, not place card dictated, and as each table fills with guests, beautiful little platters are placed for them to enjoy; antipasto, little pizzas, skewers, cold marinated shrimp and veggies; you get the idea. A continuous supply of little plates and forks should be replenished, and of course, wine should flow freely. The overall effect is that of a wonderful cocktail party with enough food to be dinner, served in a joyous, comfortable atmosphere of abundance and hospitality. What could be better?

(This beautiful antipasto platter is from the famous market, “Arthur Avenue”, in the Bronx, NY.)

You may want to personally thank your wedding ceremony guests with a receiving line. You may not realize that if there are 100 of your nearest and dearest, it will probably take about 20 minutes. Why not start the celebration right after your “I do”s! Have your waitering staff pass trays with champagne, sparkling water or your signature drink as people are waiting to say hello to you; they’ll be at the party instantly! If you are outside on a hot day, this will be a welcome and delightful surprise, and no one will notice the minutes slipping by.

When you’re thinking about your reception, you might want to consider having one course served “family style”, whether the rest of the meal is buffet or plated. A beautiful salad or pasta course that can be passed around will give your guests a chance to break the ice and get to know each other. Sharing a meal together is part of the fun of the party!

Your caterer or banquet manager can make sure the passed platters are not too heavy or too messy, and the savings on staff might even make your price go down a bit!

You might want to put together cd’s or ipod mixes of music for your reception; there are some great tips from a DJ pro; you might not agree with all the suggestions, but they are certainly food for thought!

* Play at least SOME music your public likes, even if you’re not crazy about it.

* Play mainly music aimed at the women. Men will only start to dance when there are women on the dance floor.

* Play the most widely accepted music first, and move to the younger, harder genres later in the evening when the elder family members have left. This way everyone gets to hear some music they like.

* Make the dance floor dark enough;people won’t dance when they are too exposed in the light.

* When someone requests a song that you wouldn’t normally play (because you think it’s not going to work), tell them that you’ll only play it if they promise to dance to it.

* When the dance floor is opened early and there’s not much dancing: don’t worry–people still have to talk, and when they’ve gotten into the party mood )and maybe into the wine and Cosmos….)they will start dancing.