An Around the World Bat Mitzvah

We most recently had the pleasure of planning a Bat Mitzvah for a super sweet gal named Ally.

Ally's Mom told us that she has a great love for traveling as their family has pretty much been all over the world. So with that information came the theme for Ally's special party.

There are some pretty important staples when it comes to planning a Bat Mitzvah such as the Decor, Music, Food and FUN. Here's how we went Around the World with Ally...

Our amazing venue scout, Laurie found the perfect spot for this intimate party of 75 guests. The party was held at 287 Gallery in Chelsea. It's a raw space with dark stained wood floors and exposed brick walls.

We brought in oversized "OMG" and solid metallic balloons, framed photos of Ally from all of her travels, pillows to dress up the couches as well as globes and vintage suitcases that we rented from our favorite shop called Little Vintage Rentals.

To ensure an upbeat, high energy dance party for this group of 13 year old kids we brought in Generation Events with our favorite DJ Jason Fioto behind the tables. He brought along his best guys to MC and Dance for the kids and boy did they ever have a blast! They played all the hot tunes and made sure the kids received tons of swag. Secretly...Abby and I were dancing along behind the scenes....

We also worked with Jason's team to hang up marquee lights that spelled out "Ally's World" to set the stage for her dance party. We LOVE how this turned out!

Customary at a Bat Mitzvah is lighting a candle for 14 of the most special people in your life. We worked with a lovely vendor that Ally's mom found on Etsy, Name with a Flame, to create a silver glitter "Allison" to hold the candles for this ceremony.

Of course with all that dancing the kids end up STARVING. So the food was key. Ally's Mom wanted a variety of foods so we thought it would be fun to have stations that represented different parts of the world: Israel, The Americas and a Taste of Asia.

For the Kosher Israel Station we brought in platters of food from Village Crown. The food was delicious and the staff member they provided was a doll. We did up this station with a chalkboard menu that we made by painting a frame with chalkboard paint and having an artist write up the menu for us.

For the Americas and Taste of Asia, we worked with Creative Concepts NYC to style these tables in a really fun way...

For the Americas, the menu included Mac & Cheese which we added bamboo forks to, each stamped with red and blue stars;  Mini sliders that we topped with red, white and blue glitter star picks made by All that Glitters and pizza which was just simply delicious.

For the taste of Asia, we had dumplings served out of mini bamboo steamers, noodles in mini pink take out cartons and custom fortune cookies just for Ally's Bat Mitzvah. Julie, of Creative Concepts was so fun to work with and was more then willing to source all of these fabulous items to make the food presentation extra special.

Of course we also went all out for the desserts and brought in our faves....

A worldly cake from Empire Cake with a Jewish Star to mark Israel on the map; Macarons from La Maison Du Macaron which we styled on a platter with an Eiffel Tower and sweet eats from Making that Cake including custom travel themed sugar cookies and mini cupcakes.

On the bar we put water bottles with a label that we designed just for Ally as well as custom cocktail napkins honoring Ally's big day.

Then we capped the night off with hot cocoa served in cups from our favorite customization shop The Stationery Studio.

For fun fun fun....aside from dancing, we brought in a few of our favorite vendors to help keep the kids busy. First, was Vince, a graffiti artist genius who we adore. Vince set up a small station where he was making custom trucker hats for each kid. These are the COOL.EST.

Next up, we had a "red carpet" type entrance where there was a photo backdrop from Minted staged and MVS Studio was taking photos of the kids with the props that we set out. They print the photos for you on the spot so the kids could take as many shots as they wanted and then bring them home with them...so fun!

For a little keepsake for Ally, we set up a cork globe that we found at CB2 along with note cards, pens and tacks for her friends and family to "sign their love all over Ally's world". We LOVED this as a unique and themed update to the traditional guest book.

This party was not only a huge success but the kids legitimately had a BLAST. Dancing, eating and sipping on mocktails, it's safe to say that Ally rocked her party.

We were honored to be a part of such a special event and hope to share in many more "mitzvah's" with Ally's family in the future.

All of the photos in the post above were taken by the incredible Diane Hu Photography.