My son's Bar Mitzvah Celebration
The other day I wrote about My son’s Bar Mitzvah service. The service is the whole reason for having a bar mitzvah and is what this milestone is all about. The party is an added bonus and a way to celebrate the child becoming a Bar Mitzvah and all of the hard work that they accomplished to do so.
Naturally, for my son’s Bar Mitzvah, I took great joy in planning every single detail. First and foremost in the planning process for a party like this - you would typically choose a theme. This was where we had the most difficulty. My son has so many hobbies, passions, has bounced around to many cities….and we wanted to include everything. But it was too much, we had to hone in and focus on a specific idea. We landed on “City of G”. This theme was a compilation of New York City, where my son was born and spent 11 years of his life and we planned to include all of his favorite elements of the city in some way…throughout the party.
Next step is: a venue and your vendors.
We had checked out a few hotels to host our guests and the party but they felt too stuffy and that’s not our vibe. We were told about a venue called The Concert Hall which was literally an old Concert Hall where many famous bands had performed, now turned into a venue. We went to see it and fell in love. It was super cool, had a stage that we knew we could utilize, had an upstairs space that we immediately thought of using for the kids cocktail hour and was perfectly located in the city near some of our favorite hotels, restaurants and shops.
Once we booked the venue, we secured all vendors:
The Party Planner: Mona Ng. Mona was my wedding planner a thousand years ago. She knows my whole family so well and knows the Toronto scene and events industry inside and out. She took care of every single detail and made sure that during the night of the party, we could just enjoy ourselves.
Decor: I wanted to take on all of the decor on my own with team LMP but that wasn’t realistic as our production skill set is New York based. So I had to find the equivalent of LMP in Toronto and we did just that with Rock Paper Events. Heather who runs that business is adorable and super talented and completely ran away with our City of G vision!
Production, lighting and entertainment: Lucky for me, a guy I grew up with at camp who has been a dear friend for many many years and who now owns the camp that I grew up going to, has an incredibly successful entertainment company called Mandell Entertainment. Though he’s moved on to much bigger production from Bar Mitzvahs, he took on my son’s party as a special gift to me and this party would not have been the same without him.
Photography and video: I mentioned in my last blog post about my son’s Bar Mitzvah service that there was only one photographer I truly trusted to capture the emotion and beauty involved in this event and I was right. The photos turned out perfectly. Dave Robbins is a gem not only as a photographer but as a human and friend. As for a video, I wasn't going to do one! BUT I changed my mind at the last minute and I'm so glad I did!! I ended up hiring DMS Video to capture the rehearsal of my son’s service and party in full detail so we’ll always be able to look back and enjoy the memories of this special day. It's going to be months before I see this video but for now I have a teaser which is super fun to watch.
Now let’s dive into the party…
To kick off the weekend we hosted a small, Shabbat dinner down the road from the hotel for Adam’s family who traveled in from New York. I found a gal on Etsy who makes personalized mini Nutella jars so I ordered one for each guest as their seating assignment. I also worked with my sweet friend Elyse to make homemade, mini challahs to serve at each setting along with the Nutella. It was the eve of my son’s 13th birthday so we closed out dinner with his favorites: A cookie cake from Mrs. Fields and a cake with a photo from each year of his life (plus one extra to round out the design) made by Cakes by Robert.
After dinner, we gathered at the hotel bar with all of our friends who flew in from out of town, had a few drinks and then hit the hay early as the following day was going to be a big one…
Saturday: 10.22.22
We woke up, we got dressed and went to Temple Beth Tikvah for the most monumental day in our lives to date. You can read all about my son’s service here.
Following the service, we had a lovely Kiddush lunch with bagels and schmear and then we went back to the hotel to rest and get our hair + makeup done.
The party was called for 7pm. Luke and I went to the venue early to check out the set up and make sure we were ready to rock. Boy were we ever…we walked in and gasped. Our vision was so spot on.
When you entered, it felt like you were walking into a rock concert. Since my son spent a lot of his New York life learning how to DJ, DJing events and keeping up with his love of music through our move to Florida, we made a part of the theme all about a “special performance” that he would do and coined it: ONE NIGHT ONLY 10.22.22 with special guest, DJ Wildman (a name he established after his hockey coach put a sticker on his helmet when he first walked onto the ice back when he was about 7 years old). The theme started with our invitations which were so spot on, designed by my favorite Becca of Suite Paperie. The invite was so subtle but looked so rock n roll. Ugh its so good it hurts. This theme further pulled through custom artwork throughout the venue, a subway train photo booth backdrop, pillows and swag that we were going to give out.
Once you were inside, the first thing you saw was the large, round bar. Heather’s team designed the NHL/Madison Square Gardens inspired bar and Corey set up TV’s above to look like jumbotrons. The TV’s were decked with graphics that gave you the mocktail and cocktail signature drinks.
Keep walking through and you will see GAV SHACK (my son’s favorite food is Shake Shack) and the iconic NYC Chinatown where we served all of our family faves: Sushi, Dim Sum and Peking duck.
The stage was set for with an LED backdrop that looped through with videos, graphics and served as a screen to run my son’s video montage later in the night. Off to the side, opposite of the subway photo booth as a merch station set up like the ones you see on Canal Street. The kids were allowed to choose 2 items each and took them home in a clear tote bag. Maggie designed the merch for me and I’ve gotta say she nailed it. Instead of the items saying: my son’s Bar Mitzvah, she turned the theme taglines as well as My son’s favorite brands (ie. Supreme and Anti Social Club) into designs and now, our guests wear these items every day. Each item is cooler than the next. Mona + Heather worked with Lux Kippot on this customized swag and we’re all so obsessed with it…I have ordered more to give out as Christmas gifts this year!
When the guests arrived, the kids were directed upstairs (by inspirational quotes that Heather made for the staircase) for cocktail hour. There were games, a VR Den and we set up a station inspired by my son’s favorite shoe store: Flight Club. The kids were able to custom design their own Air Force 1 Nikes shoes to take home. This was an extreme, over the top gift for each of the guests and I’m well aware of this but when you work your butt off your whole entire life and you want to share it with the people you love, this is a way of doing so. The kids went nuts. I collected shoe sizes in the RSVP’s when I had sent them out so we had each kid's shoe size and their shoe box was marked with their name in advance so there was no confusion. In addition to the vinyl, heat applied stickers that the kids could choose from, we also had laces and dubraes that they could pick for their new pair of kicks.
I love so very much customizing and personalizing in every way possible. Upstairs, we had a fridge set up with pop cans for the kids to grab at their leisure instead of setting up a bar that would only be used for soft drinks and for only one hour. My son’s favorite soda is Orange Crush. I found this awesome girl Lana of The Lana Nicole on instagram who makes customized labels for pop cans. My son CRUSHED IT. Ahhhhhhh!
While the kids were upstairs enjoying their adult free hour, the adults were downstairs taking photos, sipping on cocktails and noshing on the most delish appetizers. We used Toben Food by Design for the catering and they served the tastiest, creative foods that were a huge hit amongst our guests.
Once cocktail hour was over we dove right into the traditional moments of the party: The Hora, A speech by Adam, the Moitze over the challah and dinner.
The Challah for my son’s Bar Mitzvah was beyond special, baked by Love in the shape of a G by our dear friend Debbie. A challah we will never forget!
As soon as our guests filled up on the fun assortment of food, the party really started…
The music was pumping, prizes were being handed out to keep the kids engaged (which is no easy task for 13 year olds who are addicted to their phones!) and the crowd was bopping till 1am.
Listen, the details, the food, the drinks, the decor, the planning, the production…every single detail was spot on and out of this world fun. But what really made this party? The people. We had 188 guests and these were guests from all walks of our life. It’s a true testament to who we are…Family, Friends who we have known our whole life, friends who we met through our kids school friends, friends from camp, friends from college, friends from work…truly amazing. And EVERYONE showed up. Everyone showed up because:
They love us.
No one is stupid enough to miss one of our parties.
And that was just it. It was another epic party but this time, it was to celebrate our baby boy who rocked the torah, rocked his 13th birthday and made us so proud we could bust right open.
