celebrate!

Advance Planning

Professionals are
ready, willing and
able to help you plan
that important
occasion.

SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

PHOTOS BY JOHN DISCHER

they will do for that amount. It's also im-
portant to inquire whether the planner
focuses on a certain kind of event —
Left:
weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs or re-
Jodi Siskind and
unions.
Robyn Steinlaup place
the balloons.
Dee Dee Hoffman, in the business
for
14 years, advises hosts and host-
f you want more play than work when you
esses to scout a planner whose nature and out-
throw your own party, you might want to toss
look
seem most compatible with their own.
some responsibility to a party planner.
"A party planner will work with a host or
Still holding tight to the decision ball, you can
hostess from start to finish," said Cynthia Tuck-
remove the tedium that is part of searching for
er Ziegelman, who has been in the field for one
fresh ideas, keeping up with trends, finding ap-
year, worked with banquet services for 10
propriate vendors and handling day-to-day tasks.
years, and carefully defines her territory "A co-
Before hiring a planner, decide a budget corn-
ordinator will tie everything all together on the
fort level and then ask potential planners what

Above:
Janice Cherkasky has
lots of ideas.

I

C10

day of the event, while a consultant will steer
people in the right directions as they begin
putting all the parts together."
Ms. Ziegelman was the party planner for her
own wedding this past November. "It turned
out the best because I knew what I wanted,"
said the planner/bride, who decided on a Vic-
torian theme, ivory, brown and peach color
scheme, and a reception hall based on other
events she attended. "I had a picture in my
mind, focused on what was most important
and asked others to help with the rest."
Andrea Solomon, a 10-year planner who
arranged the Tom Arnold wedding, specializes
in nuptials. "A good party planner will have a