JULY 1 • 2021 | 23

Orthodox wedding for my 
employees,
” Blackwell says. “That 
was fun.
”
“Week after week, we at Party 
Assurance are training vendors 
to work with Jewish customs. 
After the ketubah signing, for 
example, we know that the 
rabbi is coming back to do the 
bedekken, but the photographer’s 
gone because they think they’re 
done so I’m running after the 
photographer to come back,
” 
Blackwell says. “The chuppah 
might be made out of a tallis that 
the grandfather smuggled out 
of Europe during the Holocaust 
— the photographer might 
think it’s just a piece of fabric. A 
band leader might take a job not 
knowing what the hora is. How’s 
he going to learn it? On Google? 
Our vendors would do a better 
job of taking care of our Jewish 
clients if they really understood 
the traditions.
“
A Christian wedding is very 
different from a Jewish wedding, 

even in terms of the timeline. 
When a Jewish wedding takes 
place at a traditionally non-Jew-
ish venue, like Oakland Hills 
Country Club, it’s important for 
the vendors to create a Jewish-
style timeline. And there are so 
many mixed marriages now that 
I work with a lot of vendors on 
behalf of Jewish families to teach 
these Jewish traditions.
”

SHARING KNOWLEDGE
Although Blackwell has learned 
much on the job, she’s read a 
lot on the subject, too. “I’m a 
researcher at heart, and I love to 
learn. I love this whole Jewish 
world and what it represents, the 
history of it, and I want to pro-
mote an understanding of it any 
way that I can.
”
Blackwell and her Jewish Party 
Maven team can benefit sales-
people, caterers, photographers, 
videographers, venues, DJs, 
bands, decorators and planners, 
florists and more — anyone who 

is involved in the traditions of 
weddings or b’nai mitzvah.
A recent party that Blackwell 
worked at was celebrating a 
student who attends Hillel Day 
School, which encourages fam-
ilies to hold kosher-style events. 
“The parents asked the caterer 
for dairy, but the chef translated 
this to meaning no meat and 
made a soup with chicken stock,
” 
she explains. “He had no idea he 
had made this mistake.
”
Blackwell launched Jewish 
Party Maven on Jan. 1, 2021, and 
built it during COVID, starting 
with a weekly podcast, Book 
More Jewish Weddings with Pat 
Blackwell. (Her data says that 
22 percent of listeners are from 
France and Bavaria — “I have no 
idea how they heard about it!” 
she says.) Each podcast focuses 
on a specific topic or word, like 
tallit or Mazel Tov. She’ll also 
offer courses, which will launch 
in August, and workshops, which 
anyone can sign up for, and plans 

to have digital offerings, too, in 
which attendees can become 
certified.
She’s been approached by 
her own clients, who’ve wanted 
their own vendors to go through 
training with her company. And 
she was hired by the brand-new 
Daxton Hotel in Birmingham, as 
they haven’t worked with many 
Jewish weddings yet.
She also recently held a work-
shop at Knollwood Country 
Club.
“Some of their chef team 
came, plus their servers and 
management team,
” Blackwell 
says. “They know a lot, but they 
don’t necessarily understand the 
customs. And there’s lots of turn-
over of staff. 
“They take it seriously 
because they want their staff to 
take good care of their clients.” 

For more about Jewish Party Maven, 

visit jewishpartymaven.com.

Yeshiva Beth Yehudah
eshiva Beth Yehudah

expresses its heartfelt 
expresses its heartfelt 

and deepest condolences to the family of
and deepest condolences to the family of

Marcia Applebaum
Marcia Applebaum

of blessed memory.
of blessed memory.

The Yeshiva has dedicated the learning for this month by our students and 
The Yeshiva has dedicated the learning for this month by our students and 

Kollel Scholars in the merit of the neshama of Marcia Applebaum a”h.
Kollel Scholars in the merit of the neshama of Marcia Applebaum a”h.

May her virtuous efforts on behalf of the Jewish People 
May her virtuous efforts on behalf of the Jewish People 

and the Detroit community be a blessing to her family and to us all.
and the Detroit community be a blessing to her family and to us all.

 

Gary Torgow
Gary Torgow

President 
President 

Rabbi Yitzchok Grossbard
Rabbi Yitzchok Grossbard

Dean
Dean

Rabbi Shragie Myers
Rabbi Shragie Myers

Executive Director
Executive Director

