Spice Up Your Event With Modern Dishes

Think back to when you were a child attending a wedding. There was dancing, there was excitement and laughter, and you may have been let down by the boring food. Cold briskets with bland vegetables that you have to sit down and properly eat were the worst, but you powered through knowing that the cake would come soon. Unfortunately, there was a plot twist because the fondant cake was also boring and unsatisfying!

Don’t let the food bring your wedding party down! Spice up your menus with modern twists that won’t weigh your guests down.

Comfort Food

No one knows how to eat and feel warm inside like Southerners which is why their comfort food is trending. Avoid basic roasts and serve up some fried chicken instead. It’s a comfort foot that can be quickly enjoyed by hand.

Also, put on a modern twist on a classic favorite, meatloaf. You can have your meatloaf stuffed with parmesan cheese and spinach for a delightful surprise inside, wrap it in bacon, or serve it on a sandwich.

Many types of meat are being served with updated sauces and glazes with hints of southern traditions. For example, salmon pairs great with a peach and pecan glaze, steak pairs well with spicy avocado sauces, and chicken goes great with an almond sauce. The creative possibilities to spice up the meats are endless.

Don’t forget southern sides! Nothing makes a person feel warm inside like hot, made from scratch macaroni and cheese. Plus, fried okra is always great to have around. No one knows asparagus better than southerners so check out their herb crusted and garlic recipes.

Everyone loves pizza and pasta, so consider serving up those dishes to please everyone on your guest list.

Keep it Light

People are healthy these days and don’t want to be weighed down, so serve them up a few clean and simple options.

A salad bar is always a good way to keep health conscious guests happy and snacking. They can serve themselves a variety of fresh and crisp veggies with an array of salad dressings to choose from.

However, isn’t salad slightly boring? Jazz things up with a fruit bar instead. Offer multiple varieties of cheese, nuts, and fruits to get the grazers happily nibbling on healthy items.

Also, you can stick with lighter meats like fish and chicken. Red meat often makes people feel sleepy and too full to function.

Keep it Moving

While being served plated food is nice and elegant, it’s also a little stale. Keep your party lively and fresh by getting people out of their seats!

People won’t mind getting up to serve themselves when you have exciting craft your own food stations. Taco and fajita stations are on fire right now. Guests can go up and request personalized entrees or serve themselves with their custom ingredients.

Baked potato bars, burger bars, and oyster bars are also tons of fun.

However, one of the most shocking food bars are the ones with breakfast for dinner! How exciting, people can have made to order pancakes, omelets, and waffles with personalized ingredients and toppings.

Miniaturize it

Guests don’t wanna be weighed down by huge meals anymore. How can they dance if they’re super full or bloated? Plus, big meals take a long time to eat, so consider making your food mini so people can quickly pick up a few items and eat them in no time.

Trending miniature foods include miniature tacos, mini burgers, mini mac and cheese bites, mini roasts on a bun, and even miniature bowls of ramen. Each of these items are fun to eat and can have personalized toppings.

Food Truck it

If you missed the food truck craze where have you been?! Food trucks have become increasingly popular and are popping up all over the city! You can have a few drive up to your venue and serve their local, creative dishes to your guests.

Each guest can pick which food truck they want to visit for delicious food creations from Korean BBQ to southern delicacies on a stick. They will really give your guests a fun memory from your event.

Stay Salty

You know what really kills a cake or nice cocktail? Too much sugar! Pair your drinks with something salty and delicious.

French fries are always a popular menu item. You can serve them cut straight, in curls, or even in a waffle shape. They can be placed in easy to grab containers like mason jars and enjoyed. You can even include healthier sweet potato fries! Regular ‘ole potato chips also pair really well with sweet beverages.

Pretzels and popcorn are salty treats with endless possibilities because they pair with excellent toppings like cheese, jalapenos, chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry sauce, powdered sugar, and more!

Update Your Dessert

Big, fondant cakes live in the past. Don’t stay stuck there with them! New desserts are taking the world by storm, like miniature pies ranging from apple to pumpkin. There’s a pie for every season.

Also, who doesn’t go nuts for donuts?! You can set a variety of donuts up for a beautiful, yet mouthwatering dessert display.

Throw your guests a curve ball with desserts that bring back childhood memories, like cookies and milk, s'mores, or ice cream sandwiches.

Don’t forget about custom sweets to pick up on-the-go like cake pops or hand-frosted sugar cookies.

Are you Hungry now?

We are too! We didn’t mean to get your mouth watering, but we wanted to make sure we could help you jazz up your event with delicious, hot and trendy food. Learn more event tips at Inspherio.com.

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Aspiring Event Professionals: Gain Event Experience without Leaving Campus

For those college students who are aspiring event planning professionals, as I'm sure you have heard time and time again, you need to gain as much experience as possible while in college. But what if you don't have a car on campus or can't find a good internship off campus?

Here's a nice piece of advise: you don't have to leave campus for good experience.

A college campus can be a great place to gain some valuable work opportunities, particularly for a large school. Here are just a few different areas you can gain some type of event experience: 


Development/Fundraising Office
If you learn how to consistently raise money, you will always find job opportunities. In addition to putting on alumni events each year, many non-profits typically have event planning positions that require fundraising experience, so having this skill in your back pocket gives you an advantage when applying for these positions.

Facilities Management
Do you want to run a venue someday? Start working with your campus facilities department (or with a specific building) and learn the everyday skills and knowledge needed to perform the job. This can include maintenance, audio/visual, scheduling, landscaping, and more. Facility managers work with event planners to see events through, so it is a good way to see the planning process and, more importantly, grow your network.

Food & Beverage
On campus dining departments typically also do much of the on-campus catering for events, so this a good place to get some quick experience and, again, meet new contacts and grow your network.

Student Life
The student life department typically puts on larger events: orientation and convocation, commencement, on-campus concerts, movie showings, Family/Parents Weekend, as well as educational and cultural opportunities.

Admissions Office
The admissions office has a number of events it can put in an attempt to attract the most qualified students to the school: campus tours, info sessions, open houses, career fairs, etc.

Residential Life
Dorms are always looking to plan various events. This could be a cookout, holiday party (Christmas, Halloween, St. Patrick's Day, etc), beach trip, hike, night out on the town, and more.

Greek Life
Take the lead on planning events for your fraternity/sorority: formals, social events, philanthropic events, retreats, chapter, etc. You can gain a lot of experience doing this and, if nothing else, learn of the demand an events career.

Wellness Center
At your college's wellness center, you can have opportunities to plan intramurals or campus-wide dorm tournaments. You can also gain scheduling experience when juggling multiple classes and classroom space.

Athletic Department
Athletic departments, especially for larger schools, run like independent entities and are a great place to gain experience. Student interns are always needed and there are many ways to get involved:

• Marketing - Planning events for fans (FanFest, pep rallies, open practices, Midnight Madness, etc)
• Sales/Ticketing - You not only work a lot of events, but you talk to a lot of people on the phone and make a lot of connections with other ticketing offices. Have I stressed the importance of growing your network?
• Development - Planning events and travel for boosters who donate money to the athletic department. This is a good way to get to know a lot of successful and influential peoples.
• Event management - This department works with every other department to plan those events for boosters, season ticket holders, fans, as well as every home athletic contest.
• Facilities management - Regardless of the event type, they are held in some type of venue. This department is often part of the events department.
• Individual teams - This may require planning recruiting or alumni events, coordinating travel, and team functions.

Plus, if you're at a well-known athletic department, it really can stand out on your resume.

Summary
If you've been paying attention, the most critical aspects of working in college are: a) gaining valuable experience and skills, and b) growing your network. Doing these two things while in school - with fewer bills and responsibilities - can really give you an advantage when you start looking for a job after graduation.

Photo credit: www.wjla.com

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14 Ways Planning a Wedding is like Planning a Football Game, Part 2

Yesterday, we listed the first 7 ways that planning a wedding is like planning a football game. Today we continue with the second half of the list.

8. It's about everyone else but you

Whether you are planning a wedding or a football game, you are typically behind the scenes. A lot of people don't even know of your presence unless something goes wrong (see point #5 yesterday). It is your job to make sure that the client's needs are served and that the guests have a good time. It doesn't really matter what your opinion is on a topic. While you can provide all the expert advise you have, in the end, it comes down to what they want, not you.

9. Perception of your success often hinges on others

Whether or not people view you as a success is often out of your hands. Many other people have to do their job - and do it well - for people to think highly of you. Did the vendors show up on time? Were they quality professionals? The decorators, caterers, and entertainment can make an event memorable or disappointing. At a football game, you not only have to rely on the vendors, security, ushers, and marketing staff, but even more so on the players and coaches. If you ran an event perfectly, but the fans were disappointed with the game, they will inevitably find something to complain about and let you know about it. But the opposite is true as well. You may have had a bad day, or someone else didn't do their job, but if your team won in a thriller, that's all anybody will remember.

10. Everyone has an opinion

More often than not, people have an opinion on how something should have been done differently. Even though you have years of experience in the industry and understand all the detailed goings-on behind the scenes, Average Joe/Jan - who doesn't know the first thing about event planning - thinks they could have done it better. Not only that, oftentimes they will let their opinion known to someone, possibly even you. The flowers should have been placed somewhere else. Parking should have opened at a different time. The entertainment/music should have been different (more on this later). It's too loud. It's too quiet. No matter what you do, someone will always complain, so you know it is best to rely on your experience and best judgment.

11. What are the food options?

People like to eat. If there is an event with food - particularly if it's free - people will flock to it. Attendees often have a better/worse opinion based on the state of the food. Was the reception buffet  style or individual plates? Are there enough concession stands with enough variety? Oh, and do I have to mention the alcohol. Often it seems that the only reason someone attends a wedding reception or football game is to throw a few (too many) back.

12. Entertainment is crucial

Everyone loves to have a good time and for good reason. Events are supposed to be enjoyable. So making sure that the entertainment is top notch is critical to the attendees having a good time. Is it a band or DJ? Is the music good? Is there good energy or does the DJ like to hear himself talk? Even at a football game, while the contest itself is the prime entertainment, there are many breaks throughout the game. Do you have good halftime entertainment? What's going on before, during, and after the game? Am I staying engaged during timeouts or just checking my phone to see what I'm missing out on?

13. Expect the unexpected

Yes, there is some irony in this picture. But, seriously, when you have so many elements and moving parts to an event, something interesting/crazy/memorable/infuriating is bound to happen eventually. Can you quickly address the matter? Have you prepared for contingencies? Weather often is a key player that can completely change how either a wedding or football game goes. How are your improv skills and ability to react on the fly? Honestly, though, this is why we love working events. You may have a template on what to do, but no event is ever like another and you constantly have to stay on your toes.

14. To survive, you must love it

Considering the hours (point #1), the blame (#5), the stress (#6), and the vast amount of people you have to deal with (#'s 3, 4, & 9), you really have to have a passion for what you do. If you are not excited to be doing your job day-in and day-out, then how are the people you are serving supposed to get excited. People quickly can see uninspired work and will turn to someone else if you continually provide a less than stellar product.

You also have to fight to keep that passion. Inevitably, burnout happens. There will be days where you think to yourself, "Why I am doing this? Do I want to continue on this path?" It's up to you to figure out a way to stay passionate and remind yourself why you love it.

What other similarities can you think of between these two industries?

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