Layout:
Home > Bat Mitzvah Planning

Bat Mitzvah Planning

March 2nd, 2008 at 09:32 pm

My daughter will have her Bat Mitzvah in late September. For those not familiar with Judaism, that is a service/ceremony when a Jewish boy (Bar) or girl (Bat) reads from the Torah, the Jewish bible. It symbolizes them becoming adults in the eyes of the Jewish community.

Anyway, along with the service, there is typically a celebration party. Both to be creative and to keep costs down, we are doing a lot of the work ourselves. I've designed the invitations and place cards. We will be making the centerpieces. And we will be making some of the favors.

Today, we went in search of something to use as the base for the centerpiece. I had seen a metal planter at A.C. Moore recently that I liked, but it was $6.99 and I was hoping to find something a bit cheaper. We checked Michael's and found nothing. Then we went to the new Container Store and found something novel for $4.99. We bought one so we can play with it and make a mock-up centerpiece to see how we like it. I just searched online and I can get the same item for under $3.00 each from a few different vendors, so if we like the idea, I'll order them online and save a couple of bucks on each.

For favors, we want to do a chocolate mold related to our theme. My wife searched at Amazon and found just what we are looking for, so I just ordered a couple of those along with a few other things I needed from Amazon. I have nearly $400 in gift certificates with Amazon from doing surveys, so that helps limit the out of pocket costs.

In case you wonder why I'm being kind of vague on details, I want everything to be a surprise and you never know who might be reading your blog, so no specifics.

All of these little costs will keep adding up to a not-so-little total by the time we're done, but we're doing our best to find the cheapest way of doing things.

8 Responses to “Bat Mitzvah Planning”

  1. zetta Says:
    1204501214

    We did chocolate roses from molds for our wedding, and had a blast making them! Have fun! One tip -- if you use the white chocolate (sometimes called almond bark) that comes in big rectangular blocks and food coloring, it's cheaper and tastes better than the stuff they sell at Michael's.

  2. disneysteve Says:
    1204505288

    Thanks, zetta. I was planning to look for a cheaper source. We have a friend who is a professional dessert chef. I was going to ask her where we could get it in bulk.

  3. MariRDH Says:
    1204505893

    DS,
    You can bet I'll be reading your Bat Mitzvah planning stories closely as my DD's Bat Mitzvah will be sneaking up on us in less than 4 years. Since I just finished school and my husband will be in school for the next 2 years we will definitely need to be frugal when the time comes.

  4. scfr Says:
    1204507987

    It all sounds very interesting! It sounds like a lot of work, but fun work.

  5. baselle Says:
    1204510596

    Great work. I get the NYTimes and have read about how pricey the Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrations have gotten.

  6. disneysteve Says:
    1204511843

    baselle - It has really gotten insane in many areas... like New York. All the cable shows have been a bad influence, like that sweet 16 show. I think what we are spending is ridiculous and we will be having a fairly basic reception - DJ, buffet meal, photographer (no video) and, as I said, we'll be making a bunch of stuff ourselves. Lots of families today spend as much for a Bat Mitzvah as for a fancy wedding. I'm sure in NYC area, $50,000 and up is fairly common. Here in south Jersey, we're not quite that crazy (though some are).

  7. miclason Says:
    1204567152

    Congratulations! ...
    (( you WILL let us know afterwards, right??))

  8. Aleta Says:
    1204567812

    It all sounds exciting. I will be looking forward to the plans. You have a lot of people here that can help. In South Florida, our Latin communities have what is called a "Quince", which means 15 for the age. It is also very elegant and much like a wedding. I think that some people would only hope for a wedding as nice as these parties. They have the sitdown dinners and there are 14 other couples to coordinate to the party. It's all very beautiful and yes some families help to make some of the party fare.

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]