1st Birthday Party Detail

As soon as we decided to host a birthday party, I asked my friends about their experience with their event management person. There were few positives and negatives which everyone gave. One of my friend suggested me to try Kiddoscope, if budget is not a problem. I had never heard about them, so went and checked out their Facebook page. They had done some amazing work and contacted the number on their website. I spoke to Ms. Tanya Kothari and fixed up an appointment to meet her. Let me tell you, she is always before time and I hate making people wait. But unfortunately I was stuck in a meeting and I had to make her wait for a long time. She then gave me a presentation about the kind of work she has done so far and took details from me as to what I'm expecting. She sent out the costing of the various events in the party.

After I decided to go ahead with her, I went and showed her "The Apartment" at Park Hyatt. She said a carnival theme will not go well there and said she would suggest a theme for the party. She asked me about my son's likes and asked for a weeks time to come up with a presentation. After a week, when we met up again, she started talking about "Little Sailor theme" and we decided that was the theme we had to go ahead with. She sent me reference pictures and the things that can be done in the venue.

Things I liked about Kiddoscope:

1. They don't take much time to understand and respond immediately. We got along so well because of that.

2. Very well organized. Everything is communicated over the phone and mailed.

3. They suggest different things and challenge themselves. They built a ship as the center stage and also suggested to use bubble machine instead of poppers. They were so much better

4.  I didn't have to monitor a single thing that was given to them and completed the setup on time.

5. The games and the gifts for the games were brilliant. They MC for the games was too good and everyone had fun

6. They came innumerable times with me to Park Hyatt and answered my calls at odd hours. Mr. Munish, with whom I was coordinating later was extremely accommodating and always had a smile on his face

Things I would have preferred with Kiddoscope:

1. In between, while I was making the payment, I asked if I can do 70% advance instead of 75% for easier calculation. This was answered like how they were debating if they should charge 100% advance from customers but decided upon 75%. C'mon, a 5% won't really hurt and such request can be accommodated

2. The number of danglers that were hung were very less and I would have preferred more. 

3. I would have preferred a better location for instant picture counter. Also, the same prop from the entrance counter was used for instant picture. Probably I misunderstood it but did feel disappointed.

I would definitely recommend Kiddoscope to everyone.

Chennai doesn't seem to really cater to kids clothing for theme parties. I had to order from US a sailor dress for my son. Luckily, my uncle was coming down around his birthday and asked him to bring it

At the end of the day, everyone enjoyed the party and my boy behaved well as well.

Little One turned 1

It was a long debate before we finally decided to do celebrate my son's birthday (October 6th) in a hotel.I checked out just one hotel and finalized it. It was "The Apartment" at Park Hyatt, Chennai. I liked their concept of having different rooms and an open kitchen. That being said, I initially had problems with the lady (Ms. Jyothi George) with whom I was coordinating the event at Park Hyatt. I'm a person, who likes to complete work well before time, have it all planned, blah blah. So when I had to wait for information, it really irked me. After telling her or rather me screaming at her (Sorry about that :( ), things were absolutely smooth after that

Things I loved about Park Hyatt:

1. Ms. Jyothi George co-operated very well and made sure everything went as per my wish

2. The spread of the buffet was huge and super yummy food. 

3. Brilliant Service

4. They were even sweet enough to give me a room from afternoon, so that I could tuck my baby to sleep and get him ready there

Things I dislike: Absolutely nothing. I loved hosting my party there and would recommend it to anyone

The theme of the party was Little Sailor. I got the invitation done privately. When I did enquire at leading card printers, I felt it was quite expensive. So got it printed at a DTP center and was quite happy with it. Also it costed me 1/3rd the price!!!

I was thinking a lot about whom to get the cake done from. I had narrowed it down to The Park, Adoniya, Cupcake Company and Sabeetha's Cakes. I'm actually glad I went ahead with The Park.

My Experience at Adoniya:

Sent her a mail and went and met her. She was to mail me with options but she never got back. I don't like it when people can't remember and I need to go behind them. There are so many other people to do the job. 

My Experience at Cupcake Company:

Sent her a mail as well. She responded with options and price points. I was uncomfortable having such conversation over mail and wanted to meet her in person to discuss the detail. When I called her and informed her that this is regarding the Little Sailor party cake mail that I had written, to which she responded saying " You need to wait at least 24 hours before we can mail you back". It really put me off. Here I was trying to tell her that I would like to meet and when she would be comfortable for a meeting. When she responded after "24 hours", I did respond saying that I was not comfortable dealing with someone with whom I can't meet to discuss the detail. Plus she was charging me Rs. 21000 + tax for a 5 kg cake. Really??? Whoa!!! That's the highest I know in the city and is the cake that good??????? I've had the cupcakes at her store and it does taste good but it's not out of the world. I will definitely go to her store and have her cupcakes but I don't think I will ever order cake from her

Sabeetha's Cake:

I had seen her work on FB, but never really tasted her cake. I called and a sweet lady responded. I did mail her the detail but she took sometime to respond. In the meanwhile, I went ahead with The Park

The Park:

I have had "The Park" cake quite a few times and I know the flavour is super yummy. I spoke to Chef Santosh and mailed him the detail. Got the cake made in Chocoalte Hazelnut flavour. The awesome thing about "The Park" is, they don't take advance on orders. It costed me approximately Rs. 10,000 for 5 kg cake.

For the return gift, we ourself did it. We got a towel and made anchor with Swarovski crystals.

Shall write about the event management company in my next post