The (real-life) wedding planner

It all started with helping out a friend after the hall mixed up the arrangements. Today, Ann Roseman is ensconced as a major event planner for various types of occasions in Israel – and scores of happy clients are proof that her management style works.

By JOSH HASTEN
Wedding dance 370 (photo credit: Courtesy Hiddush)
Wedding dance 370
(photo credit: Courtesy Hiddush)
How often does one hear a family member, friend, colleague or business associate describe their line of work as being pure joy? Meet Ann Roseman, an immigrant from Toronto who, for the past 17 years, says that she has experienced nothing but pleasure working as a professional event planner for smahot (celebrations) in Israel, making all the arrangements on behalf of her clients so that they can be stress free on their special day.
Whether it’s a wedding, bar/bat mitzva or any other occasion, Roseman and her assistants at Roseman Events go to great lengths to, in her words, “allow my ba’alei simha [clients] to truly be guests at their simha. There should be nothing on their minds other than enjoying their special occasion.”
Roseman, a 60-year-old divorced mother of three married children – all of whose weddings she coordinated – says she got started in the field in the ’90s when a friend went into a panic over her daughter’s wedding after the event hall mixed up all the arrangements.
“I decided to put it all together for her – as a friend. This was a large event, with 1,000 guests,” she says.
Thanks to Roseman, the wedding went off without a hitch.
“My friend came up to me after the affair and told me this was the first time she had been truly able to enjoy herself at one of her own smahot. She then suggested that I start printing business cards.”
NOT ONLY did Roseman’s initial success land her client after client, but news of her expertise spread into other sectors, and eventually Roseman was offered a full-time position as the senior coordinator for events and guests at Bar-Ilan University.
That job, which she held until 2011 when she opted for early retirement to refocus on developing her own business, involved, among other things, planning all the logistics for the university’s building dedications, donor events and International Board of Trustees trips to Israel.
While Bar-Ilan remains a client, Roseman is back to being her own boss, and has developed a special niche working mainly with Anglo clients. She says that sometimes this involves very detailed, international-related logistics.
As an example, she says that she often works with a bride and groom who are students in Israel and are overwhelmed with planning their own wedding, while their families, either one set of parents or both, are thousands of miles away until just before the big event.
When this happens, Roseman takes the burden off the young couple while at the same time “I’m the parents’ eyes and ears on the ground, keeping in touch with them constantly with regard to the preparations.
I will even translate the contracts [from the various vendors – catering hall, photographer, etc.] into English so they understand what’s they’re signing and have more of a sense of security.”
Since every client is different, Roseman says her services are “tailor made to help her clients with whatever they need.” During the days leading up to the event, Roseman says that sometimes she might even be called upon to get in touch with the guests who haven’t yet confirmed to see if they are attending so that she can give the catering hall an accurate head count.
While that might sound simple, according to Roseman, in Israel “certain cultures are offended if you call them to see if they are attending. However, on the other hand,” she says, “there are people who are glad that I call so that they can decline an invitation, and are more at ease saying no to a complete stranger, rather than to the hosts themselves.”
ON THE day of the event itself, says Roseman, it’s all about making sure the hall and program are in order. She usually arrives three to four hours before the starting time to check that tables are set properly, the cutlery is in place and the wine glasses clean.
While one might assume that a catering hall would resent a family hiring an event planner to oversee all of the details, including the work of their own staff, Roseman says that the opposite is true.
“Halls are thrilled having just one person, who is a professional, present at the events,” she says. “Usually when a family appoints several relatives or friends to try and organize everything, they either aren’t prepared for the scope of work that goes into these type of events, or since they are guests themselves, they are busy mingling instead of working and can’t focus on what needs to get done.”
Roseman adds that she has developed a unique style working with the halls’ staff, which she says leads to results. “I’m not a loud or pushy person,” she says. “If I’m running an event and need something done [by a hall staffer], I talk to them nicely without yelling and screaming. I find that this works.”
She adds that “halls don’t like event planners that just scream. Since I’m calm, they beg me to bring them additional clients, more often than not.”
Roseman says that even though “halls sometimes don’t want to deviate from what they’re accustomed to, there are times when I can teach them a different way to do something and they end up accepting it. For me, I love seeing all the pieces at an event falling into place.”
IN ADDITION to all of the services leading up to an event, including the “day of preparation” itself, Roseman’s company has added several other unique but unrelated services as well. These include a “Pack- Up Package” to help take the stress off families who are moving homes, a “Concierge Service” for those who dread running around or shopping, in addition to a “Home Organization” service for those needing help to remove clutter and maximize space at home.
While she may have advertised her services years ago, at this point, Roseman says all of her new clients are generated via word of mouth. While she doesn’t have an exact count, she says that over the years she has planned hundreds of events.
Nevertheless, she says that each and every one is special.
“It is my raison d’être to see people enjoying their own smahot. And there is nothing more fulfilling than being involved in these events. One might think it becomes routine, but I know that’s not the case since I still shed tears of joy at every wedding when the groom is danced in during the bedecken [veiling], and I always feel a letdown the next day, after the event has passed, since I develop personal relationships with these people and their families.”