These Guests All Wore Halloween Costumes to a Bat Mitzvah in Pleasantville, New York

The Steinberg family celebrated daughter Molly’s Bat Mitzvah with a Havdallah service and reception at Club Infinity in Pleasantville, New York.

Molly’s birthday is in August, but with her Bat Mitzvah date so close to Halloween, the family decided to go all out with a “Molloween” themed party.

Guests were invited to come in costume and every guest did, including the Rabbi!

This is the second celebration for this family, read about older sister Andie’s Bat Mitzvah here.

Pictured L-R: Mom Lainee, Brother Cooper, Bat Mitzvah girl Molly, Sister Andie and Dad Michael.

The photographer was Max Aureli Photography and the rest of the vendor information is listed at the end of the spotlight.

Mitzvah Invitation & Service

The family worked with Jessica Riesel of Precious Papers who designed a modern invitation that arrived in a box.

The Steinberg family worked with Precious Papers who designed a modern invitation that arrived in a box. Inside the box, along with the invitation, was a beautiful mask, hinting at the theme

For the Havdallah service, at Club Infinity, they created a service area which was sectioned off and decorated with flowers and masks

The family in the front row at the service

Molly with brother Cooper and sister Andie during the service

The Bat Mitzvah girl bringing the Torah into the congregation

The beautifully colored kippot from Mayaworks; handmade by Guatemalan artisans to provide income and improve lives

Mitzvah Style & Venue

The invitation stated, “Costume Attire Preferred” and everyone participated. The Steinberg family dressed in their own version of the royal family. In the invitation, they included information about Sophia’s Costume Boutique in Greenwich, Connecticut which not only helped guests with costumes but with Molly’s Mitzvah Project as well. Not only were costumes fun (and secretive till the night of), but a great ice breaker that encouraged all guests to mingle.

Molly looked beautiful as an Ice Princess

The royal Steinberg family chose costumes with personal touches. From L-R: Brother Cooper as Prince Charming; Mom Lainee, the Queen of Hearts; Bat Mitzvah girl Molly, the Ice Princess; Sister Andie, a bohemian princess and Dad Michael as the King, of course!

Molly with her big sister Andie

Rabbi Deborah Salomon of Hebrew Wizards, a Hebrew School in Greenwich, Connecticut, performed the ceremony as a motor cycle riding rockin' Rabbi

Molly and her Superhero camp friends

Molly's Grandie came as Cleopatra and Grandpa George as Pirate Jack Sparrow

Club Infinity was the perfect venue for this Bat Mitzvah. The in-house planner, Melissa Gross, worked with the family throughout the event. For the service, Infinity’s dance stage served as the Bimah and while guests were in another area for cocktails, it was quickly transformed back into the dance area for the party

 Mitzvah Details

After the service, guests made their way into another part of the venue set for “Molloween.” Max Event Design decorated the club dance floor with logos, giants floor decals and Gobo lighting projections on the walls.  

Molly's logo was projected on screens around the room.

An elegant candelabra added to the theme

Special Gobo lighting on the walls included revolving bats

This skeleton also came in costume

Mom Lainee added to the decor with items found at a HomeGoods store

Mom Lainee added to the decor with items found at a HomeGoods store With everyone’s palette choices being different, the family chose to go with a fun "Bite & Go" theme for both the kids and adults. Encore Caterers provided roaming carts and wait staff carrying large white trays

Instead of handing out socks, the family provided monster slippers which were a huge it

Mom Lainee had a 4x4 square mirror made then framed in white high gloss. Then purchased decal letters and numbers for the wording "Molloween ten.25.14." It now hangs in Molly's bedroom. A suggestion from Mom Lainee: "Think about getting a sign-in that matches and coordinates with the room you intend to hang it up in."

For the candle lighting ceremony, the Steinbergs intended to have a large glass vase and each honored guest would pour candy corn into it, filling Molly’s life with more sweetness from her loved ones. Well, the guests ate all the candy corn prior to the ceremony so they just continued dancing

Music & Entertainment

Max Event Design created a high energy environment with a fun dance party.  The family raved about the energy level of owner MC Mike Carson and his wife and dancer, Eliana Carson. For extra fun and entertainment there was a live percussionist and violinist on the dance floor all night with dancers dressed in Halloween costumes.

Molly made quite an entrance being carried in by the Max Events dance team who were in costume

Molly making her princess-like entrance

Molly all smiles up in the chair for the Horah

Dancing as a family

The energy on the dance floor was non-stop

Guests enjoyed watching the break dancers

Molly with some guests and MC Mike Carson (to the right with mic) and his entertainment team

The family was very happy with the montage by Tanta Marla Studios. It included pop culture icons and movie clips customized for Molly

Projection screens are part of the venue and showed the montage from different viewing angles

King (dad) Michael gave a heartfelt toast to his princess, Molly

Mitzvah Favor

 The family worked with Stephanie Engler of Pretty in Paper.  She designed a distressed grey hoodie thermal shirt with a “Molloween” logo on the back. For the boys she designed a black pullover hoodie sweatshirt, with the “Molloween” logo on the back of the shirt. 

The girls' thermal hoodie

The boys' grey hoodie sweatshirt

Mitzvah Project

Molly wanted her project to bring the magic of Halloween to all children and tie it in with her theme. Molly found a great organization The Jewish Child Care Association/The Cottage School that would graciously accept donated Halloween costumes. So Molly went to work asking for donations, collections then sorting, organizing, packing and delivering those costumes. She struck gold when she found a local dance group that had tons of costumes after their annual recitals ended. Sophia’s Costume Boutique in Greenwich, Connecticut also gave her  boxes of costumes for both kids and adults! The director of the foster care division shared with us their vision that “every child deserves to grow up hopeful” and together we helped to make that vision a reality!

Mom to Mom

Some advice from Mom Lainee:
“This is our second Bat Mitzvah in less than two years. So, in some ways it was easier, we had a very good template from our other daughter’s special day. We used just about every single vendor that we used for daughter Andie’s Bat Mitzvah since we had such a great and easy experience. We worked with the owners of each of our vendor groups to translate everything for us. From Melissa Gross of Club Infinity to Mike Carson of Max Entertainment and Karen Chioccariello from Encore Catering everyone communicated and coordinated seamlessly for us! As a matter of fact, we chose the caterer, sight unseen, never did a tasting and they surpassed our expectations. Also, this time around, we chose our DJ to decorate as it was easier for us to have one less moving part to the equation. Hmm, this time around, I found that I could postpone things closer to the date, but I also still stressed over the montage, making it different and having different photos when our daughters are so close in age, was a challenge for me.”

Vendor Directory

 The following vendors helped to make Molly’s celebration special. If you give any of them a call, please let them know you read about their services on MitzvahMarket.com. 

Venue: Melissa Gross, Club Infinity, 914-214-4800
Music Entertainment/Party Planner: Max Event Design, 914-533-2365
Photographer: Max Aureli Photography,  203-517-4252
Invitation: Jessica Riesel, Precious Papers, preciouspapers@hotmail.com
Décor/florist: Max Event Design, 914-533-2365
Caterer: Karen, Encore Catering, 973-515-8000
Favors: Stephanie Engler, Pretty in Paper, 561-998-3777
Arcade games/Carnival Photo booth: Club Infinity, 914-214-4800
Live music performers: Max Event Design, 914-533-2365
Montage: Tanta Marla Studios, 914-215-2102
Sign-In board: A.I. Friedman,  914-937-7351
Service: Rabbi Deborah Salomon, Hebrew Wizards
Monster slippers: Alibaba
Bat Mitzvah girl Molly’s costume: www.quinceanera100.com 
Dad’s king costume: Sophia’s Costumes 203-542-9499
Mom Lainee’s gown: Neiman Marcus
Mom Lainee’s red cape: A friend of the family made it
King and Queen crowns: Etsy.com
Sister Andie dress: Free People, Greenwich, Ct.
Dad’s King Costume: Sophia’s Costumes, 203-542-9499/ Bloomingdales
Brother Cooper Prince Charming outfit: Sophia’s Costumes 203-542-9499
Molly’s Converse sneakers: Zappos
Hair: Denise Goldstein, 914-584-0622
Makeup: Kim Root, 914-588-7854
Transportation: J and R bus
Party security: Club Infinity, 914-214-4800