Northern Valley Affairs | Creative Kosher Menus

Be Guided by Your Personal Tastes

“We encourage wedding couples to be guided by their own personalities in shaping their wedding,” says Les Friedman, owner of Northern Valley Affairs at Temple Emanu-El. “We customize every event to the individual couple,” he tells us. “For example, we recently had an outdoor wedding where the bride wanted a country theme, so we did an outdoor wedding in our courtyard and she actually walked right on the grass. 

“Her chuppah was built out of bark and wood. The place cards sat right into logs of wood that she had on her place card table. She continued her country theme in the ballroom, where her centerpieces were made of wooden branches and there were canopies over each table built out of birch branches as well.”

Brides are now customizing their weddings in many different ways. “A lot of brides now ask about lighting,” says Les. “We just installed fully customizable LED lighting in our courtyard, so the whole outside can be lit in any color our brides want. Or we can change colors, starting off in blue as your guests enter and changing it to amber as they leave, for example, or we can mix the colors, slowy merging one into another.

“So if it’s a three course dinner with an appetizer, salad, and main course, we can change the whole ambiance of the room for each course. We can start off with blue, change to amber for the next course, and to a shade of purple for dessert. It changes the whole look.”

Know Your Venue

“When brides and grooms first enter the facility,” says Les, “I give them a little history about the space. It’s 11 years old, so everything is new and top of the line, from the air conditioning to the heating system to the PA system for the rabbi and the cantor in the sanctuary. We can heat or cool the building in three minutes. They built a multi-million temple and I’m the caterer!”

Brides also ask about indoor and outdoor facilities for the ceremony and the cocktail hour. “In our case, we have a beautiful courtyard which we set up quite often for the cocktail hour and we also do outdoor ceremonies.”

Most people come to Northern Valley Affairs for the majesty of its sanctuary and its dome, which is almost 99 years old and has been featured in many antique and interior design magazines.

“We only do one event a day,” Les continues, noting that can be very important when choosing your venue. “We don’t have to clean up in an hour and have your party served by waiters who have just worked a previous party. We are more of a boutique facility.”

Kosher Cuisine

Les and his chefs create kosher dishes as part of unique menus. “We had a wedding where the bride wanted a French menu. To produce a kosher French menu was very challenging but we did an unbelievable menu, even including French wines which we paired with different entrées and appetizers. 

“The cocktail hour was completely French as well. We had a coq au vin in pastry shells, a crêpe station, a foie gras station with sauteed foie gras, as well as a variety of patés.”