NOOR Battles the Pandemic and Emerges Unbowed

NOOR, one of Pasadena’s most popular event spaces, having adjusted carefully to the ongoing twists and turns of the pandemic, is slowly climbing back into the saddle and offering actual events. With people. 

As VP Robert Shahnazarian said Monday, “We’ve always been mostly weddings and social events. And those weddings are booked about 12 to 18 months out, sometimes two years or more.”

Although Shahnazarian also noted that wedding plans are generally made  about 12 to 18 months in advance, this  year, however,  the company has “pretty much sold out” because it  honored contracts from last year.

“We  honored the pricing,” he said,  “even though inflation shot through the roof and labor costs have shot through the roof. We honored everybody’s pricing who rescheduled last year to this year.”

As Shahnazarian described business this year, “I’m not looking at this year as being a profitable year. I’m looking at it as a ‘thank you’ to everybody that stuck with us during the pandemic and didn’t cancel, which was 95% of our clients. I mean, it’s a life event. Everybody wants to have a wedding. Fortunately we came up with something that was fair for everybody.”

Shahnazarian also noted that Fundraiser galas are beginning to return to in-person. 

“What’s nice,” he said, “is we now have the experience of going through a pandemic and the clients that we work with are comfortable knowing that if for whatever reason in October the pandemic or the virus surges, and we can’t do in-person, it’s good to know that Noor has an online catering platform that can deliver 300 meals to 150 guests within three hours for them to enjoy a virtual fundraiser gala.”

A great benefit to people holding events during this uncertain time, NOOR has had that system in place for over a year, he said.  

“That gives us a lot of confidence, whereas two years ago, if this were to happen, it’d be like, ‘I guess we have to just wait and see what happens, but now we already have a way for them to continue to raise money and host their events, whether it’s in-person or virtual.”

Shahnazarian also pointed out that, from the beginning, NOOR was proactive in trying to pivot and find ways not only to stay in business, but to help others manage and cope with the crisis.

As he recalled, “Literally two weeks after the start of the pandemic and the closure of all the businesses, we got a community meal program where every Friday, anybody in the community, whether you’re rich or poor or homeless or housed, could come to NOOR and we were providing meals every Friday to them. We provided about 15,000 meals, for about four months.”

NOOR then switched to “Great Plates,” an LA County and FEMA-funded program which allowed caterers to deliver nutritious meals three meals a day to elderly residents who were unable to leave their homes.

While the program ended in Pasadena in March, NOOR continued the program through LA county for a few more months until June. And then, you know, we started reopening for events. So it was a nice small, very small sum of money, but enough to keep our core catering staff employed.”

Shahnazarin called the effort, “a core in the fabric of our culture of our business. We definitely did it during the good times, and I guess in some ways, that’s the easy time to do it because everything’s fine, but it really seemed during the pandemic that we came together, everyone really sacrificed and took risks to leave their homes during a pandemic to come in and make meals and deliver stuff. And that was really, really heartwarming. And the gratitude we received from the community meant more than anything.”

NOOR Events is at 300 E Colorado Blvd #200, Pasadena, CA. https://noorevents.com/, https://noortogo.com/. (626) 793-4518