Friday night was our company holiday party. And the last party of the year.
Do you hear the Halleluiah chorus too?
500 people. 180 silver chivari chairs. 30 round casual seating tables with 30 glass vases filled with silver Christmas ornaments. 20 cocktail tables with 20 large Christmas ornaments in the center. 10 piece variety dance band playing all your dance favorites (and some you didn’t realize were your favorites). Six buffet tables with silver wrapped boxes as center pieces. Two bars serving heaven only knows what type of libations (I just drank the water). And one Santa passing out raffle prizes to those who brought an unwrapped toy for charity.
Yeah. I’m tired.
The decor thing kicks my tail. I can plan a party - top to bottom, catering, entertainment, rentals, everything - in less than half a work day. But the décor takes a while to put together.
Why? Because I don’t have unlimited funds here. And can I just tell you how simple event planning is when your budget is “go first class”.
So the challenge is for me to make the décor at our events look first class without actually costing first class.
That means I get to do a lot of the décor myself. Those 30 vases? Do you know how much work that is? Sure you could just throw some ornaments in willy-nilly but then you’d have holes so large you could see through. You have to fill them gently and strategically. Took me four hours or so just to do those.
Questions also tend to cause a major energy drain. In the days leading up to the party, I lost count of the number of times I had to answer the question “What is Holiday Chic?” The conundrum with defining attire is no one seems to understand regardless of the label. Take for instance our office. We are “business casual” but our department is suits, panty hose and ties. Not really anything “casual” about it. But just two floors down, they take casual to a whole new level with tennis shoes, tee shirts and hooded sweatshirts. Seriously.
Knowing that, did it really matter what we put as the attire? Were we not guaranteed to get a bazillion questions from every corner of the north Texas area?
Why yes, yes we were.
Thankfully, I only had one gentleman ask me what “holiday chick” was. Your date, sir. Bring her and she’ll be the official Holiday Chick.
Anyway, décor done and chic defined approximately 324 times…the party was a hit…mostly.
Some folks complained about the band being too loud. They’re playing “September”. Is there really such a thing as Earth, Wind and Fire too loud?
But overall a good night.
We collected well over 500 toys for charity.
No one had to be driven home by the army of uniformed officers we had policing the joint.
And Chris and I managed to maintain our record of him never seeing me dance. Bless his heart, he had to work the next day so he left early. Nine years of marriage, he manages to miss me busting a move every single time.
No. There is no video of me and E shaking our grove thang. Sorry.
Enjoy the pictures!
Do you hear the Halleluiah chorus too?
500 people. 180 silver chivari chairs. 30 round casual seating tables with 30 glass vases filled with silver Christmas ornaments. 20 cocktail tables with 20 large Christmas ornaments in the center. 10 piece variety dance band playing all your dance favorites (and some you didn’t realize were your favorites). Six buffet tables with silver wrapped boxes as center pieces. Two bars serving heaven only knows what type of libations (I just drank the water). And one Santa passing out raffle prizes to those who brought an unwrapped toy for charity.
Yeah. I’m tired.
The decor thing kicks my tail. I can plan a party - top to bottom, catering, entertainment, rentals, everything - in less than half a work day. But the décor takes a while to put together.
Why? Because I don’t have unlimited funds here. And can I just tell you how simple event planning is when your budget is “go first class”.
So the challenge is for me to make the décor at our events look first class without actually costing first class.
That means I get to do a lot of the décor myself. Those 30 vases? Do you know how much work that is? Sure you could just throw some ornaments in willy-nilly but then you’d have holes so large you could see through. You have to fill them gently and strategically. Took me four hours or so just to do those.
Questions also tend to cause a major energy drain. In the days leading up to the party, I lost count of the number of times I had to answer the question “What is Holiday Chic?” The conundrum with defining attire is no one seems to understand regardless of the label. Take for instance our office. We are “business casual” but our department is suits, panty hose and ties. Not really anything “casual” about it. But just two floors down, they take casual to a whole new level with tennis shoes, tee shirts and hooded sweatshirts. Seriously.
Knowing that, did it really matter what we put as the attire? Were we not guaranteed to get a bazillion questions from every corner of the north Texas area?
Why yes, yes we were.
Thankfully, I only had one gentleman ask me what “holiday chick” was. Your date, sir. Bring her and she’ll be the official Holiday Chick.
Anyway, décor done and chic defined approximately 324 times…the party was a hit…mostly.
Some folks complained about the band being too loud. They’re playing “September”. Is there really such a thing as Earth, Wind and Fire too loud?
But overall a good night.
We collected well over 500 toys for charity.
No one had to be driven home by the army of uniformed officers we had policing the joint.
And Chris and I managed to maintain our record of him never seeing me dance. Bless his heart, he had to work the next day so he left early. Nine years of marriage, he manages to miss me busting a move every single time.
No. There is no video of me and E shaking our grove thang. Sorry.
Enjoy the pictures!
It's so pretty. My stuff is never that pretty.
ReplyDeleteIt looks fantastic and believe me when I say I know how hard you work at those parties, before, during and after. And to add insult to injury -- standing all evening on the marble floors. Fabulous job, sister.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean, no pictures of you dancing? Isn't that you there with the afro...? No, wait. That's not you. Nevermind.
ReplyDeleteLooks wonderful! Want to come do our house?? I probably can't pay you the same ;)
ReplyDelete