M A S Q U E R A D E / M A Y H E M

Happy Valentine's Day bloggers!
As you know Beth and I hosted a masquerade party for Valentine's Day to raise money for our charity ChildReach International. The turnout wasn't as good as we hoped but we still managed to enjoy the night with close friends! All together we managed to raise £130 through tickets sales, a lucky dip, a photo booth, a 'guess the dogs name' stall and by placing buckets by the bar.

Hopefully, through my experience you can see how important it is to broadcast your event as this will result in a bigger turnout. You MUST shout out about your event as much as possible, get it out into the community as much as you can for the best turnout!
Another issue was that a lot of people couldn't turn up primarily because it was during term time, so a lot of my friends were away in uni and couldn't make it home for it so perhaps when doing an event you should be aware of term times. Perhaps, a summer party would be better as people are more likely to be home and can then attend. Or perhaps, host an event back at uni?

Below are a few photos of the room and the stalls to trigger off some inspiration!

Here is our hand made photo booth! Simple and fun to do. You can add old fancy dress clothes, masks, random quotes or signs and moustaches on a table, then let your guests try them on and go wild with styles! Let them be as crazy as they want and photograph them! You can also leave a bucket on the table for extra donations!
 



Here is a pug we bought from Sainsburys! We wrote down a list of names and let people pay £1 to guess his name and obviously whoever guessed correctly won the dog! Beth's boyfriend guessed correctly, the dog's name was Waffle.



 

 

 

 

Hosting this event was an experience and perhaps something I would consider doing again. Next time, I would like to do something less formal and just have a catch up or get together as sometimes themes can turn people off. However, I do believe adding themes can also attract people as it could be something unique that they have never been to before!

 

That's all for today! Enjoy your Valentine's day bloggers! (I'm sure I will with all these delicious chocolates... I feel the weight piling on already!)

 

 

Rhea xx

 

P A R T Y / P L A N N I N G

Hey there bloggers it is February and that can only mean one thing! Love is in the air! Yes, valentine's day is coming up! 
For Valentines day, Beth and I have decided to host a Masquerade Valentines party at the Atlantic Hotel in Porthcawl on Thursday 13th February to raise money for our charity ChildReach International!
Hosting an event can be the perfect idea to draw in those donations and it can be anything related to your interests.

As this is my first event, I am slightly apprehensive on how the night will go. If it is your first event too then perhaps join forces with friends for support. I am rather relieved that me and Beth are doing this together. It decreases the stress when you have someone there to help you. When planning an event you need to consider the following:

1. Where and when the event will take place?
You could do it at a local pub or even at your own home to save money.

2. Will it have a theme?
You could add a theme to encourage more people to come. You could make people come in fancy dress.

3. How many guests will be attending?
You could create an event on Facebook to keep track of the guests attending. Or put up posters around the community to entice guests.

4. How much money you will need to put aside for the venue, decorations, food or DJ?
When planning the Masquerade party, I did have many worries over the cost of venue as I am a student myself so I do have to keep an eye of what I spend at the moment! However, as it is a charity event people are generous and usually allow you to hold it for free. When it comes to food and decorations you could make your own or ask the venue manager to provide little picks for free as it is for charity. However, people usually don't eat a great deal at parties and instead spend their money at the bar so I wouldn't worry too much on creating a huge platter. You could also buy cheap decorations on Amazon, you could even create your own decorations or tickets as its easy to do! For our party we had a discount for the DJ, however, if you are not willing to pay for a DJ you could create your own playlist and buy some cheap speakers.

5. How will you raise extra money for your charity?
You could raise a lot of money from ticket prices alone. You could sell raffle tickets or create fun stalls and games for people to pay and play for. If you are not willing to lash out and spend money on prizes for the stalls and raffle then you could ask your local flourist, diner or shops to donate some prizes for the charity. Local communities are usually generous and will donate gifts.

6. Finally, decide on an outfit to wear and get ready to raise some money!!

These are just a few tips to get you started. I'm sure you can expand on these points further to suit your party!

Idea: You could start preparing now for an Easter event in April and inject some fun by having people dress up! Do you have any other themes or ideas? It would be great to here some more!

 

 

 

Rhea xx