Student Employee Appreciation Party

Date: Friday April 8, 2011 3-5 pm
Location: Blind Duck Pub, Mississauga ON
Guests: 50
Budget: $500

*to protect the privacy of the guests, no photos of guests will be shown. This makes for very boring pictures, so I apologize. 

Not much going on here, it's a pub after all.....

 Menu:

• Mozzarella sticks
• Onion rings
• Jalapeno poppers
• Sweet Potato Fries
• Chicken wings
• Chicken tenders
• Tempura
• Unlimited fountain pop

Games and Entertainment:

• Unlimited use of pool tables
• Photo booth
• Alphabet game
• Raffle-draw for $50 gift card

Alphabet game:
This game is really easy and requires very little in the way of preparation. All you need is a paper and pen/pencil. The idea is to split up the guests into groups (or indivudally for small groups). The object of the game is find an object that starts with each letter of the alphabet, using only what you have with you-what you are wearing, in your pockets, purses, bags, etc. The first team (or person) with the fastest complete list wins!
Whenever I play this game, I am always delighted at the creativity of the answers!

Photobooth:

I set up a photobooth on this curved glass wall here, it's away from the main traffic area. I use a roll of white paper, and taped up three long sheets to serve as the background.  I debated for some time over what exactly the background should be- coloured, patterned, a scene of some kind, etc. In the end I went with white to allow the props to really stand out. I made two  frames out of cardboard and painted them silver. In retrospect, I should have picked up a few frames from the thrift store. After awhile, the cardboard lost it's shape, and we abandoned the frames. I also think a dark frame-brown or black is better than metallic silver, the flash bounces off the shiny paint.

I provided a whole range of fun props-cowboy hat, fedora, scarves, gloves, feather boa, tiara, masks etc.

Some of the props-I had many more too! The masks, boa and bunny ears were the favourites.

I brought my compact HP Photosmart printer, and set up a print station to print out the photos for the guests to take home as a souvenir. I brought two memory cards and an assistant printed from one card while I continued to take pictures with the other. This is really important to keep the flow of guests going to make sure everyone has a chance to visit the booth and to have the prints ready before the end of the party. Each print job takes about 1.5 minutes, not including time spent choosing and editing the images.

Image source: http://reviews.cnet.com/compact-photo-printers/hp-photosmart-a636/4505-13252_7-33190854.html

This is the printer I have, HP Photosmart A636. Lot of questions at the party-where to buy it, how it's works, how much it costs, etc.  The printer itself is not very expensive, I got it at Staples for about $80, and I have seen it on sale for around $60-$70. It prints directly from a memory card or usb stick, and even has bluetooth to connect to smartphones. The paper is a bit pricey-I buy it at Walmart or Staples. Staples occasionally has a sale buy one get one free for about $17 for a 100 pack so when there is a sale I stock up. The printer can do either 4x6 or 5x7. The toner is about $29 or so, Walmart is the cheapest source. You can get about 50 prints per cartridge. So each sheet print work out to about 64 cents each. Not the cheapest way to print photos, but certainly the most convenient. You may remember this printer from the guest book/scrapbook I set up at my wedding last May. Here is the link to that post.

Here's one of me! You can see how the frame lost it's shape

All in all, the guests has a great time and I received many compliments from guests on their way out. High praise for the activities.

Another sucessful event!