Corporate Holiday Party-Glenerin Inn

Date: Friday, December 16, 2011
Location: The Glenerin Inn, Mississauga, ON
Guests: 32 adults
Budget: >$30 per person

Menu: 
Yuletide Buffet:
Wide variety of soups, salads, side dishes, entreés, carving station (turkey and ham), stuffing, cranberry sauce, condiments, fresh fruit, assorted desserts. The coleslaw was some of the best I've ever had.
The cheesecake and chocolate mousse cake was unbelievably delicious .It was all good, really!

 Dessert Table

 Decorations: All centrepieces and decorations provided by the Inn, included in the rental fee. Rental fee varies depending on the size of group. I booked the Evans Room, it was a perfect fit.

 The Evans Room

Evans Room had it's own tree

 Lobby Tree

Lobby Fireplace

Entertainment:

I printed out some index cards with holiday themed riddles, brain teasers and trivia. I downloaded the index card template for free from the Microsoft website. The content came from various sites-just google "Christmas riddles" and you will find plenty. I put the answers on the bottom of each card in smaller font, and rotated it upside down. Print out on card stock, and cut out each card.
I put some on each table for guests to quiz each other.  Once a table had finished their stack, I encouraged them to trade with their neighbours.

Gift exchange game (optional):
I asked the guests beforehand to bring a wrapped gift valued no more than $10. After dessert, I asked all guests to pick up the gift they had brought, and form a circle. A guest volunteered to read out the poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas"-when you hear the word "right" pass the gift to the person to your right, left passes to the left. If done correctly, no one should end up with their own gift. You can find the poem here

Much laughter ensued. Some guests traded amongst theme selves afterwards. This is a really great game if you are short on time-it only takes about 10 minutes or so.



I can't praise the Glenerin Inn enough for the fantastic experience.  The staff is so wonderful, the atmosphere elegant yet cozy at the same time. The food scrumptious. Free neck and shoulder massages in the lobby!
Turn key service-I hardly had to do a thing, it was definitely the easiest party I have ever coordinated. I felt so relaxed that day-no running around, everything was seamless.


I would recommend the Inn again for a corporate event in a heart beat.
Weddings are also available.
For more information, visit their website

Corporate BBQ-African Lion Safari

Date: Sunday, August 28, 2011
Location: African Lion Safari, Flamborough, ON
Guests: 40, mix of children, teenagers and adults

*Photos of actual guests are included in this post, but faces are not clearly visible

African Lion Safari Corporate package includes:

• Admission to the park and all park amenities
• Mascot character
• Reserved Picnic Site (Peacock Pavilion)
• Animal encounter (Cheetah)
• Elephant Tug of War
• BBQ Lunch
• Souvenir Buckets for children
• Promotional Materials-posters, brochures, tickets to distribute to guests  

Menu:

• cheeseburgers/hamburgers 
• hot dogs 
• veggie burgers 
• all the usual toppings 
• potato salad 
• coleslaw 
• beverages 
• freezies (not included, I brought those)

African Lion Safari was a fantastic place to host a corporate staff bbq. All company staff and their families were invited. Safari staff were fantastic and easy to work with.  Major highlights of the day were the elephant tug of war and the animal encounter with the cheetah. Sadly, many guests were late, and missed out! Safari staff are defiantly prompt, down to the very minute. After the scheduled activities concluded, guests (including myself) were able to venture out on their own to enjoy all the activities the park has to offer, and there are plenty! Lots to see and do.

Private Pavilion

Lining up for Lunch

Palm Tree

Decorations:

I found inflatable palm trees and animals at the dollarstore. The palm trees have a compartment at the bottom to fill with sand, making them stand up on their own. It was very windy, so I lashed them to the picnic tables with fishing line. Worked pretty well. 

Animals were monkeys, parrots and flamingos. I strung them up from the rafters of the pavilion, but I forgot to take pictures of them in situ! Children each took one home for a souvenir.

Parrot

 This is the best picture I have, not the greatest, but you get the idea. The monkeys were the best, in my opinion. Once inflated, they are able to stand on their own. 

Not bad for $1.25 a piece.

Lootbags:

African Lion Safari commemorative buckets and animal cookies are included in the corporate package.I added a little something I found at the dollarstore.

A little tote bag to colour, with a jungle/safari theme.

 I coloured this one as a test, before the event. Looks pretty good, I think! The bags could be used as a lunch bag, but I also thought they might come in handy as a first aid kit, a travel sized bag to hold snacks and small toys to keep kids occupied in the car or on the go. The tote bags are small enough to fit inside a purse or diaper bag. The only thing that slightly bothered me, if you use the included markers, the bag will not be washable. Something to keep in mind. I would use fabric markers, and wash it separately to avoid running.

Activities:

The corporate package through African Lion Safari includes unique animal encounters, a tug of war with an elephant, and a personal visit with an animal and trainer. 

Elephant Tug of War: Safari staff brought over an elephant to the private area, and directed the guests into formation. Maggie the Elephant wore a harness attached to a rope. All the guests lined up along the rope, and when directed, tried to pull the rope away from the elephant. As you can imagine, Maggie won. 

 

 Maggie the Elephant

 

Tug of War

Cheetah visit:

After the thrill of meeting Maggie, guests were visited by Raj the Cheetah and his trainer. It was so wonderful to see such a gorgeous cheetah up close and personal. The trainer provided lots of educational information, and was open to questions about cheetahs, Raj, or the park in general.

Cheetah and Trainer

Mascot:
African Lion Safari mascot Dandylion stopped by to say hello.

I couldn't resist taking a photo with Dandylion

After the BBQ lunch, guests were free to enjoy the remainder of the day exploring the park on their own time. I quickly cleaned up, so I could enjoy the park myself. I stopped by the Birds of Prey show at the little amplitheater, and took a drive through the Game Reserve to see the animals. Here are a few of the best shots:

Male Fallow Deer

Female Fallow Deer

Addax (Antelope)

Ostrich

Lions

Zebra

I received many compliments and great feedback about the event, both in person and via email.  See my testimonials page for more details.

Everyone enjoyed themselves, and were able to take in the great attractions, such as elephant rides, water park, petting zoo, boat rides, train rides, and Safari tour. 

For more information about African Lion Safari and to plan your own visit, go to http://www.lionsafari.com

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!

Staff Holiday Party

Date: Friday January 17th
Venue: Faculty Club
Guests: 31
Catering: Chartwells
Decor: Provided by venue

Menu:

• Festive Punch
• Chicken supreme with pink peppercorn sauce
• Vegetarian crepes with mushroom, asparagus, and spinach
• Parisian Potatoes
• Mixed Vegetables
• Mixed garden salad with raspberry vinaigrette
• Assorted desserts
  
• Coffee and tea

Coffee and Tea Station

Punch and Beverage Station


Desserts


Centrepieces

Activities:

Guess the object photo game:
I confess this game is not my idea, it was developed and executed by two colleagues. Common objects that can be found around the office were photographed, then distorted using Photoshop. Guests had to guess what the object is. The guests with the most answers correct won a Starbucks gift card. The game was harder than it seemed. Some objects used were: the arm of an office chair, a fire extinguisher, and a pattern from upholstery fabric.

Gift game:
Guests were give the option to participate in a stealing gift game. To participate, they were asked to bring a wrapped gift of a value of $10. Guests drew numbers from a basket. Guest number 1 unwrapped a gift, showed it to everyone. Guest number 2 had the option of unwrapping a new gift or stealing the first gift. If stolen, guest number 1 returns for a new gift. And so and so on. I capped the stealing at two steals per item to save time. Great fun had by all! Wine and liquor proved to be the most stolen. A surprise popular item was a singing penguin. It was stolen the maximum amount, and I'm sure it would have continued to be stolen if the rules allowed.

Toy drive:
Guests were given the option to bring a new unwrapped toy to donate to charity. I collected 17 toys for the Salvation Army Toy Mountain.

Carol singing:
Two guests volunteered to play the piano and flute to accompany carol singing for the final fifteen minutes of the party. Song sheets with lyrics from common seasonal songs were passed out to the guests for a sing-a-long. A rousing way to end an excellent party!

Corporate Christmas Decorations

I was asked by the head of a public building to decorate both the public spaces and the staff lounge with "seasonal" decorations. The stipulations were that they had to feature a white colour scheme, had to be non-denomational and nothing could be permanently affixed to any surface. Oh, and of course the whole thing had to be done on a budget.

The key points:

• Main level reception desk
• Main level public space
• Fireplace seating area on the third level
• Staff lounge on the fourth level

So! The first step was to gather everything the company had from storage and go through it all. The majority of it was horrible and 80's tacky. I did manage to re-use the following:

• a 6 foot artificial tree
  
• several artifical garlands
• several yards of faux white pearl garland
  
• white indoor lights
• some lovely glass ball ornaments in blue, gold, white and clear with crystal embellisments
• some vintage silver glass balls with wire stems

The client wanted some form of wreath, as long as it was white. I scored this beauty at Home Sense for about $65, not bad considering most were $85-$90. It's a very good size too, quite substantial. The client loves it, so I used the wreath at the inspiration point for the other decorations. Some of the key features of the wreath are pinecones, white poinsettias and roses, and assorted greenery. I hit up my favourite dollarstore and loaded up my cart.
I picked up:

• white satin bows
• lots of wired pinecones
• assorted greenery
• plenty of decorative floral accents
• assorted tree decorations, including a plastic star topper
  

The wreath is hanging on the wall above the main reception desk. I picked up the heftiest 3m removable hook I could find so I could hang it on the wall without damaging the paint or drywall.

The next place I decided to utilize is a small half wall in the public area on the main level. I used small clear 3m hooks to hang some of the artificial garland. I added faux white poinsettias and white peonies, wired pinecones, some assorted faux greenery, the white satin bows and faux white pearl garland. Then I wired in the vintage silver balls I found here and there.

This picture is quite horrible, it was hard to get an overview shot. I do apologize. Here are some details shots:

The fireplace lounge on the third level is blessed with a very wide mantle. I simply laid the garland across, no need to attach anything. In this area, I added some gold accents. Again, I used white flowers-poinsettias, peonies and roses. The same wired pinecones, assorted greenery for texture and some decorative floral accents with gold here and there.

The natural tones of the pinecones and floral accents echo the wood surround quite nicely.

In the staff l0unge, I had a bit more freedom. The colour scheme of the room is tones of teal blue/green, you can see the colour on the accent wall behind the tree. I saved alot of the decorations they already had-the overall scheme is tones of blue, gold, and silver with crystal accents. I found an inexpensive white and silver felt tree skirt at walmart, as well as some inexpensive blue and silver ornaments. The tree itself is more yellow-green than spruce green, so that worked well with the tones of the room.

I had some crystal floral picks I originally intended to use for the fireplace, but I didn't like the way they looked. So-I snipped apart the bunch, cut off the floral wire and bent the wired end into a loop. Hanging on the tree, they look like icicles. Very pretty. A bunch of 5 cost $1, so really they are only 20 cents each. So affordable!

The entire cost came in under $150. Gotta love the dollarstore.