Here We Are

Well, here we are, our biggest event of the year is only 18 hours away. Nine months of work, countless hours of stress and it all hinges on 2 1/2 hours tomorrow- one chance to make it all go right, one chance to have hundreds of happy guests who can't wait until next year's event. Just a little bit of pressure wouldn't you say? Whatever happens tomorrow night, I do know that I've worked my hardest on this event. I've done everything possible to market, to recruit good people to auction, obtain sponsors and other donations, volunteers, I've stayed on budget, I've planned out all the details- I don't know what else I could do to prepare, I honestly don't. So I just hope that it is enough. Last year, it was enough, can we please do it again this year? And how about doing it a little bit better? The thing is, I know it can be good, when I close my eyes, I can see tomorrow being absolutely fabulous. It was wonderful last year, it can be even better. I hope that I have everything covered, I hope there are no disasters that I have no control over.

The signs are there that the event will be good- we have sold more than double the amount of tickets that we sold last year. That is tremendously good news, especially with the economy the way it is and we did raise our price $3, but also included a gift bag. I'm also really happy with the cool items that we have for our gift bags. We did have some awesome promotion for our event- Boston Event Guide is always a great marketing source. Yelp had our event featured in their newsletter last week, Going.Com is promoting it- it is even listed at the #1 event that Bostonians are attending this weekend! Our Stuff magazine ad that they donated looked great. Tomorrow, the Globe should have a nice promo in the G section on our auction, so that would be great for people looking for a last minute Friday night activity.

Well, I don't know what else to say. I should probably go to bed. I have to pack up my little bedside lamp to take with me tomorrow. The lighting is pretty dim at Gypsy in certain areas, so I always bring additional lights. I'm waiting until after 9am tomorrow to print out our guest list, in case we get an early morning ticket sales. Our web host has it programed so the ticket link is disabled at 9am, people are then directed to buy tickets at the door. I have a bunch of volunteers coming tomorrow, so that will be a big help. We should be good- I just wish I could relax, but that's OK. Jeff at Boston Event Guide was so happy for us with our ticket sales. It's sound refreshing to talk with enthusiastic people.

OK, I'm starting to ramble. So I'm going to stop now, write my list of things not to forget tomorrow, then going to bed early (1am is the goal), and be ready for tomorrow. Wish me luck friends!