The Night Before

Well, here we are again- the night before another big event. Our Anniversary Celebration is very different from our date auction, but the feelings are still the same- nervous and excited. I feel like I've done everything that I could do to ensure a good event, I've put the word out, I've asked other people to help promote and share the event with their connections. If we can match last year's attendance, that would be awesome. We have over 115 silent auction items, which is fabulous. I finally got all the bid sheets done. I was up until 3am the night before last to get almost all of them done. It takes a lot of time because you have to describe the item and then list an opening bid- that takes a little time because you don't want to start the bids too high or go too low. I still have to work on my speech for tomorrow, but everything else is looking good. I've confirmed with our special guests, musicians, balloon company, friend who is bringing the projector so I can play a calendar photo slide show, credit card machine is all ready to go. I hope there is nothing that I've missed. I am nervous, I've worked so hard on this event, spent so many hours- it needs to be a success to justify all this time and effort. I ordered some extra food, because the food did run out last year and I got a bigger cake. It was a very nice surprise today when I went to pick up the cake, Konditor Meister, the awesome bakery in Braintree, donated the cake! I had faxed over a letter asking for a discount on the cake, I wasn't actually expecting that they would donate the cake.

Well, I am off to work on my speech for tomorrow and check- for the umpteenth time, that I have everything for tomorrow. One of the good things is that the event is only a ten minute drive from home, so I can always dash back home for something- but I want to avoid that. I've never had to do that before. I'm going to get to the Doubltree super early, 2pm tomorrow. The event doesn't start until 6:30, but I like to set everything up and relax. I will bring my book with me and if I have down time and no one else is around, I will read for a while. Please wish me luck! I hope we have a great turn out and everyone has a good time and wants to come back next year and bring their friends and of course, I hope that we raise a lot of money- those are the two goals for tomorrow. The financial aspect is the biggest priority. I will let you know how it goes- I know I've been a lousy blogger lately and I'm sorry for not updating the way I should be. I need to fix that.

Until next time friends... here's hoping that it will all pay off and we will have a wonderful night!

Date Auction Success!

Well, we had an awesome night on Friday with the date auction! We raised a record amount of over $16,000. I am so happy and relieved. Everything went smoothly, we had a great turn out and lots of really positive feedback from people who attended. Our hosts, Karson and Kennedy were absolutely awesome. They were really energetic and did a great job. I invited them to come back last year. They talked about the date auction on-air yesterday morning, they said some very nice things about the event. Karson sent me a clip of their chat and I'm going to have our web host add it to our event page soon. I've uploaded a bunch of photos on our Project Smile Facebook page, so please check them out. We had one bachelor go for $3,200 and another bachelor, an ER doctor, went for $3,500! That was so exciting- I couldn't quite believe what I was watching as the bids got higher and higher. We had a great group of volunteers helping out as well to make sure everything went smoothly. There was one funny thing that happened about 2 hours before event time- I had finished setting up and the staff that a local temp agency had sent to help during the event had just arrived, when all of a sudden the fire alarm went off! My first thought was- I didn't have an anxiety dream about this happening! Everything was fine though, we were back to normal after a brief time. Can you imagine if that had happened during the event!

I've been doing a lot of work wrapping things up from the date auction, I've been following up with getting silent auctions to the winners, I just have about 5 more items that need to be paid for and delivered. I also need to send in the Sofft shoes order forms and return the shoe samples and wrap up a few other things. Sofft was so awesome, they even gave me a pair of shoes- gorgeous purple strappy shoes- they are quite comfy too. Having their support is such a huge part of the event. They gave a pair for Kennedy to wear during the event too.

The major focus now is the anniversary event next week, particularly getting people to the event. Tomorrow, I am going to spend a ton of time following up with everyone that I have invited. I also need more volunteers to help that night. I also need to pick up some other auction items that have been promised. I can't believe it is only 10 days away!

I picked up our 2011 calendars today and they look awesome! I think this is my favorite calendar. The photos really look great. I'm actually really excited for it to be debuted at our event. The printer likes this calendar the best too. I can't believe this is my 7th calendar already- it goes by so amazingly quickly.

Well, I wish I had more energy- I have so much to do. I have been so tired- leading up to the date auction I didn't get a lot of sleep and I feel like I haven't caught up yet. I am now so wrapped up with getting things ready for next week. I also need to start on the bid sheets for the silent auction- we have 100 to do! I hope everything goes well next week too- I feel like we are half way there with the success of the date auction- we just have to get to keep the momentum going for the Anniversary event- that is so important.

I am off to bed, I was going to work, but I think I need to sleep. Last night, I was going to blog, but I fell asleep at 11:30- crazy early for me. Saturday night was kind of funny, I got home and was in bed at 1am, I turned on my bedside lamp because I was going to put on hand lotion- I fell asleep before I even reached for the hand cream. I woke up hours later, wondering why there was such a bright light by my head! Until next time friends... wish my luck- hopefully I will get some good response tomorrow and our guest list will grow!

Date Auction is Tomorrow!

Well, it is almost here! Just 24 hours until the date auction! I can't really believe it- all these hours, all the work, all the things that had to come together and now it is here. It is a little surreal. I've done everything that I can do- I've promoted the event as much as I can, I think I've covered every detail for things to run smoothly- no matter what happens tomorrow night, I am proud of the effort I made. Hopefully, things will go well tomorrow- people will show up, there won't be any big issues that get in the way and everyone will have a good time and we will raise lots of money! The weather is supposed to be good tomorrow night, so that helps too. It is hard to describe my mood right now- I'm excited, nervous, tired and sort of calm all at the same time. I didn't know it was possible to be a mixture of all those things! I have to pack my lamp and get out my clothes for tomorrow. In the morning, I will print out the guest list, load up the cars- a friend of mine is coming over and loading up his car too with gift bags, then off to Gypsy Bar we go. I'm planning on getting there for 1:30, it is super early, but I like to relax and not have to rush. I hate that panicked rushed feeling and do as much as possible to avoid it.

Well friends, I think that is it. I am going to catch up on some emails and double check that I've packed everything that we need. Please wish me luck for tomorrow! The Boston Globe is supposed to be featuring our Date Auction in their Names section tomorrow- look out for it! Until next time- hopefully, I will have lots of happy news to report on!

3 Days

Well, here we are- nine months of work is coming down to 2 1/2 hours on Friday. It is funny to think of how all the countless hours of work comes down to such a brief period of time- so much pressure packed into such a tiny thing. So how are things looking for the date auction? Looking good. Our program is at the printers, Marie, a graphic designer I met through my DWC networking group generously donated her time to do the program and did a lovely job, the advertising is all looking good, gift bags are stuffed, silent auction bid sheets are done, volunteer duties all printed out, credit card machine tested and ready go, volunteers confirmed, bachelors/ettes are hopefully ready to flaunt, hosts are all set, rental items confirmed, ticket sales are steadily increasing- things are on the right track. The Yelp newsletter which features the date auction should be coming out tomorrow and it looks like we are going to be in Thursday's Boston Globe which is pretty awesome! There are still some little things that need to be done- I need to get batteries for the table lamps, another extension cord and power strip, put some more gift certificates into envelopes for the couples, get small bills (very important since we have so many door sales), buy a few read heart balloons, pick up the programs tomorrow and pick up 4 gift certificates in Boston. I also have to choose my outfit too!

I am feeling good about things, I think I made good decisions with my event planning and I've been paying attention to the details, outside of the little things that all need done, there isn't much else I can do. I also have to keep working on the Anniversary event and getting people to come to that one. I am also super nervous and have been having crazy anxiety dreams about the date auction. This morning, I dreamed that my boyfriend and I decided to go to Market Basket in Chelsea on Friday morning (my favorite supermarket) and we got caught up buying all this food- I looked at the time and it was 12:45, I was supposed to be home at 1pm in order to load up my car and my friend's who was helping me and putting stuff in his car. I leave my bf at the store, jump into my car and end up driving the wrong way on the Mass Pike. I pull over in Framingham, trying to find a faster way and end up driving in circles. I woke up in panic. That was just one dream- there have been many wild ones about the event!

Anyways friends, it is midnight and I am off to bed. I got a new book from the library that I haven't even started and I'm excited to read it- Sarah's Keys. I could go back and work some more, but I need to stop and relax. Things have been going non stop and I think I can slow it down a little bit for the rest of the night at least. Until tomorrow friends..

Non Stop

Well, it's crunch time- I've been working almost straight through since 9am this morning and I still have a million things to do. I mailed the majority of our Anniversary event invitations today and Lisa finalized the email invitation- both of which are big things. It takes a long time to send the invitations because I add a personal note with each one, I always like to get personalized invitations, I think it really makes a difference. The invitation looks really smart.

I have been having so many anxiety dreams about the date auction, it is dreadful. The other night, I dreamed that I switched the venue last minute and didn't even look at the place before I booked it. I turned up on date auction night and the venue was dreadful, totally inappropriate for what we needed. I've also been dreaming that I keep forgetting things- I turn up without table cloths, without small change, the credit card machine doesn't work, the resounding theme is that I'm horribly unprepared for the date auction in my dreams. Tonight, I went down to IParty to buy table covers, so hopefully now I can stop dreaming about them!

The ad in Stuff Magazine came out yesterday and it looks great- we have awesome positioning in the middle of the magazine and top of the page. I'm glad that I bought the ad. The mass email from Boston Event Guide also went out today. The Yelp feature is next week. I need to email the lady at the Globe again, hopefully she can write about us again, that was awesome last year. One of the girls being auctioned off has a friend who is the executive producer at Maddy in the Morning on KISS, she got her friend to write about the date auction in her work blog- nice exposure there. It is such a big help when the people being auctioned promote the event to their network, that is the best marketing.

Well, it is midnight and I'm going back to work. I have a lot of emails to send, particularly to people who have promised auction items for both events. I also need to email updates to our hosts, but that might have to wait until morning. I'm getting tired and I don't want to work crazy late. Wish me luck friends- there is so much to get done! Until tomorrow...