Simple Entertaining Ideas

Christmas is right around the corner! Check out this article on simple entertaining ideas :)

Managing hostess-phobia: Simple entertaining ideas for alternative holiday gatherings - Entertaining - Canadian Living

~ Jade

Burlesquercise "Tribute To Hollywood" Gala

Once again we are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the amazing and inspiring Di Lefebvre, founder and instructress at Burlesquercise. If you haven't heard of these gals before, be sure to check them out at the December 10th showcase gala.

http://cabaretchristmas3.eventbrite.com/?ref=ecount

If you have been to one of these shows, then you know it is the hottest event of the Christmas season! Watch here for pictures following the event, or better yet, come and check it out, and send me your pictures!

Wedding Cake Wednesday: Around the World | Disney Weddings Blog

Disney Weddings - ah, so dreamy! Check out the link below for some amazing Disney Wedding Cakes.

Wedding Cake Wednesday: Around the World | Disney Weddings Blog

Event Planning Made Easy

Tip #4. Select your date and location. This could be as simple as planning to mow your backyard or may involve a visit to another city to view hotel and convention space. Plan accordingly. If you need to plan a site visit, will you need to take your boss or committee members along with you?

When you are considering location you will want to keep in mind the following:

a) Room capacity. Is it too large or too small? Remember that if you're having a luncheon for 200 people, you need to consider serving space and whether you will need any audio visual equipment.

b) Lighting. Subtle lighting is nice for meals and social functions. If you are planning an all day workshop, you will want adequate lighting.

c) Parking. Is there adequate parking, and will there be a charge? How far is the walk from the parking area to the function area?

d) Electrical supply. If you are holding a birthday party in your home, just turn to the nearest outlet, but if you are planning a large convention, you will need to ensure you have electrical outlets for any equipment you may need, as well as any trade booths.

e) Phone hook-ups. Will you need phone access?

f) Computer and Internet access. This could be an important feature, especially for business meetings or exhibitors at trade shows.

Event Planning Made Easy

Tip #3. Set your event budget. This should be a top priority. How much can you or how much are you willing to spend? Will the event produce revenue from registrations? Or are you paying for the event by yourself?

Event Planning Made Easy

Tip #2. Set the goals for your event. How many people do you expect? If this is a repeat event, are you trying to get a higher turnout than last time? Determine what you are hoping your attendees will gain from this event.

Event Planning Made Easy

You've been selected to plan an event. Great news!! But now, where do you start??

Tip #1. Get a clear understanding of the purpose of your event. For birthdays and anniversaries the purpose is fairly obvious. But events for work or social organizations probably need a little more definition. Make sure you know why there will be an event and the anticipated outcome.

More tips to come!

"Must Have" Photo shots for your wedding day

To follow up on our last post about choosing a photographer, I thought I would include some MUST HAVE shots of your wedding day to help you begin making your list.

TIP - When taking your formal photos, arrange to have the largest group shots first, so that the families can be dismissed as soon as possible.

Portrait shots:

• Couple with Bride's extended family
• Couple with Groom's extended family
• Couple with Bride's immediate family
• Couple with Groom's immediate family
• Couple with Bride's parents
• Couple with Groom's parents

Getting Ready:

• Mom helping the Bride with one last detail
• Groom getting ready with Dad and friends

The Ceremony:

• Bride and Groom separately making their way to the ceremony
• Empty shot of the ceremony location
• Close-ups of the decor
• Ushers escorting parents to their seats
• Grandparents walking to their seats

The Reception:

• A shot of outside the reception location
• Close-ups of reception details such as place cards, centerpieces, guest book, etc.
• Bride and Groom's first dance
• Grandparents dancing
• Parents dancing

For a more detailed list of must have wedding shots, feel free to contact me!

Choosing a Photographer for your Wedding

After all the hard work of planning your wedding, what remains are the memories, and hopefully and incredible collection of them in the form of photos and/or video. Here are a few tips on hiring a photographer and/or videographer for your special day.

Before you begin: Know your wedding date and your ceremony and reception locations.

Some questions to ask yourself:

1. What style of photography do we want? (traditional, photo journalistic, or a combination of both)

2. What events/moments do we want to cover?

3. Do we want color, black and white, or both?

4. What's our budget?

Begin by gathering names of potential photographers and videographers and research them through their websites. Notice the overall quality and style of their work. Once you have narrowed down your choices, start making appointments for interviews. Not every photographer will have a studio in which to meet with you. You may hold a meeting in a coffee shop if you are interviewing an independent photographer. Be sure to take note of the photographer's personality as well as the quality of their work. This person will be spending most of the wedding day with you, and will be capturing some of the most intimate moments of your life!

Feel free to contact me for more information on choosing the right photographer, and for my recommendations of photographers.

Portfolio ready!

Event followers! I hope you are having a great summer so far and taking advantage of all of the events the season has to offer! I would love to hear all about your BBQs and Golf Tournaments, so drop me a line!

We just finished a successful Golf Tournament last week, an event that raised a considerable amount of money for the Calgary Food Bank!

I have been working on updating my portfolio and sent it live to my website tonight. Please have a peek when you have a minute.

Click here to see the new portfolio!

Keep enjoying your summer!

Til next time....

Planner Threatened with Lawsuit Over "Oscar-style" Decor

Event Planners be warned. Our decor can infringe on copyrights!

Planner Threatened with Lawsuit Over "Oscar-style" Decor

Disco GLAM!

Over the past weekend, I once again had the pleasure of doing an event with the inspiring Diana Lefebvre, founder of Burlesquercise. These events are Galas with performances from her students, as well as other special guest dancers. Di's visions for her Galas are always exciting, and give me so much to work with! This time, she went all out with a Disco Glam theme. It was one hip party!!

We set the scene with pink and green beaded curtains at the entrance that the Guests had to walk through. Once they stepped through the curtains, they were greeted with sequin covered tables and tall vases filled with mini mirror balls. In our reception room, we created a living room scene, with a white leather lounger, shag rug and groovy lava lamps! This proved to be a hot spot for some great photo opps!! At the intermission we served cheese and cracker platters, dessert squares, and chocolate covered strawberries. The highlight of our food table was the "Burlesquercise" cake. Be sure to check out the picture below! Thanks to Cakes by Jill for the beautiful display!

Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped make the night so successful, as well as a special thanks to my event manager, Gordana. You are so amazing!! I was fortunate enough to have the help of an apprentice for this event as well. Andrea, you did awesome!

I wonder what Di will come up with next....

Til next time.

Great news for Event Planners!

The market for corporate special events is showing a healthy rebound, with 44 percent of respondents in a recent survey predicting they will produce more corporate events in 2012 than they will this year. The results come from the 10th annual Special Events Corporate Events Marketplace Survey, which will be released next month.

Half of respondents say they will stage the same number of corporate events in 2012 as this year, and a scant 6 percent say they expect to produce fewer events in 2012 than they will this year.

The corporate event sector has shown continued improvement over the past two years. In the 2009 study, for example, a whopping 38 percent of respondents said they expected to stage fewer events in 2009 than they did in 2008.

BETTER BUDGETS

Some 43 percent of respondents predict that their company's budget allocation for staging corporate events will increase in 2012. Thirty-four percent expect corporate budgets in 2012 to be on par with 2011 allocations, while 14 percent expect to deal with a smaller budget allocation in 2012.

In an interesting twist, the percentage of respondents who say they attempt to measure the ROI—return on investment—of their corporate special events declined this year, to 49 percent. In contrast, 57 percent of respondents in the 2010 survey said they attempt to measure their events' ROI.

Looks like 2012 will shape up to be a great year for Events!!

Inspiration: Pink, Gold and Sparkles!

Hi Followers!

Are you a bride who loves the glitter and glitz? Check out this pictures for some beautiful ideas for a pink and sparkly wedding!

Inspiration: Pink, Gold and Sparkles!

'Til next time....

Group Travel Discounts

Hockey team travelling for a tournament? Dance team travelling to compete? Family travelling for a reunion or a wedding? Take advantage of GROUP TRAVEL DISCOUNTS!

Airlines and hotels will both offer group incentives, usually for a group of ten or more. Be sure you are getting the best rates available for these trips!

Contact me for more info!

April events

Well I think everyone knows the biggest event this month is Easter! If you are looking to plan an Easter Egg Hunt, check out ehow's post on planning one.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4738591_plan-easter-egg-hunt-children.html

Events this month:

April 18th - Passover (begins at sundown the previous day, through until the 25th)

April 22nd - Good Friday

April 24th - Easter Sunday

April 25th - Easter Monday

April 27th - Administrative Professionals Day

Could you benefit from a Virtual Assistant?

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant (or VA) is an entrepreneur who provides professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients from a home office.

In a conventional office, they would be referred to as an 'administrative assistant' but to the 'on-line' world, they are called 'virtual assistants'. They are both the same type of people but with one major difference: a VA works from their own office and uses their own equipment instead of being physically present in your office to carry out the work.

For a growing small business, the need for extra assistance is often a requirement that can be unfeasible due to limited office space, equipment, or funds. In addition, the time it takes to find and train an assistant may be time that cannot be afforded.

For those businesses that experience regular (or a one-off) periods of heavy pressure due to excessive paper work and tasks, may too require the assistance of an extra body to ease the pressure when time calls.

Benefits of Using a Virtual Assistant

There are many reasons why using a VA is beneficial. Here are just a few of them:

· They are orientated to meet your personal needs

· They treat your business as if it was their own i.e. become very involved

· Minimal training required

· You only pay for their time and materials used: you are not liable to pay tax, CPP, EI and benefits, as you would when taking on a new employee

· You have the peace of mind that any deadlines will be met

You will not have to make room in the office for an extra person, or relocate completely if it was necessary!

Would a Virtual Assistant Be Useful To Me?

If you can relate to any of the following scenarios, then it may be worth using a VA:

· You generally need a personal assistant

· Delegating work to existing staff will affect their ability to meet current deadlines

· You need to 'free' some of your own time to concentrate on other areas of the business

· Your current staff does not have the skills to complete the task(s) in question

· You have limited funds to purchase equipment (e.g. PC's) to complete certain tasks

· You want a business e-mail account but do not have a PC and/or on-line connection

· You need a contact person for times when you are away

· Your premises does not have enough space to accommodate another person

Contact Every Last Detail today to start using your Virtual Assistant! 403.827.6151

Calaway Park for your Corporate Picnic

Hi followers,

I have a great deal for your corporate picnic or family event this summer! Calaway Park is an outdoor amusement park with rides, entertainment, mini-golf and more! I can get you a great rate if you book an event or a picnic this year!

Check out www.calawaypark.com to find out more about what the park has to offer. Then contact me, and I will start planning your summer event!

February Events

Hearts, Cupid, Chocolate and Flowers...ahh, February, the month of ♥ love ♥.

But there are other events happening in February. Take a look at some below:

February 2 - Groundhog Day

February 3 - Chinese New Year

February 6 - Superbowl XLIV

February 14 - Valentine's Day

February 21 - President's Day

February 27 - Academy Awards

Academy Awards! Throw your Oscar party!! Contact me if you need some tips.

'til next time....

Who Doesn't Like Free Advertising?

Hi again followers! Thanks for stopping by.

Just a quick note today to see if any business owners out there are interesting in some free advertising. I am currently planning a fundraising event for a dance studio to send their team of competitive dancers to Seattle to compete and participate in workshops. It is am AMAZING opportunity for these young dancers. At the event, we will be selling raffle tickets for various prizes...that's where you come in! Gift certificates, services, baskets...we'd appreciate anything you'd like to donate. In exchange, we will mention your generous donation at the event.

If you are interested, please contact me at 403-827-6151 or jadepiraux@gmail.com

Thanks, and see you back here soon!

Happy New Year!

Well the stockings are put away, and there are no more gingerbread cookies calling my name from the kitchen (thank goodness!) and 2010 has come and gone. The holiday season is over and it's time to get back to work! Though my job is so much fun, it's not like work at all!

To start the year off, I thought I'd post January's calendar of holidays and events:

January 1 - New Year's Day

January 17 - Martin Luther King Jr Day

I am looking forward to a few business events this month, as well as a fundraiser I am planning for February. Check back here for more details on that one!

Have a fabulous January everyone!