The Social: An impromptu first dance

Apparently at socials the couple will have a first dance to start the night off, similar to the first dance at a wedding. We didn't think this was necessary but when it was getting close to 10 pm and there wasn't a lot of people dancing I mentioned this to our bartender and she said that people were probably waiting for us to have our first dance and since we weren't having one we should announce it so that people would get on to the dance floor!

Well the announcement went out via our DJ and the hall erupted in boos! (Mostly coming from my Mr's extended family) So I went up to the DJ and picked a Michael Buble song (I honestly don't know which one) and we had our first dance.

Have you ended up doing something to keep others happy that you weren't originally going to do?

The Social: My very artistic mother

When I asked my mother to make our sign for the social I was expecting a basic Congratulations Carmen & Dan text on Kraft paper, maybe in our wedding colors.

I wasn't expected to be blown away with this beautiful poster...

She had taken one of our professional photos, the same one we used for our 2009 Christmas cards, and blew it up on the projector. She says that she feels like she cheated and should get so much credited but I don't know how many people know what to trace and shade to come up with this.

Needless to say I love it and so did everyone else. I can't wait to see what she does for our wedding thumb print tree!

Do you have talented people around you to help with your wedding? What are they doing for you?

The Social: The Silent Auction

One of the biggest revenue generators at a social is the silent auction, especially if you have your prizes donated, rather then purchased, as you don't have really any expenses to cut into your profit...like you do with alcohol sales (which you might get 50% profits).

So the main thing my MOH K and future SIL T did on the day before the social was assemble the prize packages and wrap them up in baskets. (We took off work so we wouldn't be rushed on Saturday which was very smart since a few unplanned things came up on Saturday!)

We started with grouping packages in areas of our living room...

{MOH K and SIL T - neither like their pictures taken}

....And finished with the baskets wrapped and ready for transport the next day, in our dining room.

I also made up the price lists for the Grand Prizes and Regular Prize tickets to sell at the door, and laminated them. I talked with a few other brides and they all found that having Package deals were the preferred purchase of the guests.

{I have a finger print on my camera lens that I didn't notice until Sunday!

So the Grand Prizes are 4 for $5 and 10 for $10}

Here are the four grand prize packages that we had...

And these were the thirteen regular prizes...

We also had a door prize which was to encourage people to buy a ticket even if they couldn't attend...

The prizes were drawn at midnight and surprisingly almost 50% of the winners were my coworkers, probably because there was at least 40 of them there.

If you had a social had did your silent auction go? Did you do it differently?

The Social: I think it was a success

So our social is done and over with. We didn't have as large of a turn out as I would have hoped for what the size of our venue but we still had over 250 people attend and they all seemed to enjoy themselves, which is what I term as a success.

That, and we made a very nice profit!

I know most people don't talk about what they make at their socials but then most people also don't talk about how much they spend on their wedding, and since my goal is to show what I did in hopes that it will help someone else come up with ideas or NOT make the same mistakes as me, I guess it makes sense that I share our social budget breakdown.

To start, I wasn't organized enough to track my revenue streams so I don't know exactly which portions grossed us the most but at the end of the night, after all the ticket sales for admittance ($10/person), alcohol ($2.50/drink), silent auction prizes & 50/50 draw were in we had $8500 approximately.

Then we had to pay for our expenses, here's a breakdown:

1. Hall Rental + Tip for bartenders = $1675


2. DJ + Tip = $575


3. Food for late snack (Winnipeg Old Country) = $312 (We ordered for 200 people and we have A LOT left over, luckily we have a deep freeze so my Mr will not need to go grocery shopping for sandwich ingredients for 2 months! I strongly recommend this company. They don't platter the meat on fancy trays, just Styrofoam sheets, but they pack a lot on them and it was really nice quality.)


4. Alcohol = $1065 (We ordered for 375, the capacity of the hall, so the original bill was $2345 but we returned all the unopened alcohol and empty beer bottles to bring that expense down. The open beer cases that we have will be stored for the wedding weekend as we aren't huge beer drinkers...well I'm not a huge beer drinker, my Mr doesn't drink at all.)


5. Ice = $75 (This was one of the only downsides of the hall we rented. They didn't have an ice maker so we had to supply our own. We bought 25 bags but only used 15. I don't think that is really a returnable item so we just gave them to my Mr's brother and his girlfriend.)


6. Regular Silent Auction Tickets = $42.50 (I bought these at Labelle's bridal as all of the other brides to be that I talked to did the same and said they were the cheapest at $18.99/pack. They come in plastic wrapped packages and I bought 4 but only used two and since I instructed everyone never to open anything unless the previous container/package was empty, I was able to return 2 packages.)


7. Drink tickets & raffle tickets, + plastic table sheeting = $35(I chose not to get the rest of my supplies at Labelle's as they seemed pretty pricey, rather I went to BJ Super Toys and found them a few dollars cheaper a role. They also take returns so I was able to take back my left over rolls of tickets that weren't used + the plastic wrap for basket that I didn't have to use since another bride gave me her left over stuff.)


8. Dollarama for miscellaneous decoration supplies = $58 (I picked up plastic containers for the tables to put chips and munchies in, as well as the gift bags for the prize tickets to go in. I went with blue, yellow and white for colors. They aren't exactly my wedding colors but close and I figure I can reuse the containers for future events.)


9. Costco for cups & drink mix = $174 (This is another place that will take returns. And I didn't even have my reciept! Love them, they just looked up my member number and found the purchases. Our bartenders put up a sign that encouraged people to reuse their cups so I was able to return half of my cups plus some drink mix that didn't get used)


10. Party Stuff - Balloons = $97 (I said I wasn't going to use balloons for decorations but we didn't have time to do anything fancier like I had wanted and balloons are quick and easy.)


11. Vista Print - Admittance Tickets =$20


12. Grand Prize - Recliner = $335 (Last year I agreed to buy a recliner when there was a buy one get one free deal at one of the furniture stores and my future MIL wanted one. I paid 50% of the bill and thought it would be a good grand prize...which it was...but I didn't know then that I would have THREE other awesome grand prizes donated. I would suggest to hold off making big purchases like this until closer to your social, when you have a better idea of who is donating what. This could have been $335 more towards our wedding. Oh well, it was still a really nice prize!)

Total Expenses $4462.50

Which leaves us with approximately $4000 to put towards our wedding! This is twice as much as I was hoping for so I am really happy and feel that all of the hard work was definitely worth it!

If you live in Manitoba are you having a social?

The Social: Last Minutes Details

Tomorrow night is our social, so my MOH K and I took off work today to run around and pick up supplies and finish packaging the silent auction prizes. My future SIL is also joining us after lunch so I am working hard to stay calm and not have a mini anxiety attack when I think of all of the things that can still go wrong tomorrow!

There are blizzard and freezing rain forecasts through out the province today, so now I just have to hope that my family will be able to safely make it into the city and don't have to cancel. Tomorrow's weather is suppose to be a lot calmer. Here's crossing my fingers. I should probably turn the radio off for my own sanity!

This is definitely a warm up to our wedding. I suppose the organized part of me should be taking notes of what to do and not to do in June.

As I run around I won't have time to post, so stay tuned for my social recaps and other posts next week!

The Social: Crunch Time

Our social is only 5 days away and I'm starting to stress! I feel like this is foreshadowing my wedding anxiety to come in June.

There is the running around this week to pick up the last minute supplies that I haven't done yet, like the cups for the bar and drink and silent auction tickets. As well as deciding what type of decorations I want to throw together without breaking the bank, and organizing all of the social prizes that I have collected and had generously donated to me over the last few months into packages with signage.

But none of that stuff is what is causing my anxiety. What is giving my nightmares is not know what the attendance will be like. Our capacity is 375 people and right now I'm making a conservative guess that we should have about 200 attend, as I don't think all of the people my future MIL sold to will attend as they are older and live 30 minutes out of the city, so they probably just bought tickets to support us.

I went to a social on Saturday that was held at the same hall, mainly to check that I wasn't forgetting anything and to see how someone else set up everything. That's when I realized how large the hall is. They managed to fill it up and I did a quick count of the people in the hall after 11pm, and I guess that there was AT LEAST 250. So now I'm worried that 200 will look like the hall is empty and if it looks empty it will give the impression that the social wasn't a success.

And yes I really care about what people will say! One, I don't want people to leave because they aren't enjoying themselves but secondly I do not want people to talk later that it wasn't that great.

So now I have 5 days to try and sell as many tickets as possible so that the hall looks packed. I'm starting to look forward to my wedding where less people is better!

I will post pictures next week of how everything looked and give a recap. Wish me luck!

The Social: Getting our Drink On!

Twelve days until our social and we haven't ordered our alcohol yet! Needless to say I'm starting to have mini anxiety attacks that we'll have to cancel everything because I couldn't get the alcohol.

So today at lunch I walked over to a MLCC to pay for a liquor permit and order the different types of alcohol, only to be told that the permit holder can't drink on the night of the permit, which excludes me since I'm sure I will have more then one. But this is definitely one responsibility that my Mr can take on, as he doesn't drink, ever, and neither does two of his groomsmen. They suggest that someone either then the bride or groom get the permit as we will possibly be busy when they come to inspect, so I might get his groomsman that live two blocks from us to go and sign the permit.

Apparently I have 10 business days to apply before the event which means TODAY! Luckily the MLCC by our house is open until 10pm today.

The type of Sales Permit I need is called a Family Oriented Event and costs $50.

The quantity of liquor that we can order is based on maximum allowable units, which is calculated as the number of adults attending / 5. (We have 375 capacity/5 = 75 units)

One Unit of Liquor =

• one bottle containing not more than 750 ml of spirits or fortified wine;
• 24 bottles or cans of beer each containing not more than 355ml;
• 3000ml of wine or less (3 x1L bottles or 4x750 ml bottles; or
• 24 bottles or cans of coolers or ciders each containing not more than 355ml.

So my MOH K and I have come up with the following liquor order, hopefully it covers our attendees' preferences:

1. 120 Bud Lite = 5 Units
2. 120 Lab Lite = 5 Units
3. 108 Budweiser = 4.5 Units
4. 108 MGD = 4.5 Units
5. 72 Kokanee = 3 Units
6. 72 Fort Garry Dark = 3 Units
7. 10 bottles of Absolut Vodka = 10 Units
8. 15 bottles of Club Whiskey/Rye = 15 Units
9. 11 bottles of Barcardi Rum = 11 Units
10. 7 bottles of Beffeater Gin = 7 Units
11. 3 Raspberry Sour Puss = 3 Units
12. 14 Yellow Tail Sauv Blan & 2 Yellow Tail Cab Sav 750ml bottles = 4units

The venue is providing us with pop for mix (Coke/Sprite/etc) but this weekend I also plan to pick up Cranberry Juice, Orange Juice, Tonic, and Clamato/Tomato Juice as additional mix for drinks. As well as limes, lemons, Worcestershire and Tabasco Sauce. Socials that I have attended with these extras have always gone over well and make people happy. Hopefully happy enough to buy more drinks!

Expected profit from alcohol sales = $1500 - 3000.

Do you have to go through a similar process in acquiring alcohol for your wedding where you live?

The Social: Decorating

As I previously mentioned, MAKING MONEY is the primary objective of the wedding social so there isn't really a lot of room in my tight budget for decorations. I had originally assumed that I would leave it bare bones but the DIY bride in me has not enjoyed this idea from the start.

First I spoke to my mother, who is a very talented artist, and asked her to paint a banner for the entrance with Mr and my names on it. We are going to do it on a large ream of kraft paper...

**Side Note: I come from a small town, that's main industry is a Pulp and Paper Mill so kraft paper is easy to come by and my parents actually already had a roll that they use for their annual pig roast to cover the tables.**

...and she will paint it in our colors of grey, yellow and turquoise. I'm going to visit them this weekend so hopefully she's started it and I can take some pictures, if not you'll just have to wait until I post pictures of the social next month.

Then my Mr and I drove out to visit my BM - K, her husband and son on Saturday, and she suggested wrapping white mini lights around branches for decorations at the doors. Genius! She is going to collect lights from her extended family and I will do the same. And since I'm going to visit my parents this weekend I will be able to get as many branches as I want since their property has over an acre of trees, and my sister's property has even more.

I was think we could to a combination of containers with thick branches and ones with thin branches, like these...

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Now I'm trying to think of a few other additions that I can put together very inexpensively or ideally FREE.

I really like the hanging ribbon/streamer look but I can't go out and get material to cut into strips, unless I could manage to not damage it so that I could reuse it for the ribbons in the trees at the wedding ceremony. Otherwise my budget may only have room for dollar store white crepe paper streamers and I'm not sure if that would look too tacky.

I could drape them like this behind the DJ or Prize table....

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Or if I could get a ladder high enough that they wouldn't be ripped down by drunken people I could even attempt something like this...although I would need A LOT of streamers to make it look good...

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What are your thoughts on cheap/free DIY decorations? Any suggests that would go with what I already mentioned?

The Social: Food

Although food is required at wedding social, and some people do provide a full course meal if they have large families that want to do the cooking for them, usually the 'meal' is a midnight snack of deli meats, cheeses, pickles and buns.

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As I don't have the resources to cook a full course meal for 300 people, nor do I want to pay to have it catered...remember people pay $10/ticket which is not nearly enough to cover a catered meal...I am going the deli meat platter route.

MOH K did the research, I have no idea where she found all the prices to compare, and determined that Winnipeg Old Country Sausage Ltd would be the best bang for our limited bucks, at $1.39/person we will be supplied with a selection of meats, cheeses, pickles & bread plus chips and pretzels to put out on the tables. It might not be classy but it will taste great and do the job, so I stopped by their location and put down the deposit of $40.

Additionally, the social lands on my birthday so I plan on serving some sort of sheet cake as well. Happy Birthday to Me:)