In our Event Planning class, we were required to plan an extremely detailed event. I have attached my outline of the event I put together and hosted for a very good friend of mine that was getting married. I felt like I really put my knowledge to the test and pulled off a flawless Wedding Shower!!
Also, in our Small Group Class we did a group presentation on how to influence others to "Go Green". Here is the outline from that presentation.
Group One
Presenting: Monday, April 14, 2008
Members: Calvin, Jamie, Ashley, Brian, Mandy, Rebekah, and Laura
Topic: “Going Green in Middle Tennessee”
Question: How can we better educate young to middle-aged adults in Middle Tennessee about going green?
Steps:
1.Explanation/Defining Terms: (Opening) What is going green…,statistics, examples, the BROAD aspect of Going Green.
Notes
2. Understanding the Question: What does Middle Tennessee have to offer? How have they handled this issue before? Explanation.
Notes
Who is to do what:
About what:
3. Analysis:
Causes: 1. Lack of Understanding: Not understanding the seriousness; understanding imposing views on future generations.
Notes:
2. Lack of Awareness: Not aware of WHAT to do; where to go; how to accept it.
Notes:
Effects: polluted environment, inevitably causing global warming
Notes:
Ending Point/Summary:
4. Possible Solutions:
Laura Page
Dr. Smith
Event Planning
“Plan an Event”
Bridal Shower
“Let’s Get Cooking”
My friend Jaclyn did not want just an ordinary bridal shower, so I decided to plan one that I hoped she would really enjoy. Jaclyn loves to cook, so myself and one of our closest friends Megan thought a Kitchen Shower would be a delicious way to make her day. We decided to elaborate on the theme with plans to cook at the shower. We are hiring a chef to come in a teach everyone some easy recipes that we can take back home with us. This is also a time for Jaclyn to stock their kitchen with utensils, appliances, and even things like canned goods. I wanted to have the shower in Murfreesboro, so some friends that Jaclyn and myself used to baby-sit for are letting us use their house for the day to help us cut down on costs, since we have to hire a chef. They have an exquisite back patio that we wanted to get some use out of, so we set the date for May 18, 2008 and are praying for a beautiful, sunny day.
Target Audience
The shower will be a girl only event. We are inviting 15 girls, plus myself, Megan and Jaclyn, so the grand total will be 18 if everyone is able to come. We wanted to keep it relatively small so that it would be intimate and easy to move around in the kitchen, but large enough that in case a few can’t make it, there would still be enough people there to make her feel special and bring her some cool gifts. All the girls we are inviting are between 21-25 and are friends of Jaclyn through school, Alpha Delta Pi, or from back home. I would say about half of the girls are still in college and the other half have graduated, so income varies a little amongst the girls. There is one girl that lives in Texas and a couple that have moved to various places in Tennessee, but the majority still live in the Nashville area. The good thing is that the ones that have moved away are her closet friends so I hope that they will make the trip back home to support Jaclyn. She is one of the most loyal friends anyone could ask for and I don’t think there will be one person that won’t come celebrate with Jaclyn.
Location
The shower will be held at our friends house in a subdivision called The Hamptons off of Osborne Lane in Murfreesboro, Tn. It is a large 2-story brick home that has a beautiful, expansive newly remodeled kitchen, an open living room area, and also that great patio that I mentioned earlier. There is plenty of room for everyone to fit comfortably and at the same time feel that intimate girly connection. It is the perfect place to have a Kitchen Shower. Since we are poor college students it helps us out on the costs of hosting this event because Megan and I are hiring the chef out of pocket and will also have to provide some of the food/drinks as well.
Themes
The theme seems like the hardest part of hosting the event because you want it to be just right and also want all the girls to absolutely love it. We are asking everyone to wear a cute summer dress just to make the shower a little more formal, but we are advising not to wear heels since we will be cooking in the kitchen. For the invitations we went to the dollar store and bought neutral colored napkins and hand wrote the invitation on the napkin. We bought some really cute, but inexpensive napkin rings and put them around the napkin. We are going to mail them in padded envelopes in about two weeks. As for the theme and décor of the shower itself, we went through a few ideas before we came up with our ultimate plan.
This is what the first idea entailed:
?Spring colors such as, pastel pink, green, and crisp white
?Fresh flowers in those same colors in vases all over the house
?Green and white Gingham table cloths
?Have all the foods we are going to cook washed and laying in cute baskets around the kitchen
?Crispy Linen candles lit throughout the house
?Classical/Jazz music playing
?Have Hot Tea and Absolut Pink Lemonade
?Cooking different types of finger foods
The second idea:
?Use red, black and white
?Have nothing but black and white candles all over
?Have black and white Gingham table cloths
?Italian music playing
?Bloody Mary’s and Wine
?Cook all types of Italian food
The idea that we came together on and are going to use:
?The chef is going to teach us to cook quick and easy Italian foods
?We are going to have in season flowers all over the house and patio sitting in kitchen utensils; cookie jar, coffee pot, etc… and Jaclyn will get to keep the flowers
?White tablecloths
?We are going to buy aprons for everyone to wear and take home and write “Let’s Get Cooking”, Jaclyn’s Bridal Shower and the date May 18, 2008 on them.
?Recipe cards at each setting that each girl will write Jaclyn a “recipe of love” that could be sweet, or funny
?Crisp Linen candles throughout the house and outside on the patio
?Wine or Sweet Tea/Water
?Classical/Jazz/Italian music combo
Food and Beverage
We got together with the chef and decided we want to cook easy Italian dishes that would be affordable to buy the ingredients as well as make enough food to serve about 20 people. We are going to cook Italian Pizza Turnovers and Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar. We thought a pizza dish would be a good choice and easy to make as well as going with a simple, yet flavorful dessert. The chef will do all the shopping and bring the food to the shower. We are going to have a light-crisp Zinfandel, and a sweet Merlot that the girls can choose from that Megan and myself will provide. Since everyone is of age there will be no underage drinking problems. The chef will cost roughly $300-$400 for the day which includes the food and containers. Megan and I will each pay around $150-$200 for the food and drinks.
Vendors
The only people we will be working with are the homeowners and the chef we are hiring. We are trying to keep this as easy as possible and are glad we could find a chef that will do our grocery shopping, set-up, and clean-up for us. It will give us more time to spend with Jaclyn and do things like open up her gifts.
Timeline
We have already planned the event pretty much. We are sending invitations out in 2 weeks and just gathering accessories along the way. We started planning this about a month ago in hope that we would be able to save enough money to really have a wonderful, chic cooking shower. So the time it will take all together for this event is about 2 months.
Evaluation
Since we know everyone we are inviting, I’m sure it will be easy to tell if it was a success or not. Megan and I are putting our heart and soul into this shower so I don’t see how it will be anything less than amazing. We won’t be sending out a formal survey or anything, but I know it will turn out perfect.
This is the link for the chef site that we hired for Jaclyn’s “Let’s Get Cooking” bridal shower.
