Amy's Blog

Six months ago I was asked to head up the committee that planned and hosted our firm’s 20 year anniversary celebration.  I was really excited as I LOVE planning parties.  I love it so much that I am planning at least four parties over the rest of the year.

We decided that we would have the party at a local brewery and that we would incorporate a sunflower theme from our save the date cards to invitations, to event space decor.  We invited all of our clients, firm members and their spouses, and some of the associated professionals that we work with.  All in all, the guest list was over 400.

We spent six months organizing and securing vendors from the event space, to the caterer, baker, and DJ.  The brewery provided space for up to 225 people, a bar stocked with their beers and house wine, soft drinks and coffee, a limited number of sunflower centerpieces, and commemorative pint glasses with our logo for party favors for our guests.  The caterer is a well known local catering shop run by a husband and wife team.  We have used them for several office functions in the past.  We chose to have a heavy appetizer buffet for our casual “open house” style reception.  We asked for a mix of hot and cold choices with a mix of beef, chicken, seafood, and vegetarian options.  We told the DJ that we wanted to be able to play music that would appeal to a wide variety of people, including a diverse age group.  He told us not to worry as he had a music catalogue that contains 35,000 songs.  The dessert would be cupcakes with simple designs….some had 20s and some were decorated with sunflowers to continue our theme.

215 people RSVP’d that they would be attending our party from 6-10 on Thursday evening.  We asked our staff to be available at 4:00 so that we could have all hands on deck to get the event space ready for the party. The event space staff took care of setting up the bar and the caterer put out candles on each of the 8 top rounds and high top rounds  and they set up the beautiful food buffet.  The baker came and set up a simple but elegant cupcake display complete with white, chocolate, red velvet, and lemon cupcakes.  We set up the registration table with preprinted name tags for the guests and trivia questions.  We had slips of paper for each guest to answer four trivia questions to be put in a drawing for door prizes.

Our company office manager made a really neat slide summarizing the history of our firm, what we do, our clients, and a slide for each firm member showcasing their families and leisure activities.  It played on two jumbo screens throughout the duration of the event.

Before we knew it, guests began to arrive.  We had several local clients and associated professionals as well as clients that traveled in from Missouri, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Virgina.

We stopped the music at various times during the event to introduce our firm members and do the drawing for trivia question winners.  We had four questions and therefore, four winners.  Each winner received a sterling silver piggy bank.

Everyone was raving about the how great the party was and how delicious the food was.  The DJ did a great job keeping the music selection varied and pleasing to all in the room.

Finally, by about 9:00, I was able to take a load off and enjoy some food and have a meaningful visit with a couple of clients.  The party was a success, but the worst thing about it was that I spent about 15 seconds talking to each person, and there were even people that were there that I never saw or talked to.  I guess that comes with hosting a party.  But, I was disappointed, it felt like guests started to arrive, and FLASH, the party was over.

Anyway, I’m so glad that we pulled the party off without any major hiccups and that.  I’m happy to add a party of 200+ to my list of events planned to date and I hope that I was able to show the company that I can handle a few extra responsibilities.

And that is how the birthday month ended.

To the next 20 years!