Fancy Schmancy Work Party

At the party with my incredibly helpful admin team.

I threw a big fancy party for work this past Saturday, the planning and coordinating of which has been consuming my life for the past month or so. (All the event planning I do for work really should make planning our wedding a breeze, right?) The party was to celebrate the completion of a large building my company just opened, as well as the beginning of a brand new project breaking ground in the fall. Guests included members of the development, construction and architectural teams, and about 150 people showed up to celebrate. After all the stress of planning was over with, the event turned out to be fantastic and a lot of fun!  

Branded gifts for all the team members.

A signature at our company parties is our unique coursed dinners, which include giving guests “dance cards” as they arrive which instruct them as to which table they will be sitting at for each course. Following a cocktail hour and appetizers, each person finds their assigned table for the first course. After enjoying salad paired with white wine and a short speech, each person then gets up and moves to their next table. Here they get to chat with different party guests while they eat their main course (paired with red wine) and listen to several more speeches. This is followed by another round of musical chairs ending with their final table including dessert and champagne and final remarks.

Past / Present / Future Centerpieces.

As you can guess, putting all of this together was quite time consuming. I had to select a venue and caterer, design and send invitations, coordinate RSVPs, food and wine pairings. I helped my boss design unique centerpieces representing the “past, present and future” nature of the celebration, along with many personalized and branded gifts for the project team members. I also created a looping video featuring project photos from the past four years as well as a time lapse video of the building’s construction.

For this event we selected Lisa Dupar Catering, and what an amazing choice! I would highly recommend this catering company to anyone… the food was absolutely delicious and the service was outstanding. There were several options for each course but here's what I got to enjoy -- YUM!

First Course: Pepper Arugula Salad with shaved asiago, Belgian endive,
raspberry sherry vinaigrette & curried spiced walnuts.

Second Course: Grilled Apple Butter Glazed Beef Tenderloin with herbed
chevre Yukon gold mashers, young green beans & pommery sage jus.

Third Course: Seattle Angel Food Short Cake with espresso
mascarpone whipped cream & seasonal berries.

Now that the event is finally over I feel a huge sense of relief and I’m looking forward to getting back to my real job! Until next time...