Some of you may have come to our recent Dress to Impress or Ladies Brunch events, and I wanted to give you an idea of all the work that goes on behind the scenes to make these events happen.

For the Dress to Impress event, I first met with the Evie’s Night Owls Committee on the 5th September to discuss all of the logistics and ideas. We then met up on a weekly basis prior to the event, to organise everything from the sorting, pricing and labelling of the dresses to the marketing collateral and logo.

After the first committee meeting, I worked closely with our designer Daniella to design the event collateral including the logo, event flyer and pledge cards, and ensured everything was on brand and approved by both the Camp Simcha marketing team and the Evie’s Night Owls committee.

In the run up to the event, every little detail had to be thought of such as what colour hangers to order and where we were going to hang the dresses. I had to source items such as the rails to hang the dresses on, mirrors, hangers, clothes bags and food for the guests. I also liaised with all stall holders and suppliers and had regular communication with them the week before the event to finalise logistics.

There was also the database administration – I emailed every sign up with event details and processed all donations that came through pre and post event.

And finally, on the day, the committee and I set up the room and worked with the volunteers to allocate jobs and ensure everyone was aware of their roles.

For the Ladies Brunch, I first met with the committee at the end of April 2017. We then met up every month and we all worked extremely closely on all aspects of organising the event.

We approached JW3 and Zest for quotes and once agreed, there was ongoing communication from June onwards. Our photographer, Justin, was confirmed in August. And the best bit of all, the food tasting and confirming the menu, was done in October.

We agreed that we would approach June Kenton to be the speaker at the brunch, and we would ask Francine Lewis to be the compere. I also liaised with the Immanuel Vocal Group who agreed to sing for us.

I worked with Daniella on the event branding which included Save the Date cards, invites, pledge cards, escort cards, table numbers and putting the brochure together.

As with all events, the data administration and logistics planning are ongoing tasks behind the scenes, and the Ladies Brunch was no different with things like confirming guest lists with table hosts, sending out the save the dates in June and invitations in October, processing donations, updating brochure adverts, putting the event schedule together, coordinating raffle prizes, floor plan and putting the staff brief together.

I hope this gives you a small insight into the work that goes on behind the scenes when putting on events such as Dress to Impress and the Ladies Brunch. As always, I’d like to say a huge thank you to our amazing committee members, whom without their hard work and support, we wouldn’t be able to put on such successful events.