Gala has Come and Gone

What an event! Let me first start by saying how excited Aaron is to have me back. I've been Gala oriented 24/7 for the last couple of weeks. Monday I started staying up until 2 am working every night. I finally had some shut eye mid week which was my only saving grace going into the weekend.

Friday: 9:30 am, 2 semi's pulled into the hotel to set the stage, decor and audio/visual equipment for the event. The hotel said it was the biggest event they have hosted to date. In fact they added more riggers (electricity) than ever before. Meanwhile at the center we loaded the Uhaul with the 350 auction items and materials for the event. We pulled the two corvettes for the car raffle in at 11 am and then started unpacking and organizing for the event. We had lots to do Friday, including: wraping "The Best of Dana Carvey" DVD's for the valet gifts, organizing the 800 bidder packets for our 1000 guests and a host of other things. We managed to call it a day at 8 pm and get home to rest.

Saturday: 7:30 am, Rock Demarco, one of our entertainers made an appearance on our local abc news affiliate (WFAA News 8). 8 am, we arrived at the hotel to set everything up. We pulled our silent aution tables together, wrapped and organzied our 100 bottles for the wine pull, tagged and organized the 200 martini glasses for the martini bar, and set all 126 tables in the ballroom. We all finally had a chance to run up to our hotel room at 5 pm to quickly change and make our way back down stairs for the VIP party with Dana Carvey. Yes for those of you wondering - it would be no shower for me.

At 5:15 pm, I greeted Dana Carvey and escorted him to the VIP meet and greet. Aaron and I had our picture taken with him and will have that in the next couple of weeks. He is a very nice guy. Dinner was promptly served at 7 pm and the night continued until the wee hours of the morning and was a huge hit. Entertainment included Rock Demarco, the fastest painter in the world, The Blues Brothers, SNL Characters and Dana Carvey. Our preliminary totals put us at $1.2 million.

1:30 am - Aaron and I finally made our way to our hotel room where we found a chilled bottle of Don Perignon courtesy of the hotel.

Needless to say, I am still recovering. Here are a few pictures that were snapped that night. I'll have better ones soon.