Engagement Party/Shower/Jack & Jill

[IMPPEARL]

HI, ok so my mom and aunt are holding an all in one party for me (Engagement/Shower/Jack & Jill), my aunt is a caterer so she is catering it. Something simple like beef on a bun, and salads. There should be around 150 people attending. To be held outside on my aunts farm. Mainly family and wedding party, we will do something with our friends at a later date.

 

My question is; does any one have any suggestions as to what we can do to raise some money for the Jack & Jill portion? The only thing that we have planned so far is a Bocci Ball 50/50 Tournament. $5 a head and 50% to the winning team 50% to the bride and groom. We are not relying on getting any money, however it is always nice, and may enable me to do things such as oot bags...

[jennie]

We did a raffle for ours and it raise the most money for us. We had things like $50.00 gift certificates to local nice restaurants, a sony cd player, a sony dvd player, a fire pit, Red Sox baseball tickets( we are from Massachusetts), a hair/bath basket with a $20.00 gift certificate to a local Nail Salon, hard liquor, etc... We sold tickets for $15.00/ arms length of tickets and $2.00/ single ticket. I placed paper bags that I had decorated and labeled out on a display table, along with the prizes (I kept the gift certificates and the baseball tickets "safe" until the drawing). Each person got to simply place their purchased tickets into whichever prize bag they wanted to win. The DJ announced that it was time for the drawing and everyone was excited! We also had a "grand prize" July 4th Red Sox baseball tickets for $5.00/single ticket. That worked out great because the "leftover" $5.00 from buying an armslength of tickets, most people used to just put a ticket for the $5.00 into the grand prize drawing.

 

We had an ice louge. If you don't know, it's a block of ice(150 pounds) that we bought($20.00) and you just run warm water on the top of it and take a small chisel and carve out a snake type line all the way to the bottom. You pour a shot at the top of it as you await it's descent at the bottom. The liquor gets chilled as it makes it's way to the bottom. We sold shots for $2.00.

 

A friend made jello shots (350 of them....she's crazy!) and sold them for 50cents or 3/$1.00

 

The guys played pitch and poker while the girls danced to the DJ.

 

A friend also made a money tree. It was made out of green wire that was coiled. As people left and took their party favors.... they could place a dollar, etc.... onto the money tree in liu of a card or gift.

 

On our jack and jill tickets we placed the wording "GREENBACK PARTY" on them. This means that we would prefer money "greenbacks" instead of traditional gifts. This is often used in the area that i'm from to nicely make those attending aware of it without be rude or making it uncomfortable.

 

Hope it helps. We were able to pay for our honeymoon at Sandals with the money that we raised at the event.

 

Learn from my huge mistake and stupid friends that were left to clean up our party: Make it very clear to whomever is cleaning up to SAVE certain items and it's IS NOT rude to be specific!!!! His sisters had thrown away and were careless about things such as my vases and my cake, etc... I don't want to rehash things, as I already made a post of it, but I was extremely hurt and upset(and still am). Please do yourself a favor and perhapse designate a few poeple to make sure that items that are important to you are saved. You'll be too busy and things happen during the course of the day and trust me, those you think wouldn't ever do something like that may.... and just want to quickly clean up and get out of there and back home.

 

Good luck to you!!!!

[Elisabete4]

Oh wow...these ideas are great!! I had never heard of a Jack-n-Jill! It will be so awesome to get some extra money to help with the oot bags!!!!

[jennie]

Yeah it's kinda like a joint wedding shower/ party. We will still go out with our individaul friends before we leave for Jamaica, but this was a great time to just have a party with friends and family. Plus, everyone could see us and celebrate before we leave.

It's also a type of "fundraiser" event. Good luck to all of you!

[IMPPEARL]

Great!! Thank you for all your ldeas I'm sure we'll use some!!

[*Nadine*]

jennie suggested all the things I would have (raffle tickets, 50/50 tickets, charging a buck or two for shots and drinks).. That will be a fun party with 150 people!!

[becassidy]

thats a great idea! and fun!