Hosting a Jack and Jack Party

[GracieBebe]

Hi,

 

I need some advice. Now that gay marriage is legal in CT, we have 2 friends who are planning on tying the knot this year and I will be throwing them a Jack and Jack party (aka Jack and Jill). Now, my question is about the raffle. Do people donate the gifts that are given away for the raffle or do the host(s) buy them and get reimbursed with the ticket money and raffle money? This is my first time hosting one of these and I just wasn't sure.

 

Thx!

[Sapphire723]

The short answer is Yes.

 

If you can get people to donate stuff, then awesome. Otherwise, it's kind of your responsibility to buy stuff. When we helped with FI's friends' party, we purchased several different things to raffle off and were not reimbursed. The proceeds should go towards the happy couple. I would ask other close friends to pick up something to raffle. Although, if you know people who own local business who are willing to donate gift cards or items, that would be the best course of action.

 

On a side note-- I did not know that CT legalized same-sex marriage. I don't know where I've been all year!

[Perplexy]

It's so great to see that the world is FINALLY realizing that love is love...regardless of who it's between.

 

Congrats to the happy couple, first of all!

 

When I was helping to plan my friends' stag n doe (jack n jill, buck n doe, doe n' doe, etc), I was prepared to drop a lot of money, just to donate to the cause. I never asked to be reimbursed, because I would have just given the money back to them in any event.

 

Because we were the ones planning it, I budgeted a few hundred to blow on the couple and was happy to do it, because in the end, the stuff I donated ended up raising hefty coin for the cause. We had hockey jerseys, an iPod, a basket of Bath & Body Works stuff and of course a cooler of booze.

[jennie]

We had a Jack and Jill and threw it ourselves. It's so nice of you to be doing this for your friends!

Typicaly, the hosts buy the raffle prizes as their"gift" , so you won't be getting reimburst. What we did to curb costs is asked close friends if they wanted to "donate" a prize towards the raffle. I think that most people would comply with this request in liu of giving a gift. Jessie's friends donated Red Sox tickets, a fire pit, alcohol, etc... My friends own a restaurant, so they donated a few gift cards. I work at a salon, so I made a basket with a nail gift card and hair products.

I noticed you're in CT. I'm in Massachusetts, so if you go onto the Kiss 95.7 , wccc 106.9 website or resaturant.com, you can find great half off deals. We also raffled off Six Flags tix and movie passes together.

Look within you contacts for people that could maybe donate something or a place that you frequent alot like a restaurant or entertainment place.

We displayed the prizes on a raffle table and I had small bags that were labeled (like gift bags...dollar store) in front of each item. My dad took tickets at the door and asked each person upon entering if they wanted to buy raffle tickets. We sold them for $15 an arms length and $3.00/single ticket(so people would buy 2/$4.00) The Red Sox tickets were in a separate raffle for $5.00/single tix. So, when people bought an armslenght for $15, they used the "extra $5.00 to go in the redsox raffle(which was a different colored tix).

We also sold jello shots for 50cents/single or 5/$1.00 that one of my ambitious friends had made(400 of them!)

A freind of ours is a professional DJ, so he was the DJ.

My friends helped abit to make deserts and we cooked the buffet stlyed food: salad, chicken legs and wings, meatballs, zitti, beans, kielbasa, green beans...

I found hanging lanterns and tother tropical table items at the SouthWindsor dollar store and Target.

Don't stress yourselves! Branch out and ask some mutual close friends if they would like to help. They will feel happy to participate and it will def. curb costs for you as the host.

PM me if you would like if you have any questions.