As many of you probably know Elite Events Management hosted the hottest New Years Eve party in the Hamilton area! Our "Masquerade Ball" was a huge success and attracted people from across Ontario, from Ottawa to Windsor. The feedback we have received has been phenomenal, and we are so pleased with the overall outcome of the night. We not only wanted to help those who were pinnacle in our success but give you a little behind the scenes look into our thoughts of the planning and outcome of our event.
The planning process for our New Year’s party started over a year ago, with the shared vision from both Lindsay and I. We bounced around ideas and thoroughly thought out the benefits and pitfalls in creating the perfect New Year’s event. We wanted to ultimately showcase our ability to plan, organize, design and implement a large scale function. We had many themes circulating in our heads but first needed to find the ideal venue to set the atmosphere for what we wanted to accomplish. The Sheraton Hamilton Hotel was the perfect fit. We had previously hosted a Valentine's Dinner/Dance "A Night of Romance & Hearts for Haiti" at this location and loved the charm the Sheraton had to offer. With the recent renovations and superior food we knew this was our first choice for New Years 2011.
We spend the early months of 2010, working with the Sheraton and finalizing details, while also creating a theme for the night so we could then begin the grand task of bringing the whole night together. We wanted to create a night that would intrigue, surprise and ultimately blow people away. So we chose to theme our night around the concept of a Masquerade Ball.
From there we started our research. We wanted to transform the Sheraton's ballroom into a club/lounge, offering exclusive VIP booth areas, as well as a fine dining experience for all of our dinner guests. We knew to achieve the club atmosphere we needed the right DJ. We decided on a close friend and fellow HSC grad DJ Jukebox (Chris Hepworth) who has DJ'd all across North American and also for McMaster's 93.3 CFMU. Music was extremely important to us, we wanted the crowd to leave our event not only with an overall satisfaction but knowing this was the best party they could have been to on New Year’s Eve and the music was crucial to the overall feeling. Looking back over our planning process and our choice of DJ, I know we made one of the best decisions of the night choosing DJ Jukebox.
Apart from having the right music, we knew that the atmosphere had to be set with lighting and sound equipment. In the end we went with a production company to provide us with everything we needed to create the right look and feel for our theme. This really transformed the Sheraton ballroom, which was exactly what we had hoped for. Decor was an important aspect to set our theme. We decided on large ostrich feather centre pieces, which, speaking from the design aspect of things, these centrepieces took quite a while to perfect! But once we were able to focus our design and create the vision that was in our heads the final product was exactly what we wanted, and the room looked fantastic.
To add something unique to our New Year’s event we wanted a performance. Not just anything, we wanted an acrobatic act. We wanted our guests to be entertained from the moment they arrived and put on their masquerade masks to the end of the night. We hired two girls: Shanyn and Casey from SASS. These two girls performed amazing acro-routines throughout the night. Our crowd was amazed, and both Lindsay and I were extremely happy with their performances.
Along with their performance we had an amazing singer perform just after midnight as well. Recommended by our DJ, Jaykaybie Brown performed his new single "Bed of Roses." The decision for his performance was a made within the final weeks of planning for this event but again it was a decision I am very glad we made, everyone loved the fact we had a live performance and this created a great positive impact on the overall outcome of our event.
Lindsay and I wanted to create an event that showcased what Elite Events Management was capable of, and ultimately what we stand for. Not only will any event we are involved in be executed with precision and attention to detail but also bring awareness to the Hamilton community and give back in some way. With our Valentine's event we choose to raise money for the Red Cross with donations going to relief efforts in Haiti, after the disastrous earthquake that caused such devastation. For our New Year’s event we chose Volunteer Hamilton to be our charity of choice. And as many of you reading this may know from the weekly videos we posted, we raffled off a trip to Vegas to raise money for the amazing charity. We were able to raise over $600.00 for such a great cause and we have no one else to thank but our wonderful guests from New Years 2011.
This brings me to my final thanks, our guests. This night was designed for you. All the hard work and sleepless nights Lindsay and I spent to bring all of the many facets of our detailed plan together was for you. And the overwhelming positive feedback we have received has been amazing. This is why we do what we do, and are now only more motivated than when we first started to make next years New Years Eve 2012 even better! So check out our website (www.eliteevents.ca ) and our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/eliteeventsmgmt) for pictures and videos from our New Years Eve 2011 "Masquerade Ball" and let us know what you think!
-Jennifer
