In November PenniBlack organised a fundraising ball for 250 people for newly formed charity Ferblanc, with their mission to further neurological research.
The aim was to come up with a plan that was both breath taking and memorable, whilst being cost effective. The event was a huge success, see our Ferblanc Fundraising Ball case study for full details.
With such a great event we thought we would share our top tips of the night to help you plan a winter function to remember.
Always choose a menu that is seasonal. Go for slow cooked meats, rather than something that can spoil easily if service is delayed.
Choose a menu with minimum allergens, that caters for all religions, and that is ethical. Always make sure you have fantastic options for vegetarians, and cater for 10% more veggies and vegans than requested.
Choose a style, theme or colour scheme that works consistently throughout, and that is fitting for your event.
We chose a woodland garden theme and incorporated the red and silver ‘Ferblanc’ colours. Our platters were made of specially cleaned and treated bark.
We opted for a ‘family service feast’ instead of a plated meal, as we felt this would speed the service, plus it is a more sociable style of service that was fitting for our event.
We found rustic red and silver tin bowls from Covent Garden market, and we used three logs of different heights per table as centre pieces to put the bowls onto. These were decorated with sprawling leaves and LED lights.
Lighting is so important for your winter function. We used lights everywhere, from beautiful light up trees in the entrance, to LED fairy lights around the logs and around the canape platters, and real wax LED candles around the tables.
These were an excellent solution as they could be turned on in advance, and last the whole evening.
Ensure you have an excellent events coordinator and manager who is experienced at running a function of this size.
The event manager will need to carry out a thorough site visit and risk assessment with the caterer, and have a strong service team on the day.
It is important to have a great, easy drinking, quality red and white wine to go with your meal, and a celebration sparkling. We also went for a red berry welcome shot to get the party going.
We then offered a shake your own espresso martini shot to accompany the coffee and dessert platters.
Advance preparation is key to the event, so do as much as you can in advance such as fill salt and peppers, take the foil off the wines, and print the menus.
It's also good to order the napkins way in advance so you can get them folded beforehand and save valuable set up time. We wrapped ours with straw raffia to look like Christmas crackers.
The entertainment plays a massive part of your evening. Ensure your style of music is to everyone’s taste. What kind of reception music will you have, and how will you get people dancing later?
We had two bands and a DJ so we hired a sound engineer to ensure everything ran smoothly. We finished the night with a silent disco, to enable the party to go on without worrying about noise restrictions. The silent disco was a massive success.
Power plays a huge part in the organisation of your evening. Before you start planning anything be sure to know how much power is available at your venue, and how much power you intend to use.
Your power supply needs proper investigating and calculations, to ensure the night runs smoothly. Every supplier needs to be aware of this.