For those
who have been following us quite closely, you will know that L.A Events &Photography is currently running as a part-time operation. Purely fueled by the
passion that we have developed for this industry and for that end result when
the vision comes together. The hard work and late nights are all worth it when
you see the impressed expression of the guests who attend your functions and
over hearing the compliments on your little creations. Our “day-time” employer
is fully aware of our little projects and we do our upmost to keep it separate
from our jobs in reality. That being said, our boss (myself and Angie both work
for the same company) approached us and requested a proposal late last year. We
are only writing about this now as the proposal was for a surprise event. The
50th birthday of her husband. And we just pulled it off only last
Saturday the 16th of Feb.
Teresa (the
boss), told us she wanted to have a surprise birthday for her hubby, Craig. The
problem is that Teresa is currently residing in London as she is in the process
of applying for residency and is required to be in the UK for a specific amount
of days. She asked us to hand her a proposal of if we had to organize the event
and what our ideas would be. We came up with the concept of a themed
celebration to the Rocky Horror Picture Show! We put our ideas to paper and
emailed it off to Teresa holding thumbs that she would see what we had in mind
and would approve it. We got the go ahead in early Jan and got to planning
straight away. We wanted to bring through all the glamour and sensuality that
is Rocky Horror. In the beginning we struggled to find a suitable venue, most
places being too far for guests to travel, or too small to accommodate the
proposed +100 guest list. Finally we were able to book the Kloof Country Club
and the invitations were sent!
With only a
few weeks to go Angie and I set out to our suppliers and started getting all
the little detailed custom stationary goodies. We spent a day driving around
getting a variety of costing quotes on all sorts of things from linen to
feathers; from Bluff to Hillcrest we searched high and low for everything we
needed to turn the vision in our minds to life. Unfortunately we had a little
run in with the law on that day. Angie had to make a U turn to get to one of
our stops. As we came around the corner, there was Metro waiting for us with a
white glove up in the air. Immediately we both knew she was in the wrong and
had no choice but to pull over and hand over the drivers licence. Fortunately
we were blessed that day and police officer on duty let us get away with a
small fine of only R300 (50% off if paid in 30 days) the fine for making an
illegal U turn is actually R1500!! But the cop did not specify which road sign
Angie had disobeyed and we were intensely grateful for that! With that done, we
quickly finished up the last of our shopping for the day and headed back home.
We had just
one week to go and still A LOT to get done. During the course of the week I
started preparation of the 100 name place cards for the tables and roped hubby
into folding the 100 boxes for the thank you gift for each guest. Angie was pre
occupied on week nights with a night course she is currently completing for
Graphic Design so it was up to me to push out the handmade crafts as much as
possible so that we didn’t have a lot to do on Friday night (the night before
the big day). We got home from work on Friday afternoon and got stuck into the
last details that we needed to complete. I finished up the name tags & put
together the ‘thank you’ boxes while Angie got herself covered in paint,
glitter and glue. She was in charge of creating the Table Seating chart, which
involved paint, glitter and glue and was hilarious to watch her get stuck to
herself with super glue after I warned her to be careful. That stuff is
dangerous. After I had to scrub her down with acetone we were just about done
and it was just about midnight! They say time flies when you are having fun. We
pre-packed everything we had created into neat piles that would be easy to load
into the car the next morning. 
10 am on
Saturday morning Angie arrived at my gate with a hoot and the scramble began.
We loaded up the car and left to pick up the linen we had booked with BluffFunction Hire. With the car packed to the brim (seriously, it was stuffed to
the roof) and me squashed up in the back seat we hurried down to Lucy’s CakeShop to collect the beautiful cake that we had ordered! Now with me squashed up
in the back seat and this 5kg cake on my lap, we made the trip up Fields Hill
and on to the Kloof Country Club. Arriving just after 12h00 we unloaded and
began the set up stage.
The evening
progressed with Craig arriving dressed up as the main character (and had no
idea about any of this until that same day at 4pm when Teresa told him it’s
time to dress up). Almost all the invited guests went all out on their outfits
and dressed to theme. There were men in corsets everywhere you turned. While
starters were being served there was a surprise performance by a few dancers
including Shalane Byrne who choreographed the routine to the “Time Warp”. Everyone
who attended thoroughly enjoyed themselves and everything went smoothly from
there.
This was our
very first BIG function for the year and we would like to thank Teresa for
giving us the opportunity to prove ourselves. The next big event will be in
June for the 10th reunion of Durban Academy – class of 2003! And we
are looking forward to doing this all over again.
See you at the next event
xoxo
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