Halloween Horror

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Last year, we hosted a Halloween Vampires and Witches Costume Party. It was to be our new venture’s first event. We haven’t had another since then.

What went wrong? How did I – being the one who took the risk – end up making a R70,000.00 loss?

The VENUE was impressively elegant (La Toscana at Montecasino) and our decor was spectacular. Thank you to my son and his friends for the hard work.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

FOOD AND DRINKS – There was a lot of delicious food. The pictures only show the cold items and the dessert. Varieties of hot food were served. I had been too busy to remember to take pictures or ask someone to take pictures. I may have actually neglected to eat.

ENTERTAINMENT – We had an awesome singer, Lisa Goldin, and an amazing DJ.

I took a moment to pose with Lisa

OUR LOVELY GUESTS – There were fantastic costumes, although most guests forgot that it was not only a costume party, it was a Vampires and Witches costume party. The party was fabulous! I gathered that everyone had a ball.

THE PARTY

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

HOSTS / ORGANIZERS

My son and I were ready to welcome our guests

My son and his friends who helped with decor and were the ushers for the night

I got to pose before the party

My husband and I

My business partner/friend, T and good friend, C

Me with my business partner/friend, T and good friend, C

YET, WE FAILED

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A lot of things went wrong but I can narrow down my lessons to the following:

There was huge indecision from our part with regards to the purpose of the party; it was not properly pinned down

The idea first came to mind while having lunch with a single friend who felt it was time to find someone to love and who’d love her back. I had/have many single friends and they seem to all think I could make things happen for them either because I look like a match-maker or because I never had a problem finding a lover. However, we were not quite sure if single women would pay for an upmarket dinner-dance to meet men. We should have asked if single men would pay. So, we said we could not limit the party to a singles event.
Lesson: Know the market and decide on the product for relevant advertising and promotion.

I was too naive and trusted others’ “commitment”

I should have realized that being the only one who took financial risks others’ “commitment” is more like contribution, if at all. There was minimum advertising and it was too late because I relied on the people who my friends said they could easily invite to the party. Cutting the story short, the single friends for whom I initially organized the party (we already knew we would not make any profit and we only hoped to break-even so the event was not to make money) did not even make the party and the girls who were adamant they could bring men to the party did not show their face either.
Lesson: Ask and/or welcome help from others but don’t take offered ‘contribution’ into consideration when making financial decisions unless already materialized.

So, this year, as early as the 29th of October, we were done with Halloween. Our estate scheduled the children’s Trick or Treat for Saturday afternoon, between 3pm and 6pm. What a weird time for trick or treating, especially considering that we are currently experiencing a terrible heat wave. Anyway, I invited a couple or so of friends with children and we got together and sent off the kids to fetch pumpkin-buckets of candies from all the houses. I got to spend the Halloween celebration with my child (with the Diwali fireworks not far behind) and we had fun.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

More importantly, I didn’t even spend R500.00; I spent less than 0.7% of last year’s Halloween spend.

Scary! Truly scary!

I have been transmogrified – trust changed to doubt and skepticism, and an adventurous spirit transformed to an apprehensively risk-averse one. We shall see the result of this metamorphosis when we hold our next event… once I no longer fear.

 As I was going through last year’s photos of the party, contrasting emotions surfaced;

• My disappointment with the people, supposed friends, who let me down, whether or not unavoidable, whether or not regret was expressed by those who disappointed me (and it’s highly probable I may still hold some grudges because I still owe the bank – lol!)
• My utter gratitude to all who made the event (see photographs), who did not let the almost-empty venue ruin their evening and had fun all the same, especially to my friends who did not only add to the fun but gave their emotional support and even helped with logistics; I am forever grateful. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

This post is inspired by Daily Post's Photo Challenge for this week - Transmogrify

*Halloween'15 Images first published on Dolce FN's Facebook page