I went to lunch today with several people from a networking organization in which I am a member.  We recently played a type of game in the chapter and our team took first place.  Bunch of type-A personalities... like you would expect anything less?!  Prize for winning... $200 gift certificate for the group to go to lunch at a restaurant of their choice.  Anyway, during lunch "Jamie" (name changed to protect her identity just in case!) told us that she was a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding this past weekend. 

The wedding went great and the reception was hopping, and then lucky Jamie caught the bouquet toward the end of the evening.  If you're not familiar with this tradition, the bride tosses her bouquet to all the single ladies and the one who catches it is supposed to be the next to get married.  Not sure how much I believe in that belief because I'm pretty sure I caught a bouquet when I was about 9... and I'm pretty sure that someone there got married - or divorced and re-married - within the 20 years it took me from then to tie the knot.  But I digress...  Anyway, the DJ announced that the gentleman who caught the garter needed to place that garter on Jamie's leg and for every inch above the knee is 10 years of good luck.  Well, apparently there are many different styles of Spanx (a popular body slimming garment) and Jamie just happened to be wearing ones that were longer.  The bride and bridesmaids all circled around Jamie on the dance floor and told her that she needed to pull her Spanx up so the garter could go up high.  Jamie was not so keen of this idea since she's smack in the middle of the dance floor at the moment, but being the trooper that she is and proving her worth as a bridesmaid, she reluctantly hiked up the dress and pulled up the Spanx!

Now, besides a good laugh, there are a couple of morals to the story... when wearing Spanx, go to the bathroom and take them off or at least adjust them before you head out to the dance floor and catch the bouquet.  And second, you know you have a true friend and made a perfect bridesmaid choice if she's willing to hike up her dress on the dance floor under "cover" by the bride and bridesmaids for a good cause like wishing you a good 80 or 90 years of a happy marriage!  Thanks for sharing, Jamie!

Last week my husband and I went to the Face to Face Tour where Elton John and Billy Joel performed.  We have seen them before and it truly is a great concert.  It is interesting looking at the concert through an event planner's eyes though. 

They came out together for the first set and then Billy Joel left and Elton John took the stage first.  He's got a great voice, but the one thing that I noticed was that the music was extremely loud.  I felt like I wandered into a Metallica concert by mistake!  There were crazy lights shining right into the audience too; you could visibly see people squinting and shielding their eyes.  In any type of event, you want to ensure that your guests are comfortable and engaged.  Elton's music is a little more low-key and the volume and lighting didn't seem to mesh with his style.  He sat at his piano the entire concert and didn't interact with the audience that much.

Now, on the other hand, Billy Joel came out with high energy, but the volume was in check and so was the lighting.  His piano rotated so that all sides of the audience could see him and he was making jokes all over the place.  He was up and out of his seat more than half the time and when you looked around so was the audience.  People were dancing and singing along and the energy went up ten fold in the place.

Moral of the story is that as the host of an event, your guests will feed off of your energy.  If you want your event to be high energy, you need to be high energy.  Maybe not as high energy as Billy Joel who started spanking himself excessively at one point, but you get the picture.  And if you want it to be more of a low-key evening, make sure the ambiance that you are creating matches.