Great Dancing comes

from Great Music!

 

 

 

 

New Years 2011 (Dec 31, 2010)

 

Summary

 

Price

$75.00 p/p (Option 1-6:00pm-1:00am)   $50.00 p/p (Option 2-8:30pm-1:00am no meal)

# guests

161.   157 took Option 1

Meal

Three entree meal from Cosmic Catering featuring Chicken Marsala, Baked Wild Salmon and Pork Tenderloin 

Elegance & Theme

Our Cruise Ship failed and we're stranded on a Tropical Island.  Theme was Luau Party

Shows

Hawaiian Dancers did a 7:55 show, 9:15 show and 10:00 show.

Doors Open

6:00

Meal

6:45-8:00

Dancing

for the rest of the night

Fun Stuff

- Instead of chair covers we had towels of assorted tropical colors

- Each table had a Fish Tank with Rocks, shells, dolphins and Goldfish

-One wall done up in white with fish, anchors and steering wheels

- Two walls with 4' high underwater scenery cloths and above that 4' high sandy beach tropical island scenery

- Kitchen areas covered up by two real lifeboats in front of water

-Ladies & Mens Limbo contest from 12:20-12:45 followed by Hula Hoop contest

-Video & Pictures courtesy Trevor Lum including free 5x7 stage pictures

-Music & fun stuff tailored just for this event

Prizes

About $2,000 in prizes.   Everyone got to keep their cup, leis and beach towel

We gave away all the table umbrellas and fish tanks

All the inflatable's were available for $10 each

Limbo contest winners got box of different flavors of macadamia nuts, & all Hula Hoop contestants got Maui palm tree scented candles

 

 

This was a tough year for me.  We went for a friends wedding in Maui in the 2nd week of November.   In the previous week I had a cold, but my doctor told me it was due to stress.  The cold went away during the vacation but kept reappearing up till the New Years Dance when it got very bad as a chest virus.   During the evening my voice was very hoarse.

 

During 2008 and 2009 we purchased a numerous amount of inflatable's, umbrellas, and different kinds of fish bowls, fish bowl decorations and while in Birch Bay in 2008 we picked shells in Birch Bay, brought them home, cleaned them thoroughly and sun dried them!  Then in 2010 we purchased 4' x 50' scenery paper, towels and the rest or our decorations.   During 2008 this was envisioned strictly as a Beach theme after our planned "2-event" Cruise ship series I had in mind, year one being on board a cruise ship and year two a cruise ship down to Mardi Gras.   In my planning for Mardi Gras I envisioned extending the cruise ship theme to a third year with our cruise ship having an accident and us being stranded on a tropical island.   Our good dance friends Kathy & Bob got married in Maui in Nov 2010 which for us and our New Years dance was very bad timing, but for the dance turned out to be good as we picked up boxes of Macadamia nuts for presents, several huge tropical scenic towels, a beautiful Hawaiian shirt for me to dress up in, and 100 shell Leis for the men at New Years.

 

Last year many dancers called our setup "simply magical".  This year our setup crew and many said we'd again done better and many said it was a brighter, more colorful beautiful theme.  Our setup janitor said it looked like something from a Tom Hanks movie "Enchanted water under the sea" - probably thinking about the Mermaid movie.

 

So here's the result!

 

Dec 30 we lay out the basics.  It took 12 of us 10 hours to set most of it up.  Thanks to Stephen & Elaine Chu, Bertha, Lynn (Berthas wedding decorating partner) and husband Richard, Debby, Bob, Zale & Vicky, son Mike and girlfriend Alex who generously helped me out.

Slowly coming together

Dec 31 five of us (Bertha, Lynn, myself, Bob and Vicky) came back to finalize.  I had prepaid for 70 goldfish, but the pet store called up and said they couldn't deliver, but Stephen Chu kindly went out and found enough fish for our bowls, and put them in the bowls

Our Tiki Bar with my son Jeff doing the honors

The stage where everyone got a free photo taken.  Photos will be available at any of my dances

Planes look like they're coming in for a landing.  Notice all our inflatable's are following the line of dance!  We had dolphins, porpoises, crocodiles, lobsters, a turtle, and a killer whale

Notice our plane has lights on the front engine and one on the rear of the plane.

On the right hand side of the stage was this.

Stephen came to the rescue, found a source for goldfish and dropped them into our tanks.   At the end of the night all the tanks were given away and each winner got a "Care & feeding" sheet I made up with a packet of fish food.  We had 7 different fishbowls two with a raised center that you can put a light underneath.

Our Biggest bowl had a raised center with a light underneath

 

A different fish bowl

Against a water background was our lifeboat

The far side.   Everyone got to take home their leis, most chose not to take home their glass and their beach towel!

Our biggest bowl, about 18" high shows the dolphins off

 

Each bowl had rock, either glass or plastic dolphins, with various sea shells.   This bowl also featured three goldfish.  Each bowl also had 2-3 underwater lights in them which looked fabulous in the dark.  The tables had shells down the center, and the stand for the umbrella (far left) was filled with sand, shells, and flowers.

Four of our 7 Hawaiian ladies, our own dance friend Elaine  Chu on the far right.

 

Guys got nice shell leis, ladies got flowers for their hair that Bertha made up specially.  Blond hair, yellow flower!

Guests had a choice of a complimentary Banana-Pineapple Vognier wine or fruit punch.   This currently trendy wine was quite delicious!

We had numerous different colors of flowers so the ladies could match the flower color with their dress

 

Some ladies got flower leis if they wanted, and we had armband flower leis

Guests arriving

View from bar.  See the monkey in the tree climbing around the coconuts?

Guests line up to eat.  We had Wild Baked Salmon, Chicken Marsala (white sauce), and pork tenderloin

Waiting to eat

"Teacher table", left to right counter clockwise, Donn Picard, Robyn Picard & husband Dave, Jennifer Loyola (missing), Carlos Loyola (hidden), Jody & Casey Elliot (obscured) and Maggie Bretton

 

Time for dessert.   This year we offered fruit platters, Tim Horton's Regular and decaf coffee and tropical fruit punch.

Our catorer (in blue) gets to eat.  My son Mike has been my DJ since day one and his girlfriend Alex (on the far right) handles the money, and even though they've been together for 8 years, I invited her parents (far left) to our last theme dance to finally meet them!  That's a sad reflection on how busy our lives are these days!

The dancing under our chandelier starts

Lynn and Vicky made up balloon clusters and I setup spotlights pointing from the floor at them which gave a 3d underwater effect.   Our table had tube lighting and really cool shell plates

I have a special mix of "Girls just wanna have fun" mixed with "I will survive", and the girls danced up a storm.

Just after supper the Hawaiian dancers had their

first 2-song show, just before 8:00pm

Hawaiian dancers 2nd 2-song show about 9:15

Hawaiian Dancers 3rd show about 10:00pm

Dianne the leader of the Hawaiian dancers does a solo

Then they got some of the crowd up to dance their style!  Robyn Picard on far left tries the basics

Including Stephen, Carlos, myself and dance friend Zale

 

 

 

Just before midnight

'';

 

Just before midnight

We had fun with line dances

Just after singing Auld Lang Syne

Son Mike wins mens Limbo with great form

 

Leaving is always sad after a night like this

 

Work done, my sons ham it up

 

 

 

Doing these events dealing with thousands of dollars of investment, hoping to fill the house to at least break even is very stressful.  As with the previous year I did only slightly better than break even (after full bottle liquor returns and bottle returns), so next year will be much different.  We'll decorate with decorations Lynn and Bertha already own - much like our 2nd New Years "Ballroom Elegance" theme dance. 

 

This type of event should be priced at close to $100 and would be well over $120 if downtown Vancouver were a larger population could be available to attend.  At this point this is my plan for next year.

 

  -  much lower price

  -  much less decorations

  -  minimal prizes

  -  Possibly a "Dry Grad" as last year the bar cost me over $170 and this year cost me over $100

  -  Much like my regular dances the doors will probably open at 7:00 with food much like my dances during the night

  -  Dancing will most likely be 8:00-11:15 and 12:10 till 1:00am with no Limbo or Hula contests.