2010-04-06 08:00:00 by SMARTBRIDE
Bride-To-Be: Fun and Fundraising at Your Stag and Doe
Everyone knows that weddings can be expensive and to help with fundraising many couples have a big, pre-wedding stag and doe party! These parties can be quite lucrative and usually include; games, raffles, drinks and dancing. In small towns, stag and does are very popular and people often go to the party even when they don’t know the bride or groom.
Photo Courtesty of Coastal Photography
Our stag and doe is currently taking up most of my energy, so my wedding planning is temporarily on the backburner. We're 2 months out from our fundraising party and there’s so much left to do! Let me start from the beginning. Once the hall was booked we began by trying to find possible raffle prizes. Raffles are an awesome way to make money! If the prizes are good, people will buy many tickets for their chance to win. At the same time, if you spend a lot on your prizes, it can cut drastically into your profits.
The stress of planning this event is unlike the wedding stress because I’m responsible for physically purchasing alcohol and food for at least 100 people, as well as planning the games and scheduling the evening.
Beggers Can Be Choosers!
This is no time to let pride get in the way. I asked everyone I knew if they would donate a prize, knew someone who could, or would be willing to find a prize donor. I also sent out emails to companies that I had no connection to and explained my situation while asking for a donation. I learned that people can be very generous!
As an example, we agreed to book our honeymoon with a travel agency and they donated a luggage set to our fundraiser. We've also had prize donations from movie theatres, clubs, salons, and spas. Our begging approach has helped up to get more than 15 prizes and we've spent nothing!
The Tickets
While searching for prizes, we had tickets made. A friend of mine designed the tickets at a discounted rate and had them printed for us. We had them printed early in an attempt to sell more (which hasn’t been working so well, yet).
Utilize Your Resources!
Ask friends and acquaintances who have already had a stag and doe or helped to plan someone else’s. The advice of friends inspired me to come up with some great ideas, lead me to save on food by going to wholesalers, and helped me to choose some great games.
The Games
When figuring out game options, we spoke with friends who had stag and doe's and asked a DJ for advice. We learned about the games that would help make the most money. We chose easy to manage games like guess the jelly beans in the jar and guess which card in a deck is the joker, as well as more time consuming games like coin toss, musical chairs, and a balloon popping competition. The winner(s) of each game will receive a prize!
The games that I think will be the most successful are the coin toss (players toss toonies towards a large bottle of alcohol with the winner getting his/her coin closest to the bottle), and the balloon popping game. In the balloon popping game participants tie balloons to their ankles with a string and try to stomp on each other's balloons. The last person with their balloon intact wins a prize.
A guaranteed money-maker at any stag and doe is pie in the face. Throughout the night, members of our wedding party will go around the hall collecting money. One money jar will pay for me to get a pie in the face, while the other will be for my fiancé. In the end, whoever's jar has the most money will be the one who gets a pie in their face. Additionally, we might even auction off the chance to throw the pie!
Now that prizes are gathered and tickets are being sold, we're focusing on planning the games and scheduling the evening. We hope that the money we make from our stag and doe will make our dream Costa Rica honeymoon a reality!
*SmartBride Tip*: When throwing a stag and doe be prepared to ask for help so you can keep your sanity while throwing a successful event! It's important to rely on friends and family, and maybe even the kindness of complete strangers.
Alicia
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About our Guest Blogger: Alicia Mason
On December 23, 2008 I got engaged to my best friend and soul mate. We set the date for September 25, 2010 and for the past year I have been sleeping and breathing everything wedding including; the venue, food, flowers, decorator, invitations, and finding the perfect dress…all on a budget!
While I didn't go crazy meeting with 10 florists and 10 decorators, I put a lot of thought into each decision and was able to find great deals along the way. I am thrilled that the SmartBride Boutique ladies have asked me to be a guest blogger in order to give you details about my wedding planning. While the planning isn't easy, it is exciting and I hope as you plan your wedding, you'll find my experiences helpful.
More posts from Bride-to-Be Alicia:
