I had hoped to show you photos of the gala events surrounding the Jimmy V Foundation Annual Fundraiser for Cancer Research held this weekend in Raleigh. Alas, I went to work without my camera on Friday and I didn't work the party on Saturday. My employer (Mel Day) has promised to send some of the photos he took, but until I get them, all I can do is describe it to you.
The Friday night event was a "wine" dinner, where a chef was creating a fancy meal and pairing each course with an appropriate wine. There were three sections of the ballroom; each one dedicated to a different university: UNC, NCSU and DUKE. The table centerpieces were gift baskets, which were auctioned off at the end of the evening. There was a bottle of wine, a set of wooden coasters, a corkscrew, 2 wine glasses, a bud vase with 2 flowers and some greenery, and a cellophane bag of chocolate truffles. The wine bottles had been sealed with the colors of the school in each room. On Thursday, Mel, Rhonda and I put sixty-five baskets together, wrapped them in clear cellophane and tied the tops with colorful ribbons. When I went to work on Friday morning, I found that we had to re-do the baskets for Duke because we had been given the wrong wine to use. (The wine was donated by a winery in Napa Valley, CA.)
After that, we made 20 short table centerpieces, each containing birds of paradise, pincushion proteas, mokara orchids, large allium, kangaroo paws, monstera leaves, galax leaves and mosses. Then we left to go to our Civic Center and deliver the baskets and help set up the room, as well as to make three large, standing arrangements that would be left in place both Friday and Saturday nights. The color scheme for the flowers was orange, hot pink, magenta and lavender, with a touch of yellow thrown in because the wholesaler didn't get orange kangaroo paws - they were yellow. Sometimes you have to roll with whatever you get. I do hope to show you these three arrangements, though, since the stands are 5 and 6 feet tall, and with the flowers in them, they approach 8-10 feet. To these large arrangements, we added huge heads of medium pink hydrangeas, giant monstera leaves, grapevine, and seeded eucalyptus.
The budget didn't allow me to work the Saturday event this year. Mel had to use volunteers to help get the centerpieces on the tables and to assist him in finishing the other 50 centerpieces on site. He was doing 3 square vases on each table (different heights) and each holding a different flower. He was using, in addition to those already mentioned, green hanging amaranthus and very tall eremurus. All the colors he was using are found in the carpet and wall decor at the Civic Center, and table linens were chosen to compliment those. In years past, we followed a particular theme for the Gala Dinner, but this year there was no theme.
I was very disappointed that I couldn't get to see the final result. I even offered to work as a volunteer, but I was told no. For me, much of the perks of this job consist in seeing all the various locations where we work, and seeing them all set up for the parties. But probably it is just as well. On Friday, despite the fact that I had bought a new bottle of Tyl*nol, I left it in my car. I should have had a dose of it at 1 pm and I didn't discover until 2pm that I had none with me. Finally, at 4pm I begged around for some and finally found a guy who had it at 4:20. By then I was dragging and quick recovery was not possible. However, I will tell the guy who shared two of his with me, you were a lifesaver and I will always be grateful!
