The Wedding the organisers view
I found this event alot harder to organise than last years one, this was partly due to expectation as the one last year was so good.
Now the process to get to the event is a long one. I had people on and off all year asking me when I was going to run the next one (not if but when) and for me the important thing was to have something to be the focus if the event. I would not be happy running an event which was just hire a place and meet up. I wanted something to help create the drama and focus of the event.
the first time (in January 2006) this had been easy as I wanted a birthday party so decided to have it on my birthday weekend and have it as that. Having it again as the comte's birthday party this year seemed both unimaginative and dull.
Anyway when things IC developed between the comte and ana it seemed like a good idea to have a player event as the wedding. This came to me during event 3 of last year. So now I had the basis for the event I could start looking at organising it. The first step in this was getting Ana to agree to marry me so I couldn't announce the event till after she had agreed so low and behold I proposed IC at event 4 and IC she accepted and so we were on for the wedding.
After that point there was looking for a site and trying to get a team together to help run the event. I had lots of offers of help and Mark Nicholls and Ian Fergusson as always offered to help me.
uncanic also has been very supportive as has Fat Goth. I can't remember which of these 2 finally helped me find Kibblestone as a site but it was pretty much exactly what I had in mind.
While doing this we continued to have building work happen (or not) on the house so we were getting limited space at home to make and prepare things.
Now I realise this is starting to ramble and I could go on. But basically things did not come together in a way I would of liked. I still didn't get a team of people keen on the project and doing bits proactively early on. It yet again ended up being alot of the prep was done in the 2 weeks leading up to the event and a big thanks goes out to
mae_bunniekins who pretty much moved in for the 2 weeks leading up to the event to help
esther_reeves sew the wedding outfits and also do alot of the baking.
I found it harder this time thinking of activities to do at a player event to keep drama and action moving that you can do alot easier with plot (baring it in mind that it has to be done ic with ic rescources luckily the comte is manipulative and likes playing games with people) but we eventually came up with something we were reasonably happy with.
Mark and Ian did their bit writing alot of the games. Then more problems hit. Various things ordered didn't turn up in time. On the Wednesday before the event my caterer dropped out and then my 'official' musicians this prompted me to walk into work and then take the day off and walk straight out again. We had covered ourselves already with music as I knew we had musicians within our ranks and alot of thanks go to
oxfordgirl and
flannelcat who had agreed to help with this as well as other things. I also had another chef on my crew but hadn't managed to speak to him so having done that I now had someone who could run the kitchen. I just needed to sort out the shopping where really I had dismissed this from my mind as had thought it was also sorted weeks ago and my mind was occupied with other things. I also lost 2 ro3 other crew in the weeks leading up to the event.
All these problems meant that i the end on Friday I had me and esther and 2 crew on site early instead of the 6. Esther had a migraine and still had sewing left to do while I had to go and get the glasses with dom in tow. We had discussed before hand if we should bring Dom or not but knew alot of people liked to see the 'Dauphin' and also he likes going and roleplaying and meeting people. Having him there on set up made it atleast twice as hard for me.
In the end lots of things weren't going smoothly drinks weren't served to guests. I didn't have people to run the games or who knew the rules. I really noticed not having
electrokin and
ginger_andy as ic support though lots of people were helping me how they could.
I felt alot more disorganised this time. then to top it all on the Saturday Jo was ill so the wedding couldn't go ahead. All I wanted at this point was for Jon to arrive ti pick Dom at so I could actually run the event and sort things out. around 2.00 this happened and I stopped in the car park to chat to
thefluffyfae who was unable to make it as she had an event for the Wolves on the other half of the site.
Anyway in the end we worked out other things to do and
spiraltower very kindly stepped up to the plate to run a marriage ceremony for a different couple where he could have easily IC said no. In the end I think everyone had a very good time but it has left me alot of food for thought. In summary my own tips for if I run one again (and please do note this is an IF not a Will like last year)
1) If it is a player event make sure there are some players on the organising committee and you breif and delegate jobs to them before hand
2) do not take small child to set up.
3) Do not have you Ic and OOC in charge (which i have always said to other people when organising proper events and i would never do it for a plotted event)
4) Do not have an aspect of the event you can't cover yourself if things go wrong (music in this case) as it adds stress.
so if I run another mael player event I am more likely to organise it with a premis for someone else in charge while I am in the background only possibnly appearing as the comte if it is right at the time. Or be there as the comte and the night be someone else so the comte is IC able to be in the shadows organising things while someone else is leading the entertaining.
Finally a big thanks to Rachel who ,despiet habing a small baby, cooked alot of the food and also helped organise the dances and music and as ever as Lady Emelia was amazing, Sarah F for doing lots of driving, being massively supportive and preparing cds of music for me if we needed them and Copey (or santa as he is now apparantley known) for just being a god send in the kitchen and helping out Si my chef.
I haven't really covered much of what happened here but a couple of people have put up some comments so far.
Now the process to get to the event is a long one. I had people on and off all year asking me when I was going to run the next one (not if but when) and for me the important thing was to have something to be the focus if the event. I would not be happy running an event which was just hire a place and meet up. I wanted something to help create the drama and focus of the event.
the first time (in January 2006) this had been easy as I wanted a birthday party so decided to have it on my birthday weekend and have it as that. Having it again as the comte's birthday party this year seemed both unimaginative and dull.
Anyway when things IC developed between the comte and ana it seemed like a good idea to have a player event as the wedding. This came to me during event 3 of last year. So now I had the basis for the event I could start looking at organising it. The first step in this was getting Ana to agree to marry me so I couldn't announce the event till after she had agreed so low and behold I proposed IC at event 4 and IC she accepted and so we were on for the wedding.
After that point there was looking for a site and trying to get a team together to help run the event. I had lots of offers of help and Mark Nicholls and Ian Fergusson as always offered to help me.
uncanic also has been very supportive as has Fat Goth. I can't remember which of these 2 finally helped me find Kibblestone as a site but it was pretty much exactly what I had in mind.
While doing this we continued to have building work happen (or not) on the house so we were getting limited space at home to make and prepare things.
Now I realise this is starting to ramble and I could go on. But basically things did not come together in a way I would of liked. I still didn't get a team of people keen on the project and doing bits proactively early on. It yet again ended up being alot of the prep was done in the 2 weeks leading up to the event and a big thanks goes out to
mae_bunniekins who pretty much moved in for the 2 weeks leading up to the event to help
esther_reeves sew the wedding outfits and also do alot of the baking.
I found it harder this time thinking of activities to do at a player event to keep drama and action moving that you can do alot easier with plot (baring it in mind that it has to be done ic with ic rescources luckily the comte is manipulative and likes playing games with people) but we eventually came up with something we were reasonably happy with.
Mark and Ian did their bit writing alot of the games. Then more problems hit. Various things ordered didn't turn up in time. On the Wednesday before the event my caterer dropped out and then my 'official' musicians this prompted me to walk into work and then take the day off and walk straight out again. We had covered ourselves already with music as I knew we had musicians within our ranks and alot of thanks go to
oxfordgirl and
flannelcat who had agreed to help with this as well as other things. I also had another chef on my crew but hadn't managed to speak to him so having done that I now had someone who could run the kitchen. I just needed to sort out the shopping where really I had dismissed this from my mind as had thought it was also sorted weeks ago and my mind was occupied with other things. I also lost 2 ro3 other crew in the weeks leading up to the event.
All these problems meant that i the end on Friday I had me and esther and 2 crew on site early instead of the 6. Esther had a migraine and still had sewing left to do while I had to go and get the glasses with dom in tow. We had discussed before hand if we should bring Dom or not but knew alot of people liked to see the 'Dauphin' and also he likes going and roleplaying and meeting people. Having him there on set up made it atleast twice as hard for me.
In the end lots of things weren't going smoothly drinks weren't served to guests. I didn't have people to run the games or who knew the rules. I really noticed not having
electrokin and
ginger_andy as ic support though lots of people were helping me how they could.
I felt alot more disorganised this time. then to top it all on the Saturday Jo was ill so the wedding couldn't go ahead. All I wanted at this point was for Jon to arrive ti pick Dom at so I could actually run the event and sort things out. around 2.00 this happened and I stopped in the car park to chat to
thefluffyfae who was unable to make it as she had an event for the Wolves on the other half of the site.
Anyway in the end we worked out other things to do and
spiraltower very kindly stepped up to the plate to run a marriage ceremony for a different couple where he could have easily IC said no. In the end I think everyone had a very good time but it has left me alot of food for thought. In summary my own tips for if I run one again (and please do note this is an IF not a Will like last year)
1) If it is a player event make sure there are some players on the organising committee and you breif and delegate jobs to them before hand
2) do not take small child to set up.
3) Do not have you Ic and OOC in charge (which i have always said to other people when organising proper events and i would never do it for a plotted event)
4) Do not have an aspect of the event you can't cover yourself if things go wrong (music in this case) as it adds stress.
so if I run another mael player event I am more likely to organise it with a premis for someone else in charge while I am in the background only possibnly appearing as the comte if it is right at the time. Or be there as the comte and the night be someone else so the comte is IC able to be in the shadows organising things while someone else is leading the entertaining.
Finally a big thanks to Rachel who ,despiet habing a small baby, cooked alot of the food and also helped organise the dances and music and as ever as Lady Emelia was amazing, Sarah F for doing lots of driving, being massively supportive and preparing cds of music for me if we needed them and Copey (or santa as he is now apparantley known) for just being a god send in the kitchen and helping out Si my chef.
I haven't really covered much of what happened here but a couple of people have put up some comments so far.