Holiday Ball

Jared's work has an option where every paycheck, he gives up a little bit of money to participate in a group as part of his work that host fun activities throughout the year for little to no money. Every year, they have a holiday ball and the option to stay at the hotel for a discount. It's how we did the cruise two years ago.

Anyways, after last years ball, there was a lot of discussion about how disappointed people were with the photographer at the event. We had offered to do it but were turned down. Well, this year, they took our offer seriously and we agreed to take the job.

The original plan was that we would do the whole thing for $1000 and give each patron a photo print of choice. Right before the event, we got mixed signals and realized, we weren't going to be paid the original amount and that we were expected to sell a la cart. We were ticked off because we do not have a merchant account so we decided to go into it hoping for the best and worked it that we would hand out business cards there and let them choose what they want and order online.

We had troubles finding a babysitter for the night. No one could watch the kids and all of a sudden, Jared's parents rearranged to be able to at their own desire. I also had the brilliant idea that I was going to wear my new red blouse to the party, but needed a formal black skirt to go with it. I decided in a crazy psychotic moment that I wouldn't find the right one in time so I decided a couple days prior to make my own skirt from a pattern I liked.

I picked up the fabric and the day before, I started to cut, mark and sew my skirt. To make a long story short, I stayed up until midnight to complete the bulk of it and then the night of the ball, finished hemming it an hour prior. I was so proud of myself and loved the look and feel of it. All of you and the ward could probably tell since I wore it several weeks in a row to church ;0)

I had a lot of fun taking pictures and eating the good food that night. I was super tired and kind of ticked off that we decided to leave before getting a chance to slow dance with my hubby, but it was a fantastic date night for the both of us to do what we like to do and have fun together.

P.S. We only made just under $300 in sales for the night and it was depressing. We definitely learned a lot from the gig and would do things a lot differently and demand payment if we ever did it again.

This is me posing while testing lighting and background