UnValentines Party in Sac at Social Nightclub -- 2/6/09

This was our first party at Social Nightclub (1000 K Street, above the Cosmopolitan Club). I thought the party went really well. The place had a nice ambiance and well controlled sound and lighting. A few people started coming in at 6PM and others at 6:30pm. That was quite an early start for us. Usually we start our parties at 7:30pm or 8pm. I was disappointed to see a few leaving at 8:30pm because there was a lot more fun coming later in the evening.

Mixer Game
The nut and bolt mixer game was a lot of fun with strong participation. Men got a bolt as a game piece and the ladies got a nut. When you found that your game piece would "mate" with yours, you got in line with your match to collect a raffle ticket and to get another bolt or nut. So many people were finding a match that the line got rather long. But this didn't seem to be too much of a problem because they seemed to enjoy chatting with each other while standing in line. To speed things up, I jumped into the line and started distributing raffle tickets.

Music
We had to keep music level rather low at first because of the theatre downstairs at this location. Around 9:15pm we 4 awarded prizes. We awared a...

- Nice gift wrapped bottle of wine,
- Package of RBC TripleFX (sustained energy, stamina and mental alertness drink in powdered form).
- $40 in cash
- VIP booth from Social (valued at $350)

"Get the dancing started," a cute, tall Asian lady said to me rather sharply. "I'm getting bored," she added as she turned on her heels and vanished into the crowd. I thought of perhaps asking her to dance, but she was gone in a flash. Wow, I wondered. Is this what I get for organizing this party?

It was about the time that Social would allow me to turn the music up, so I did. Gradually people started dancing. I was happy to see that the dance floor was full by around 9:30pm.

Parking Ticket Validation. So the timing of the dancing was an issue. Another issue at the party was parking validation. I was told that everyone could validate their parking tickets. A mistake I made was not getting complete information about when and how validation was to be done. It turned out people were to get their ticket validated from the cashier upon leaving the party. However, the person responsible for validating tickets didn't show up until 9:30pm. Some ladies were tired at 9PM and wanted to go home, but there was nobody to validate their tickets. "You advertised validation and you should be able to provide it now," I was told in an angry tone. After my explanation about not being ready to validation yet was not well-received, I met the challenge by refunding the amount of the validation.

Overall, though, the party was a success. Later, a number of people told me they enjoyed the party --even the lady who had "rebuked me" earlier.

It was great to get a friendly email like this one: "Wonderful party you threw last night...thank you! It was my first. Great people, ambiance, and loved the nut and screw introductory event." -- Denise

Free Drink Samples
Ladies in white dresses were distributing free Malibu drink samples and putting Malibu necklaces around those who got the samples. I was too busy to partake, but will definitely make a point of doing it next time. Although it was planned to have samples until 9:30pm, the samples ran out earlier because of the sizable number of party goers.

The Band
Although I thought the Spazmatics band was to start at 9:30, they really didn't start until about 10pm. They played in an outdoor (covered) area while the DJ continued playing inside. The Spazmatics Band had a great act. Click here to see a sample Spazmatics video. Their outrageous dance choreography was really fun to watch and they sounded great. There was a wide range of music from 80's to current hits. All the band members were proud nerd looking males. I was amazed to hear the main vocalist capturing, nearly exactly, the qualities of Madonna voice as he sang "Like a Virgin." Next time I'll bring a video camera! "Take 3 steps forward," the band leader called out. The happy crowd danced and waved hands and moved closer. "I couldn't stop dancing" one lady said after the party

Photographer
De'Boraha of flashphoto set up a nice booth in the outdoor area. Party goers could get their picture taken and the photo immediately printed. De'Boraha got some great candid shots as well as posed photos of Spasmatics band members, and I hope to post them soon.

Mito Magazine
Mito Magzine, an upscale Spanish magazine, was covering this event so we can probably expect to see some pictures from their photographer as well.

I'll add some photos to this blog later.