Beechy and Jules: charity events at the Elms, Retford: 2015 CCU ball

Saturday 18 July 2015

In aid of Bassetlaw CCU

Amount raised: £1431

Running total to date: £33071

Once again we were late in deciding how to decorate the tables, what colours to have etc, etc. But as always happens, after a mad bit of brainstorming and a flurry of last minute phone calls it all started to come together and fall into place and everything started to look quite magnificent!

We'd heard the rumours about the possible closure of the function room so we decided to go all out and decorate the room with swags and chair covers - just in case it was our last one at the venue!

We were fund raising for the Coronary Care Unit at Bassetlaw hospital - the ward that Julie had been admitted to after her heart attack and the place where several other cousins and close family members have spent unexpected stays over the past few years! So we kept with our BHF theme of red. The table centres were tall vases of red roses and gypsophilia filled with coloured water beads which were lit by a small submersible light. These were set on a glass mirror sprinkled with twinkly beads and surrounded by tealights - all set upon red table runners.Everything looked looked gorgeous!

But that was the end result - the hard work had started several days prior to the event when it had been time to call in the workforce - Aunt Margaret!

As usual Aunt M had offered to help so under the watchful eye of Jules they started folding the napkins. I don't measure up to Julie's exacting standards of precision folding (I was sacked on a previous occasion) so I am excused from this exercise (and I think Aunt M might be on her final warning too but Jules may have forgotten about it!...)

Once the napkins were primped, fanned and folded to Julie's liking, Aunt M was allowed a break. Beechy says that she is very cheap to employ as he only pays her in regular cups of tea with an occasional sandwich!

The next morning it was down to the business of swagging the room and putting on the chair covers and sashes...

Then the name cards and small boxes of jelly beans (another donation - thank you!) were placed on the tables - and that was about as much as they could do before the big day!

So - when Mike and I arrived on Saturday most of the hard work was done and we just had the last minute things to finish.

Beechy and Jules put so much effort into organising this event with Beechy on ticket sales, organising raffle prizes, working out the seating plan, sorting the menu and all the general fetching, lifting and carrying (aided by brother Robin when needed). Julie does all the 'arty farty' stuff - decorating tickets, decorating napkin rings, buying all the bits and pieces for the table centres, writing out the place names etc, etc - and for a week or two before any event their house is filled with boxes of vases, beads, raffle prizes and anything else that is needed. They are a great team and we are all very grateful for all their effort and hard work - THANK YOU Beechy and Jules.

So - for the first time ever (I think!) - because Julie, Ian, Aunt Margaret and Robin had put in so much time and effort over the previous two days - we were able to finish everything in quite a leisurely fashion and have time to spare!

Mike (in his technical and photography role) set up the projector as Julie had decided that it would be nice to run the slideshow that had been prepared for the ball at our 10th event as it showed pictures from all our previous evenings. I had added more photos from the events after 2011 so it was as up to date as was possible - and I had also added pictures from the fancy dress evenings which some people had not seen. So around 1000 slides now - but nice for everyone to see!

And as we worked we fortified ourselves with smarties and fruit pastilles...

The Manhattans band members arrived to set up for the evening. As they had been the band who had first played for us 14 years previously they were quite interested to see the slide show and the pictures of themselves over the years!...

We had the usual great contributions for the raffle table - and as usual we forgot to take pictures of it with all the raffle prizes, many of which people brought with them when they turned up for the evening.

The foyer was set up with floating red heart shaped candles in a huge water filled vase and guests were given a glass of Bucks Fizz as they arrived.

And a photographer was on hand to take pictures.

The room looked absolutely beautiful..

We lit the candles, labelled our last minute raffle prizes and waited for our guests to arrive.

It was also Julie's birthday so we put balloons and presents on the table for her along with a jug of Pimms - modelled here by Sam!..

So our guests started to drift in and, after finding their tables on the seating plan, collecting their Bucks Fizz and having their pictures taken they settled down to chat and watch the slide show presentation ...

And they guessed the name of the hippo.. (that's the photo below - not the one of Julie and I above!...)

Some of our happy campers!...

So we all settled down to enjoy our meal - really delicious and beautifully presented...

It was nice to be able to welcome our friend Monica from Spain and some friends of the band who had come along to support them with their friends over from Australia - whose place name cards read Keith and Sheila - Julie didn't know their names!!...

So quite an international evening - I hope that they all enjoyed the sights and sounds of their little taste of England!...

One person on each table won a box of chocolates if they found the lucky heart tucked into the sash on the back of their chair...

And then it was down to the serious business of music and dancing - with the Manhattans playing for us just as they had done 14 years ago. And once again the interval disco sounds were provided by Beechy. So once again a HUGE thank you to them all!...

One game of 'stand up' bingo and then the raffle was drawn.

Many thanks to everyone who donated raffle prizes - it was magnificent as usual!

The Manhattans seem to have acquired a new band member...

It was a great evening and everyone was having lots of fun...

How to dance it 'Beechy style'...

After a bit of slow dancing at the end of the evening the Manhattans sang on...

And then - in one of the highlights of the evening Beechy sang solo - all for CHARIDEE of course (and he raised a fair bit of money for it!) - with his backing band The Tone Deafs!...