Contact Brampton Grange on 01604 844 717

info@bramptongrange.net

www.bramptongrange.net

Please don’t forget to mention The Prom Organiser when booking!

Next week we will be sending out a great Poster for your Notice Board to let you know when the all important Prom Committee Meeting is to be held.

Let us know when you see it on your notice board and you will be entered into a competition for itunes vouchers!

Spread the word!

Prom Fayre

Albrighton Hall Hotel and Spa, in Shrewsbury held their first Prom Fayre on October 20th. The evening was a great success with over 50 local girls modeling an amazing array of prom dresses from Jessica’s Bridal in Frankwell and Shropshire Designer Grace Barby of Grace and Glory.

Viv Kelly Dance school also performed 2 routines one in amazing funky tights from Thighs the Limit based in Mardol, Shrewsbury. There were lots of exhibitors with a great choice of accessories and jewellery from Masque Boutique, MeMe Mode and Solo Jewellery all local independent companies.

The boys weren’t left out as 2 local boys modeled suits from Skopes a new menswear concession located in House of Fraser.Local hairdresser Claire Greenhow was on hand not only to do all the models hair but also continued to show the audience lots of great prom hairstyles.

Brian Fisher Photography and Malcolm Whittall local cartoonist,amused us all.The atmosphere was extremely party-like with one of the suites dressed as an actual prom night,complete with helium balloons supplied by the Giant Party shop,disco, fantastic lighting, a lifesize James Bond model and even giant Oscars, supplied by Solid Gold entertainment.

Get me to the Prom on time!

 The theme didn’t just stop inside the hotel, there were vehicles from 2XL Limousines and a Vintage bus from Bolton's, and even a Red London double decker. 

 The raffle raised over £170 for the Breast Cancer Campaign, first prize was a Prom dress,which was won by a lady who booked her Summer ball at the Albrighton Hall Hotel on the evening,she was absolutely delighted.

Fiona Clarke, Business Development Co-Ordinator for the hotel said “ We really wanted to showcase all the local talent we have and give the teenagers some inspiration, the girls had a fabulous time and looked fantastic,the feedback has been so positive, I was even asked if I would do another one this year, we will definitely be making it an annual event, so date for your diary 19th October 2012.”

For more information contact Fiona 01939 291732

Hello,
I organised my 6th form leavers prom last June and used your website for advice. It was very helpful so thought I'd mention some things I think you could add as a sort of thank you
Personally, I'd love to see a "6th form/ college prom" section. There are just as many of these as there are proms for after GCSEs, in my area at least, but the main difference is that most people are over 18. The biggest problem I had was that there was a mix, with 2 months worth being under 18. Obviously everyone wanted a bar but many venues rejected us straight out as they refused to have a mix. One club accepted us and I told them around 16% would be minors. On the night it turned out many guys had brought girls in the year below as +1s. This led to around 30% being under 18 and the club stopped letting them in. This led to a huge fiasco outside and I had to get the owner there as the manager was no help. The owner showed up in a land rover with what looked like personal security… a bit mafia esq! After a while of shouting from both sides and pretty intense bargaining, he offered to hire in extra bouncers and split the club into two areas, one of which under 18s couldn't go.

This happened because I failed to get a written contract of all their terms and conditions. I had written confirmation of our booking but nothing about their policy on what happened. I understood that under 18s were a problem but his verbal agreement that it would be workable and us paying extra for more bouncers (which he didn't actually provide until it all went to hell) convinced me it would be fine.   Check out venue tips here

Anyway, this is a long winded story of how my prom went wrong and I think it would be great if you had a page stressing the importance of drinking laws and the rules and tips on how to play it safe.

My advice would be:
1) When taking tickets, calculate exactly how many under 18s there are going to be.
2) Make it perfectly clear how many there will be and keep the venue informed throughout the ticket sales process.
3) If the club give strict numbers of minors, don't sell under 18 +1 tickets until everyone else has had a chance to buy them. That way, under 18s in the leaving year have priority.
4) Get a written signed contract stating the venues backup plans, i.e., what has to happen for everyone to be kicked out/stop letting people in?

That was my main issue and one that I think other 6th form prom teams would find very useful.

Another small issue I had was with photographers. The school IT guy also runs a photography company and he quoted us £350 to show up and take set shots with a screen where students would have to pay around £10 online for prints  and an extra £700 for someone to take roaming photos and give them to us on a disk to put on the Facebook group.
I thought that was way too much so I paid them for the set shots but hired a friend with my mums SLR camera for £100 to take the roaming photos and give them to me. This was fine until the professional guy found out and got angry at me threatening to take me to court over it… clearly not a very nice guy if he was willing to take money from students. Anyway, perhaps making it clear that photographers don't like to have other companies there as well would be helpful.

Other than that, things that worked well:
1) I took £350 cash with me to buy rounds of 50 shots, line them along the bar and get everyone there to take them all at once. Didn't end up doing this annoyingly, due to the under 18 nightmare!
2) Phoning taxi companies and getting lots of discount cards to put on the door and telling them when the prom ended.
3) Buying bottle openers with the school name on it (people loved this)

Anyway, sorry for the long email! Just thought my experiences might be of use!

Kind Regards,

Steve

View details here ( www.ukpromshow.co.uk)  with a list of exhibitors, links to exhibitor’s web sites. Directions to the venues and also a page to register for free tickets.

Admission is FOC & guests will be greeted with a complimentary non alcohol cocktail & an A5 Prom Brochure.

 If you can think of anything you would like us to include – let us know at the end of this post.

Free entry and 500 free goodgy bags ups for grabs!

If you're looking forward to your school prom, you're in the right place!

In case you're new around here, let me tell you about some of the things we talked about last academic year and what we have lined up for this year.

And I'll also tell you about our juicy monthly prize draw on Facebook.

Before that though, don't forget to download your FREE prom organiser e-book by clicking on the link at the top, or the button over there on the right or just by clicking here. You go ahead, I can wait.

So, what can you read right here, right now to get you up to speed on all things prom-tacular?

Posts for prom committee peeps

From whether you're the right kind of person to be on a prom committee to the nuts and bolts of what the people on a prom committee actually do, this is the section you need to read if you want to be right in the thick of organising your school prom.

See all the prom committee posts

Fundraising and finance for proms

Not the most fun or glamorous part I know, but still important. Find posts on prom budgets, cashflow and how to manage it all in the prom finance section.

Organising the prom

Once you've got the committee and money plans all sorted, it's time to think about your prom theme, key people like your prom photographer and how to entertain your prom guests.

Enjoying your school prom

Let's face it, there are some bits that you might be worried about, such as the whole getting a prom date thing. Well, we've already given ten romantic ways to ask someone to be your prom date, wondered whether you even need a prom date anyway and given some tips on how NOT to get a prom date. No doubt there will be more to come…

See all of the "Enjoying your prom" posts.

Looking fab for your prom

And how could we have a prom blog without advice on how to look your most gorgeous on the night?

One of our most popular posts is about choosing the best prom dress design for your body shape, and there is also one about rather fabulous corsage bracelets too.

That leads me rather neatly onto what's coming soon: the first will be a post about which colour suits you best, and I'll be doing a series on different prom themes to help you with some ideas.

Is there anything you want to know about? If you have a prom related question, simply drop me a line and let me know.

Facebook

We hang out on Facebook too, come and join us and you'll automatically be entered into a monthly prize draw for iTunes vouchers (or vouchers for something else if you don't have an iPod). Find us on Facebook here and click on "like" at the top – we'd love to get to know you.

And don't forget your e-book!

Happy new school year!

Em x

The Prom Organiser wordsmith