Ramblings of a Martian

52 days.
86 days.

Guh.

So, I just got off the phone with the Palace Ballroom. Amy's already out for the year, so I talked to her boss. Got the available dates. They're now holding 23 March for me. That's a friday. And yes, it's in March. So, SOMEBODY, not to mention any names, is now OBLIGED to find a way to make it to the party.

So, here's the thing.
Space rental: $1200.
Catering: We were quoted a general estimate of $40-$50 per head. With 100 people, that's $5000 for the food alone.*
Booze: You pay for what's actually consumed. I'm estimating $2k for that.
Staffing: 20% of food+booze, generally.

Then there's also the cake, any decorations or other stuff.

And, of course, my Coulton budget and my helping-people-fly-in-who-otherwise-couldn't-afford-it budgets are /gone/.

*Now, it's Tom Douglas, so it'll be damned good food, and certainly worth the money. But, that's pretty much what my initial /total budget/ was. That's what I was /hoping/ to be able to spend total. Alexis (the person I talked to today) pointed out that, you know, it's a tom douglas facility. If I'm not there for the food, why spend the money to be there in the first place. Which was only slightly condescending, the way she put it. ::) They're willing to work with a budget, I should think about it and send her some numbers to play with. But, even with that, it still probably wouldn't get below $35 per head.

If I had a good idea of how many people would actually be attending, that would help. Knowing it'll only be 50 instead of 100, or knowing it'll be 125 instead of 75, would allow me to determine what it'll actually /cost/ a little better. But only 43 people responded, out of 193 pre-invites sent. I suppose I could just put a cap on attendance. First <n> who RSVP yes can come. That would suck, tho. Especially for those of you who suck about RSVPing in a timely manner. (tho, on the other hand, maybe it would help teach some of you to respond faster. .. no, probably not.)

Ok. So. I wanted to get the official invites out by the end of the year. I don't have a firm contract, and won't until after the first. I don't want to go ahead and declare that this is what I'm doing until I know I can actually afford it, which I won't know until I can go a couple rounds with them over the food budget. So, invites will not be going out until january.

Meanwhile, I'm looking at my savings account and thinking of what I could do with the money if I said fuck it all and cancelled the party. Unfortunately, I've hyped this thing so much, I don't feel that I can really do that.
I could also find a cheaper venue. There's the bathhouse at golden gardens, I suppose. Oh, no, 'cause it has to be reserved a year in advance. Damn. Nevermind.
Sigh.


Fuck it, I'm gonna go play WiiSports.

I also need someone who can play the violin to perform Voltaire's When You're Evil at my 16th Birthday Party

A new poll, to help choose what we do for my 16th birthday party. Only two options so far, but I'll add more as they're suggested. As with the name poll, you can change your votes as often as you want.

http://www.martian.cx/party.cgi