Belle of the Ball?

Friends and family members have often heard me say that if and when I ever get married I do not want to have a big wedding. I like to have small gatherings at my home, holiday parties, sometimes even costume parties. Well, ok, I’ve said it; I do enjoy parties. But planning an end of the year Ball for over 600 people, to me, was almost like planning a wedding. For the past three months I’ve been meeting with my “event planning” committee (we elected co-chairs and sub-committee chairs way back in September) on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. We had to create a budget, select a theme, shop for decorations, design, assemble and deliver invitations, create publicity, set ticket prices, choose a diverse and tasty menu, coordinate music venues, create a slideshow, line up performers, sell tickets, assign passengers to tables, schedule two dinner seatings, a cocktail hour, the champagne toast, a dessert buffet, photos with the Captain…. and try to get ourselves ready for the Ball - which for me meant a trip to the salon and trying to remember how to tie my bright pink sari again!

As soon as I arrived back on the ship from Spain, I was back to work, with only two days to tie up all the loose ends for the ball. I was up half the night trying to work out the logistics, checking and cross checking the lists; did we really order over 400 filet mignons? Would the entertainers show up on time, would we have enough time to decorate between the end of class and the start of the ball? Would tickets be delivered to each cabin in time? There were last minute passengers who decided they now wanted to buy tickets, there were a few people who didn’t like their seating arrangements and requested another table, vegetarians who wanted to know why we were serving eggplant instead of tofu, and I was running around trying to make everyone happy. Do I sound like a bride? Fortunately I did have two fabulous co-chairs and a great committee of students working just as hard on the Ball as I was, and in the end, the event turned out to be simply fabulous!

Seeing everyone dressed up in their Indian Saris and fancy evening dresses or suits they had made in Vietnam, walk into the beautifully decorated dining room we’d spent hours planning and executing, made me smile. Everyone looked so beautiful, and the entire ship looked amazing in our Bollywood theme – the crew even made us a giant chocolate Taj Mahal! The rooms were brightly colored and adorned with saris, Indian throw pillows and colorful decorative hats. When I finally got my sari on, and made it to the second seating in costume, I was so excited to see everyone that I went around to each table snapping photos. Someone at my table asked, “Where’s Danelle”? To which another friend responded, “She’s being the hostess with the mostest”. Seriously, had I known I would have my wedding on this ship with over 600 guests, I would have registered at Bloomingdales! Now I have a bunch of photos of people eating dinner. What will I do with those?

All kidding aside, it was a fabulous event that brought together an entire community. We raised $5,000 after all of our expenses, to donate to the Students of Service Organization, the same group that coordinated the auction, and raised over $20,000. We’re now in the process of choosing several charity organizations to sponsor, and we even donated the saris to an adult passenger on board who works with underprivileged girls in America. I know I felt like a princess all dressed up in my sari, and if it will put smiles on the faces of young girls back home, then by all means, let them play dress up and learn a little about Indian culture! There is a great deal of fundraising happening on the ship; we are now in the middle of a shipwide drive for the alumni association, which seeks to sponsor low income students, and subsidize tuition for all. To many of the students on board this ship, an extra $30 or so that they can donate is the price they’d pay for a pedicure on the ship. But to most students in America $20,000 to $30,000 for one semester is a price much higher than they can possibly afford. With any luck we’ll be able to raise enough money to sponsor those same young girls dressed up in saris to go on Semester at Sea someday.