So my challenge to organise a Christmas event for 100 people at $20 per head all started when burger boy suggested that it’d be awesome if we had a joint Christmas party now that our Crust is one of fifteen WA stores.
Without much thought about Perth prices or how close we were to Christmas, I thought it was a great idea so we put it to our WA Master Franchisor who was also super keen. I think my initial Christmas party “pitch” may have suggested a budget of $15 per person to get it over the line (what was I thinking!). It wasn’t until I started enquiring at venues and doing the maths that I realised it was going to be a VERY tough foodie challenge. The last event I organised was at our own store and before that was burger boy and I’s wedding which was a lot more than $20 per person but thinking this was a more casual affair I didn’t blink at the budget difference.
So with a $20 per person budget I had to incorporate the cost of venue hire, entertainment and either food or drinks (each store will BYO food or drinks). We also have a number of team members under 18 attending so bars were out as most bars require a parent / legal guardian to be present.
So now a week from our Christmas event I am excited to say we have booked our venue and I have managed to make it work at $25 per person which is $5 more than budgeted but close enough!
Our lovely Crust neighbour Daniel Gallop who owns Brumby’s in Mt Lawley came to the rescue. After my pre Christmas high tea at Rochelle Adonis last Sunday, I bumped into Daniel (as you do when you are neighbours) and we got chatting. I told Daniel my dilemma of needing to organise a Christmas party for 100 people with a $20 pp budget which needed to include venue hire in under 2 weeks. Daniel who also owns Showcase Catering said he’d help me out and make my small budget work. Daniel spent a good few days contacting a bunch of venues he regularly caters for and found us a venue that would let us BYO our drinks (not an easy task!).
I’m excited to say that we’ll be holding our Crust WA Christmas party at the gorgeous Swan River Rowing Club‘s balcony in Mt Pleasant. It was a $500 hire fee, we’ll be bringing our own drinks and Showcase Catering will be serving us home-made food over a two-hour period. As for entertainment, last week I met Blake Ellis, a Six Thousand freelance writer that used to be one of the Print Hall chef’s who happens to do magic card tricks and photography on the side! So after a cocktail or two at The Laneway Lounge‘s bar school launch, it was decided Blake will be entertaining us! Music I am still working on, so if you know of anyone who is happy to entertain us for crust pizza send them my way.
So with a week to go, I think we’re all set. Showcase Catering is coming up with our Christmas party menu this week – I’m thinking their panna cotta might have to be on the menu…
Big thank you to all of you who came up with creative ways of making my small budget stretch and those who even offered to help contact venues for me. You foodies are awesome!
In case you are looking to find a way to make your budget stretch, here’s some of the Perth venues and ideas we looked into…
North Perth Bowling Club was our second choice. These guys hire out their venue for $300 (plus $50 for cleaning if you don’t want to do it yourself) and BBQs for $20. Drinks are some of the cheapest around town. So we were thinking about putting on a bar tab for our team and BYO food. Their max capacity is 100 and best way to book is to email North Perth Bowling Club (northperthbowling[at]bigpond.com.au – replace [at] with @). The team here is also really friendly. This would have also fitted perfectly into our $20 per person budget.
Some of the Perth bars I looked into which could have worked if we didn’t have any underage staff attending included the Charles Hotel & Rosemount Hotel which both have beer gardens. The Charles Hotel had $10 pp per hour drink package and no hire fee but they do charge $250 to hire security to oversee the function. The Rosemount Hotel have a Beer Garden Bocce Court and Beer Deck which would have been cool. Venue hire ranged from $200 – $300 but even if we didn’t have any underage staff the The Rosemount Hotel beer court/gardens couldn’t fit all 100 of us.
Having a BBQ at a local park / hall within the City of Vincent was the option I looked into but the council require a minimum 3 weeks notice for approvals. I couldn’t take the chance so this wasn’t an option this time round but I’m thinking of putting in an application now for our Crust’s 2nd birthday party in January.
The lovely Yvonne of Red Hot Spatula offered her cooking studio and catering services which would have been perfect if I wasn’t looking for a more central location.
foodie cravings facebook fan Gosia offered to help us out at The Old Brewery if we were to hold a week day breakfast event. This would have been perfect if we weren’t all such night owls.
Now that our venue and catering is locked in, the count down to our event and Christmas begins!
