Dress for Success!

Posted on Mar 5 2014 - 11:37am by Jessi Meehan

 

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Practically Perfect Planner receives  a lot of inquiries as to just what we do, and how we do it. What’s really exciting, is when people see what we do, and they ASK FOR HELP!  Our event bells go off, and we love to jump right in; giving back and helping others plan a “Practically Perfect” Event, whether it’s a birthday, a shower, a wedding, a fundraiser, or even a non-profit event!

We felt very fortunate to be approached by Shelli from Dress for Success, to help  with their upcoming Dedication Ceremony on Feb. 26th, 2014.  What is Dress for Success, you ask? Well…

“Dress for Success Southern Nevada provides professional clothing and counseling for each of our women. When a client secures a job interview, we provide her with one free business suit, as well as the appropriate accessories, footwear, and cosmetic/toiletry items. When she successfully lands the job, she returns to Dress for Success for up to one week’s worth of business attire. In addition to suiting, Dress for Success offers women a number of programs to help them find and retain employment. Dress for Success serves job-ready women by referral only.”

You can also learn more about DFS here: www.dressforsuccesssouthernnevada.org

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We couldn’t have been more pleased when Shelli emailed us her request! Her email got our minds rolling,  as we went back and forth, we came up with a plan! Her email simply read:

“Hi Brenda,

I’m wondering if you might have a little spare time to coordinate a small (no more than 25-30 people) dedication ceremony for Dress for Success at our boutique, set to be February 26….We’ve just secured the date and are beginning to plan, but we sure could use your experience and benefit from your guidance and connections to help us put on a delightful event. It is planned to be a media event first @ 10 am (where we thank our sponsors who have donated thousands of dollars to renovate our conference room into a high tech career center; then move into an informal tour of boutique as people come and go until around 4pm.

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Shelli”

We had a few meetings, and worked as team to get a timeline together. When planning an event such as this with a team, it’s important to create an “Action Timeline”. 3P Event Basic questions are always a good starting point:

  1. What is the occasion? –  A Career Center Dedication Ceremony
  2. Where will the event take place? –  DFS Boutique
  3. When is the event? – Wednesday 2/26/14
  4. How Many Attendees? Approx. 50 (for ceremony and open house)
  5.  Will there be Invitations and when should people RSVP? E-vites + phone Follow up
  6. Are you working with a Theme? “Blueprint for Success”
    What is the objective of this event? To thank major sponsors and create media awareness to career center.
  7. What food and drinks will be served? A sponsored catered event with breakfast items, fruit, beverages, and snacks.
  8. What sort of Décor is being used or created? – themed balloons, blueprints for table décor, storyboards on easels, and a silk scarf ribbon cutting.
  9. Do we need a program or brochure printed? Yes.
  10. Does this event require Signage? No.

With a professional event, additional questions such as: a media plan, a volunteer plan, and a ceremony agenda were important elements.

Those are just a few of the items on our Working Action Agenda that we created! We’ve worked through it, met with the team, and we are in great shape with less than a week to go. One more conference call to fine tune and we will he ready. We know that the Dress for Success’ Dedication Ceremony will be an incredible event! We can’t wait to share with you more details, photos of the event and the “sure to be a success” final outcome! Stay tuned for more as we help Dress for Success “event it” along the way.

Here are a few photos of the Dedication Ceremony, and the DFS CEO and Board of Directors: including Olivia Fierro of Fox 5 News! 

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Photo Courtesy of Dirk Westfall)

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(Photo Courtesy of Jessi Meehan)
A few custom keepsakes for each attendee! Including blue jelly beans, coordinating salt water taffy and cellophaned up with ribbon and a Dress For Success  card…all secured with adorable miniature wooden hangers and clothespins.

3P Event Basic: Favors with a matching purse on a vintage silver tray was a useful yet elegant centerpiece for our registration table.

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Delicious, delightful and elegant catering done by A Catered Affair.

*The catering was provided by Chef Dan  and Mike of “A Catered Affair”. Their professional and artistic presentation very much added to excitement and success of our event. Check out their website for all of your catering needs (You will love them as much as we did!): www.acateredaffair.co

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The official “ribbon” cutting! Of course we used sensational blue themed scarves, the “Practically Perfect” ribbon cutting accessory.

Practically Perfect Planner concentrates on helping our followers, mainly with personal event planning tips and joys. We wanted to share this experience, because we thought you would enjoy finding out about DFS as we have. Most of us find ourselves sometimes being a part of a business, corporation, or on profit event – as you can see, many of the same 3P event basics apply!

If you’d like to get involved and help Dress for Success, you can donate HERE, and you can find more information on volunteer opportunities HERE!

So, stay tuned and let us know when you need help “eventing it” in the near future!