TABLE OF CONTENTS

Event Vision ..... 2-3

Event Day Timeline . 3-4
Next Day & Overall Timeline .... 4
Budget .. 5
Venue .... 5
Vendors/Equipment .... 6
Volunteers ..... 6
Event Communication .... 6-7
Research ... 8
Event Evaluation .. 8-9

EVENT VISION - CONCEPT, THEME, PURPOSE and THE 5 Ws

Thanksgiving is a holiday usually spent with family, so my friends and I like to celebrate our second family with
an annual potluck dinner the weekend before Thanksgiving day. I will be planning our 3rd annual Friendsgiving
event. This event will be an opportunity for us to show our friends how truly thankful we are that they are in our
lives. This will be a private event, and on an invitation-only basis. My friends, and their significant others (if they
so wish) will be invited. There will be about 25-30 guests attending the event, which will be taking place at the
house of my friends house, in Mar Vista, at 4188 Marcasel Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90066. The event will take place
Saturday, November 21, form 3:00pm to 11:00pm. Because of the Thanksgiving theme, we want to make the
event as warm and cozy as possible. We will use fall colors for decorations, and have string lights light up the
dinner area. Our dinner area will be outdoors, in the backyard, but the California November weather will allow
for us to comfortably eat outside without getting too cold. The Friendsgiving event will buffet and banquet style.
We will have banquet tables set up so it forms one long table, we will put canopies over the tables, and hand
string lights along the canopies for ambience and lighting. We will also have candles along the table for a
formal but cozy feeling.
Because this is a potluck event, all guests will bring at least one dish, and a six-pack of beer or bottle of wine.
Guests will sign up on a spreadsheet posted online for dishes that they would like to make, this is to ensure that
there is no overlap in dishes, and that all Thanksgiving Dinner staples are present. They will have the choice of
signing up for different courses, such as appetizers, main course, side dishes, and desserts. Guests are also
welcome to bring more than one dish if they so wish. The dishes will then be set-up in the kitchen and be
available for guests buffet style. Guests will arrive, and we will have an hour of appetizers and drinking, then

dinner will start. After dinner, we will start activities such as drinking games and karaoke. Once the event has
ended, or guests decide they want to leave, guests are free to serve themselves a take-home plate from all the
leftovers. Some of the equipment needed will be brought by guests and equipment that we are lacking will be
rented from a party rental company. All guests will also donate $3 to cover the costs of table and chair rentals, as
well as the cost of table covers and take away boxes.
My objectives with this event include staying within the budget, guest satisfaction, excellent food, an effective
communication plan and a smooth planning and organization process.

DAY-OF TIMELINE
9:00am

Take turkey out of fridge

9:30am

Make pumpkin cheesecake

11:00am

Put turkey in the oven

12:00pm

Call to confirm pick-up time with Aby Party Rental

1:00pm-2:00pm

Marcasel residents to clean 1st floor, reorganize furniture to make

room for activities

2:00pm

Take turkey out of oven

3:00pm

Arrive at venue, Marcasel house

3:15pm

Pick up tables and chairs at Aby Party Rental

3:30pm

Set up dinner tables, canopies, lights and buffet tables

4:00pm

Guests begin to arrive and place their dishes on kitchen tables

4:30pm

Guests can begin to serve themselves and seat themselves at the

dinner table

5:00pm

All guests at dinner table say what they are thankful for

8:00pm

Dinner ends and activities begin

11:00pm-12:00am

Event ends/clean up begins

NEXT DAY TIMELINE

10:00am

Help Marcasel residents do last of clean up

10:30am

Pack up rental tables and chairs and bring them back to Aby Party
Rental

OVERALL TIMELINE
September 21

Create Facebook Event

September 21

Send Save-The-Date

October 31

Make sure all guests are invited

November 4

Make sign-up spreadsheet and post on Facebook event

November 12

Check spreadsheet and make sure everyone has signed up

November 16

Confirm all attendees and call rental company to place order for tables and
chairs

November 19

Post remind on Facebook for what everyone needs to bring

BUDGET
3rd Annual Friendsgiving Putluck Dinner
PROJECTED EXPENSES
Item description

Projected

Actuals

Equipment
Tables ($8 x 3)

24.00

$24.00

Chairs ($1 x 26)

26.00

$26.00

Table clothes ($3 x 3)

9.00

$10.00

Take-away boxes

15.00

$10.00

Subtotal

Total Expenses

74.00

74.00

$70.00

$70.00

All costs will be covered by friends. Each guests will bring food, alcohol and donate $3 for table/chair rentals,
and other expenses. With 28 guests attending, we had a budget of $84.00.

VENUE
Our venue is located at 4188 Marcasel Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90066. This is a private home where my friends
Chris, Sam and Tommy currently live. I chose to have our event at the Marcasel house due to its size. None of our
other friends had a house that could fit the set-up I envisioned. Instead of setting up the banquet tables in the
living room, we will use the backyard as our dinner area, which is much larger, and will make for a more
comfortable space .

VENDORS & EQUIPMENT

Equipment

Vendors

Tables

Aby Party Rental, Mar Vista, CA

Chairs

Aby Party Rental, Mar Vista, CA

Table clothes

Party City

Styrofoam take-out boxes

Costco

VOLUNTEERS
1.

Samantha Cardenas - volunteer everything

2.

Will Eberts - volunteer everything

3.

Chris Wonder - volunteer set-up & clean-up

4.

Tommy Hessenius - volunteer set-up & clean-up

5.

Andrew Pita - volunteer to pick-up & drop-off rentals

6.

Everyone - volunteer to bring extra string lights, chairs, tables, and candles

EVENT COMMUNICATION
Save the date

Facebook Event Invitation

Spreadsheet

RESEARCH
My friends and I have been celebrating Friendsgiving for the past two years, and try to make it better each year.
The first year, we had a perfect venue and a great turn out. My friend Lindsays house had living room large
enough to accommodate our 30 seat banquet table set-up, and a perfect counter area to arrange the food for a
buffet style serving. The kitchen was also big enough to accommodate any last minute cooking or warm-ups
needed for the dishes. The only issue we had that year was the heat, with 30 people filling up the bottom floor, it
got pretty hot and uncomfortable, even after all windows had been opened.
The second year, we held it at the Marcasel house for the first time. Although the house is big and a great venue
for the celebration, the way the bottom floor is sectioned did not allow us to do a banquet style dinner set-up
like the previous year. Instead we arranged the tables in the living room the best way we could and had them in
more of a square formation. All guests were able to get seated, but it did not have the same feel because not
everyone could see each other and talk across the long table like we had the year before. In addition, we had a
shortage of chairs that year and had to use some couches for seating.

EVENT EVALUATION & ANALYSIS

The event was a huge success and everyone had a great time. All 28 guests came with what they promised to
bring, and more. Budget goals were met, and all excess money collected from guests will be put into a party
fund for future events. There was much less wasted food than in previous years, thanks to the take-away boxes,
and the set-up in the backyard provided for a more comfortable, yet sophisticated dinner set-up.

One issue we encountered was the re-warming of the food. Because some guests arrived before others, some of
the dishes got cold, and there wasnt enough oven and stove space to accommodate all the dishes. In future
years we could look into using food warmers, or catering dishes so that the food stays nice and warm until all
guests are ready to be seated.