WBTB Officer's Gala

Life has been busy, busy, busy!!!  With the holidays in full force, we seem to have something planned constantly.  In the past few weeks, there was one major event that basically controlled my life.  It was the final planning of our FIRST EVER Wives Behind the Badge "A Night in Blue" Officer's Gala.  I have never in my life been so incredibly excited and stressed out at the same time.  We had been planning this event for months and I couldn't wait to see how it all came together.

We spent literally months just trying to get our name out there so people knew who we were and what we did...let's face it, it's pointless to have a gala and no one show up!  We recruited volunteers, we spoke at a zillion law enforcement events, we found sponsors, we got raffle donations and silent auction donations...just to name a few things.  We were so incredibly blessed because a very nice Hilton hotel in the area donated a ball room to us, gave us a great rate on our buffet, offered discounted rates for those that wanted to stay the night and even donated several items to our silent auction and raffle.  They were amazing!!!

The biggest stressor was getting enough people to come and actually fill up the room!  Y'all I can't even tell you how many nights of sleep I lost thinking about this one detail.  We booked a room with enough tables for 100...we had over 80-something people attend.  We were thrilled!!!  Not only are we a brand new auxiliary committee, but we had to hold this event on a Thursday night AND this was the very first WBTB gala ever done....we had a lot against us. 

I won't go through the entire day, but it was wonderful.  Absolutely wonderful.  My friend Nicole and I ran errands in the morning then went to get our hair did.  Below are some pics from my hairdresser.  I was so in love with my hair...can you believe it only took her about 15 mins to do mine?!

 

 Nicole's beautiful hair!!!

After our hair was beautiful, we headed over to the hotel to finish setting up and to get ready (while drinking champagne to calm our nerves of course).  My closest friends all stayed the night at the hotel and we had co-joining rooms...which only made for more fun.  Also my college friend (also a police officer) was our DJ and he just happens to be married to one of my very best friends since childhood.  I was thrilled I got to spend the evening with the 2 of them!

Everyone had a blast....the food was awesome, the music was great, the decorations and blue lighting were gorgeous and we even were able to make a nice chunk of change that will help us assist LEO's and their families in their time of need.  We even had a news crew find out about the event and come out to interview our Director!

I walked away from that event with an even closer group of LE friends and family.  I haven't heard one bad thing about the event, with the exception of it being on a Thursday.  Lucky for us, the Hilton has already given us a date for next year (a Friday!!!) and has agreed to the same cost and terms as this year.  We're already planning our 2nd annual gala for 2013 and expect it to be even bigger and better than this one!!!

Our professional pics aren't done yet, so you have to deal with the few cell phone shots I have.  I'll post the amazing ones when our photographers are done editing them!

 Is this not an amazing shot?!  

Our DJ set up blue lights around the ballroom, it was awesome.