Ever wonder what goes into planning a live event? Like, how did you choose that hotel, or what was the deciding factor for the activities that take place during the event? I was lucky enough to be Alice’s Right Hand Woman during all the various stages of planning for our recent ScrapHappy Reunion in Portland and I’d like to take you behind the curtain if I may.
In case you’re new here, we recently hosted our annual live get together – what we call our Family Reunion – in Portland OR. Misty and Lindsy both wrote amazing posts about their experiences which are well worth a read if you haven’t already. We meet via Zoom 5 times a month and for those that attend regularly, you really start to get to know one another during those sessions. The in person reunion then has the feel of a family get together. You know, with pretty paper!
But it takes a bit more planning than calling up cousin Louise and inviting her over for a barbeque!
That being said, getting family members involved from the beginning is key to a successful event. Here are a few of ours that helped out.
Cousin Karen a.k.a Travel Advisor Extraordinaire
Once we decide on a location for our next reunion, we need to secure a hotel space. That space needs to be affordable AND have meeting rooms big enough to accommodate us. Our Woman on the Ground (Misty in this case) can do a bit of leg work to give us a short list, but it also involves a lot of web research.
And the skills of our in-house Travel Expert – Karen Fitting from Marvelous Mouse Travels. She specializes in Disney packages as her day job, but her expertise is invaluable when it comes to finalizing a hotel. And her patience! Oh my goodness, the lists of hotels we kept sending her as each one we looked at failed to meet all our needs. Thank you doesn’t seem like sufficient enough words to express how much we appreciated her perseverance.
In case you’re curious, she’s currently researching hotels for our 2026 Reunion (don’t ask, my lips are sealed!)
Cousin Misty a.k.a Our Woman on the Ground
Misty has already shared her memories and experiences being the point person in Portland. Technically she lives in Vancouver WA not Portland OR, but they are across the river from each other and it ended up that the hotel in Vancouver was the best fit so her local knowledge really came into play.
She arranged our field trip to a local scrapbook store where we got to have a private shopping experience and do two make and takes. She shuttled Alice around picking up all the last minute items like t-shirts and snacks. And she served as the delivery address for packages from Alice. Check out her blog post for all that information. And she taught a fantastic watercolour class. I have dabbled with a few watercolour techniques in the past but Misty really broke it down and made things so easy.
Check out my page – a grid of colour washes. Love it and will definitely repeat this design in the future.
Cousin Lindsy a.k.a Queen of the Weird
And I mean that in the best way! She is on the Design Team for Simply Stated Design, a Canadian scrapbook company that specializes in colour, detailed images, wild and wacky die cuts, and embracing the mythical. She introduced everyone at Reunion to this company with her layout class. We each received kits donated by Simply Stated Designs, with beautiful papers and fun embellishments. Mine contained cute dinosaurs wearing party hats which I first didn’t think I could incorporate. But then I realized that if I told the story of Reunion, I had the perfect excuse to embrace all that weird!
Aunty Alison a.k.a The Sidekick
Which leaves me with one last person to talk about. Me!
Alice and I started planning this Reunion during our 2024 Reunion in Charlotte NC so to say this has been a labour of love is a bit of an understatement. Many meetings with each other where we bounced so many ideas and explored numerous rabbit holes. But eventually, we narrowed things down and the planning turned into taking action.
What did my actions look like?
I started gathering items back in June. We celebrate Canada Day on July 1st and our local shops start stocking their shelves with decorations and gifts well before that. I was in one of my local dollar stores and saw these incredibly cute stuffed animals with a maple leaf on the front – a beaver, a moose, and a bear. So I bought enough for everyone to have one.
Then Alice sent me back to get get everyone a bag of Ketchup Chips – a Canadian exclusive flavour. Did I look (and feel) weird approaching the check out with a cart full of ketchup chips? Yes, yes I did. But hey, anything for Alice! LOL
I also wanted to bring some Canadian chocolates for everyone. There have been discussions on our various Zoom calls about the differences between US and Canadian sweets. One major difference is that our Smarties are candy coated discs of chocolately goodness, not hard, pressed powdered sugar disks (we have those too but we can them Rockets – go figure.) I could only find a bulk box at Costco that had several other varieties in it but I knew there was at least one attendee (cough, cough, Jane) who loves her a Coffee Crisp, so I brought the whole box with me.
Oh, and Misty wasn’t the only one to receive packages from the Amazon truck. We wanted extra special, matching PJ’s for our Saturday night PJ/Pizza/Movie night … imagine my surprise when I pulled out this giant, fluffy avocado hoodie! Of course Alice wanted me to model it for her …
I live just north of the border with the US and decided to drive down to Portland instead of flying. This meant I could bring whatever Alice needed as well as tools and supplies that others might want to borrow. I wrote a whole post about how and what to pack for out of town crops … and I think I broke all those ‘rules’. The border guard did question me about my load but in the end let me pass.
I will say that the ‘easy 5 hour drive’ from my house to our hotel in Vancouver WA ended up taking closer to 8 hours. I forgot to factor in the 90 minute wait at the border and the slow crawl from Everett to Olympia. Whoopsies! It was all worth it though as having my car there, I could help shuttle our members to the various activities we did.
After a weekend of being the designated driver, I was more than ready for one of the amazing looking drinks everyone else had been enjoying so yes, I indulged in a giant Mango Margarita and loved every sip! Thankfully that restaurant was across the street from the hotel and an easy walk!
So until we meet again, that’s it from this Side Kick. Alice keeps me weird and embracing my (usually buried) fun side. I keep Alice on task (mostly). It’s a great partnership and I am looking forward to what we can drum up for next year. Watch for Alice’s own post about Reunion soon.
Does this sound like a family you’d like to be a part of? We’d love to welcome you! Click the image below and learn more about us. Sign up to become a member and you will get access to our next LOAD challenge. LOAD1025 is just round the corner and we are in the beginning planning stages. Our theme is secret for now but let me just say, it’s going to be other worldly. This is a LayOut A Day challenge exclusively for our ScrapHappy members, and BY our ScrapHappy Members. Alice and I may have decided on the theme, but the prompts are up to a crack team of members. The only way to participate this October is to join now.
See you on the message boards!
