Somebody help! I need reassurance...

[cherub]

...b/c I just found out that no one knows if the hall is actually booked for our formal this weekend, our social chair skipped out on exec this week cuz she's still on spring break, some alum just found out how much tix were, there's no DJ...

And I'm the social adviser who had no idea!

So, somehow in the next 24 hours I have to figure out if I can salvage this cuz the prez (who I also advise) is understandably freeking out and the social IG chair apparently hasn't been much help.

They're in over their heads and I volunteered to see what I could do since I'm "trained" in event planning but, wow. Where to start? I'm calling the hotel event planner tomorrow to see if we even have the space still and I guess that will determine the rest of my actions.

Someone please tell me this has happened to them before and everything ended up ok

[MSSTCY1]

Cherub-
relax. As far as I'm concerned this happens all the time. Last spring, the entire formal commitee bailed out on planning b/c they were too busy and a new sister had less than a month to plan the whole thing.

This spring, I'm formal chair and had a placed booked and they called me two weeks ago to tell me that they had a bigger group beat me out and they cancelled on me ( they had assured me I didn't need to sign a contract).

If you don't have a place, start calling all the hotels and banquet halls you can. Do you normally have formal nearby or out of state? If you tend to go away for formal, start a thread and ask greeks in that area to help. I'm sure someone can point you in the right direction.

Good luck!! let me know how it turns out

[MSSTCY1]

hey, I just realized your from Toronto... Thats where we've had our formals the last two years!!

[cherub]

I'm from TO but the chapter is in a small town 45 minutes away.

Glad to hear this isn't unusual....I kind of figured as much. Our CP is calling me tonight - they're having an emergency exec meeting before chapter to sort everything out. I'm just hoping I can help the chapter pull it together in 3 days. Because that's all the time we have. We can't reschedule -March weekends are already booked up and April is finals, then school's done. So, I don't think they'll want to have it after mid-April.

Ulimately it's chapters decision.

Where did you have your formal? From what I understand a lot of U.S. greeks come up here for formals. Toronto can be an expensive place, but I guess the favourable exchange rate helps!

[MSSTCY1]

Last year we had it at the best western primerose, which was beautiful. Their room is really big though, so we had formal with our brother fraternity.

This year we are having it at the Crowne Plaza. Hopefully it will be good, b/c I'm planning it

We also had date party in niagara falls

The exchange rate definetly works in our favor, but the main reason we go to canada is b/c if its in the US not everyone can drink. We pay to have open bar so it would suck if someone paid and then couldn't drink

Have you ever been to the Crowne Plaza? I saw the room, its nice, but I was wondering if you knew anything about the food. Any good places nearby to go out?

[cherub]

I'm presuming it's the Crowne Plaza downtown, right? I haven't been to a function there yet, but most of the hotels in the downtown core are pretty standard when it comes to food. It's in a great location, close to the club district. My boyfriend actually lives a few blocks away from there!

Check out www.toronto.com and go to Bars & Nightlife. Anything in the entertainment district is nearby.

There's a great strip of pubs/bars along the Esplanade. My fav. is the Bier Market. It's got a ton of beers on tap and has great Belgian frites. They're thin and kind of crispy and come with different mayo flavours to dip them in.

Standard hot spot include My Apartment, Joker, Joe...I like Schmooze, Tonic's a definite club-club w/the girls in short skirts and boots/guys in slicked spiky hair and black shirts. The newest spot is Seven.

If you want to head up into Little Italy (about 15 minutes away) there's a whole strip along College St. past Bathurst. Lava Lounge, Sou Daz, Ciao Edie are great spots.

Just to name a few

[MSSTCY1]

Is the Bier Market where they have their own menu just for beer and other drinks - like one longer than the actual dinner menu?

I went to some place like that in Toronto a couple years ago and haven't been able to find it since.

Thanks for all the tips!

[cherub]

That's the one! The food menu comes with suggestions for beer and the beverage menu is more like a booklet. They're one of the only spots that has a fav. beer on tap - St. Ambrose apriciot. Yum.

Have fun!