On Saturday 14th July Tracie Gunningham owner of Envy, hosted a charity Bollywood Summer Party. The event was held at The Plymouth Venue, Victoria House in the heart of Plymouth.
The party was a huge success raising a total of £2900 for women V cancer, cycle India challenge 2018.
Tracie Gunningham said 'The venue was the 'perfect' space to host the event' it had so many areas in which to 'decorate' and create a real 'Bollywood feel'.
Tracie had a strict colour theme in mind, purple, pink, orange, gold, turquoise.
The event was a 'sell out' and Tracie said 'It never ceases to amaze me the amount of generosity, people show when it comes to supporting charity, whether it be giving time, donations, raffle or auction prizes' and she recognises that it was only through having 'EVERYONES' support that the event was as successful as it was.
Tickets cost £20 and included
A welcome drink, an entry ticket into 'Win a weekend at the Scarlet', https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tracie-gunningham2 and indian feast, pudding and plenty of dancing.
The welcome drink and bar service was provided by Westlake events.
Tracie started planning the event in April 2018 and knew she would need help to ensure costs were kept to a minimum in order to raise the maximum she could for the charity.
Tracie appealed for help from friends and family and reached out via social media for help with various props.
Her first ask was for jars, any shape any size, that she could colour and then hand decorate to turn into t light lanterns for the tables. Tracie coloured and decorated over 70 jars.
The second ask was for cushions, this was to create a floor level seating area in the Raj tent. Tracie's mum went and bought loads from charity shops, staff, clients and Tracie's dance friends came up trumps again producing enough cushions to create the look. Kevan Kennedy the owner of the Plymouth Venue donated some left over material which would then match the drapes in the Raj tent area. Tracie then set about making cushion covers to help keep the theme. Having used all the material the last few cushion covers came from Drake's Jewellers store room courtesy Monique Hirshman, a recent store refurb meant they had some old luxury velour cushion covers that could be put to good use, along with a flower display, gigantic gold baubles and gold sequin table covers to add to that Bollywood bling.
Tracie wanted to break the eye line of the ceiling height in the venue and sourced some indian umbrellas to hang upside down over the tables, they looked beautiful.
More handmade props made by Tracie and her 'bollywood angels' included a colourful sign post, the table plan and a decorated mountain bike.
On the evening guests were greeted with soft entrance music provided by Steve Whiteway.
The Indian food was sponsored by Creative Direction IG and cooked by Jaipur Palace, served by Tracie and Ian Gunningham.
The menu was chicken tikka masala, chicken bhuna, channa masala, sag aloo, vegetable bhajis, naan and poppadoms.
After dinner and during pudding there was an auction which raised £360, massive thanks to Martin Roberts who enthusiastically pushed up the bidding on various items donated by Id Fashion, Field Accounting, Admin Angel, Julia Ford, Aunty Hazel.
The Raffle raised a total of £600.
After the auction guest were 'encouraged' to take part in a 'Bollywood dance routine' choreographed by Tracie Gunningham with the professional help of Julie Baker (a dance teacher at The Lemon Frog Dance Company) It was an energetic and a FUN routine which seemed to be enjoyed by everyone.
A flash mob was sent out a week before to encourage guest to learn the routine before the event.
Guest were also encouraged to take home a 'Bollywood' cup cake made and donated by Helen Brann.
Tracie said that 'she was genuinely thrilled with the amount of effort people had put into their costumes and for people supporting the event and the charity'.
Tracie would like to publicly thank everyone who played a part in this amazing event.
Tracie is now getting back into her cycle training, as she needs to be super lean and fit by November 2018 in order to be ready to take on and complete her cycle challenge.
Tracie is still raising money for the charity, to find out more or to donate you can click the link here.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tracie-gunningham1
Thank you to Nige at Hawk Eye Photography for capturing the whole evening. Great photography, check out his facebook page for all the images.