The Stag and Doe: Part II
This post contains a lot of information, so my apologies if it seems a tad bit convoluted!
After a whole lot of planning, and attention to detail, we were suddenly on the eve of our stag and doe, with a house full of supplies and alcohol. We hosted a little get-together with some of our bridal party and family, making Jello shooters, preparing food, and getting the last of everything organized.
On Saturday morning, GM Coach met us at our house, we loaded up both of our vehicles, and we headed to the Hall to set up. GM JB and BM Mel met us there, and we all got busy unloading and figuring out how to arrange everything. My parents also came with a load of things, and helped get everything mostly set up.*** We all went home for a few hours to get ready and met back up at 5:00 PM to go over the night and eat pizza.
All photos personal
En route to the hall with GM Coach and Nelson (who made a short appearance)
The doors opened at 7:00 PM, and we had to cover the night until the last shuttle bus** at 1:30 AM. The wedding party and some family members covered about two to three one-hour shifts throughout the evening. We divided shifts by the bar, ticket sales, and games. My mom acted as a floater taking care of food and helping where possible, and Mr. Narwhal and I also floated, helping and mingling with our guests throughout the night.
My one regret from the night? I forgot our camera at home. Major sad face. I have a few photos to share; however, they’re all cell quality.
At 7:30 PM our first bus arrived, and two people walked off. I would have panicked; however, I heard the same thing had happened at the stag and doe the weekend prior, when it was too late to change the schedule. The 8:00 PM bus was packed full, and by that point we had a large portion of people that had driven, and the night was off to a start.
Family Jello shooters—my aunt, BM Megs, Father Narwhal, BMan TLW, and my cousin
People got all of their tickets at the entrance, and the only cash they spent inside the doors was on the games. We set up the room with games around the parameter, and the stage in the centre of the room surrounded by all of our prizes.
Games
I mentioned in our last post that we had three full night games, with one “event” game and the penalty box. While I gave the boys a general schedule to follow in running the games, I’m almost certain they didn’t follow it. They all stayed by the games a majority of the night, circulating through who was running it and playing a fair share themselves. At one point Mr. Narwhal even took on the role of referee at the penalty box.
Mr. Narwhal in the penalty box!
Cast Away
This game was a fishing game with targets set up with different point values. (I forgot to take a picture of this station.) People had one minute to cast into the targets with a goal to score as many points as they could. The leading score of the night won a bottle of Crown Royal Black, a Southern Comfort sign,*** a Jagermeister hoodie,*** and Jack Daniels hat.***
The Snipe Show
This game was a hockey net target game. Similar to Cast Away, players were given eight hockey pucks, and each target had a different value. The leading scorer of the night won a Calgary Flame jersey (gifted from GM Coach), and second place received a Jagermeister hoodie.*** This was the biggest hit of the evening, with a lineup all night.
Minnow Races
Don’t ask me why this is oh so popular, but it is. It’s one of the most common games at a stag and doe. Yes, racing minnows. My dad collected some minnows the morning of the party for us. Players would catch their minnows and place them in a container (which we rented) that had four race slots. Don’t worry, the minnows weren’t hurt, especially considering they’re usually used as fishing bait. I’m pretty sure someone released them after the party (at least that’s what I’m telling myself). The person whose minnow that swam to the end fastest won. This was a 50:50 game—winners took half of the pool.
We were both quite disappointed by the “rental” minnow races—when we could have made something much nicer and better for the $20 we spent renting this thing!
Penalty Box
The penalty box actually didn’t end up being too big of a hit, other than people putting me in there. My mom paid for me to be in there at the beginning of the night, and not too long later, Joel’s brother (GM Bro) was dragging me back in for another five minute penalty. Everyone was laughing and taking photos of me when the biggest surprise of the night walked in.
Back story: BM Click and I have been looking forward to our stag and doe for a very long time. When Mr. Narwhal and I first started dating, something BM Click said very early on was that we would have the best stag and doe ever. She had been an incredible help in all of the planning, with many long phone conversations. The week before the event, there was a tragic death in her family, and she was unable to make it. I was really sad for her and her family’s loss, and that she was unable to attend. MOH L was also on that list of being unable to come. Living in Ottawa (four hour drive), she and her fiance both had to work on the Saturday and wouldn’t be able to make it.
So, you can imagine how much of a surprise it was for me as I was sitting in the penalty box and MOH L walked in the door. Shock and instant tears. Many many tears. I had no idea, and it just meant the world to me that she and her fiance jumped in the car after work and drove over four hours to come to our stag and doe.
Is it just me, or are the late night blurry photos always a favourite?
Toonie Toss
The Toonie Toss was held at 10:30, and was a prize of $100 to the LCBO (liquor store) and a 1.5 L bottle of Crown Royal (donated by a friend). The bottle is placed on the floor, and everyone lines up for a turn tossing their toonies to try and get as close to the bottle as possible. I was pretty happy when MOH L had the closest toonie and won!
Prizes
Door Prizes
We wanted to have a variety of prizes to give away for people attending the event. Throughout the night we pulled admission tickets from a jar, and let people pick out a door prize. We had probably 30 door prizes including Jagermeister swag*** (T-shirts, sunglasses, mugs, hats, etc.), Jack Daniels swag,*** and a few other prizes.
Glass Turkey
This was a prize donated by the parents of the hockey team Mr. Narwhal coached. For $5, you could purchase a number, and at the end of the night, a number was drawn to win a large prize pack of a variety of bottles.
Dime Prizes
We had a huge variety of dime prizes that were another huge hit from the night. A majority of these prizes were donated from local businesses or from the wedding party. They included:
- A grass trimmer***
- A car detail***
- A prize pack from our local outdoors store***
- A kitchen prize pack (mainly gifted from Momma Narwhal)
- A candy prize pack
- A restaurant prize pack with various local restaurant gift certificates***
- A Bath and Body Works prize pack (gifted from BM Click)
- A Montreal Canadiens Price jersey (gifted from GM Coach)
- A BBQ prize pack with an M&Ms gift certificate (gifted from my aunt)
- 1 L of fresh maple syrup (gifted from GM D)
- 3 bottles of wine***
- 1 month gym membership***
- Hair blowout and travel size skin care pack***
- Two decorative pillows***
- Local farm prize pack***
Grand Prizes
We purchased the two main grand prizes and the week prior to the stag and doe, a family friend that owns a car dealership donated a foursome of golf to a Deerhurst Highlands Golf (valued at $600 ). Our other two grand prizes were a Go Pro prize pack and Vitamix blender.
The prizes were raved about by our guests. We announced all of them at about 11:30 PM, followed by the pie in the face.
Pie in the Face
Throughout the night I was in the lead for the “pie in the face” competition, as my jar consistently had more money in it. My aunt, Father Narwhal, and MOH Cass (thank you!!) were bartending a majority of the evening, and were always trying to get people to save me from the pie. After we announced all of the prizes and thanked everyone for coming, we went to count the jars. I had raised around $84, and Mr. Narwhal about $68. Victory! Or…not so much. At the last minute, Mr. Narwhal’s boss threw a crisp $20 in the jar, giving Mr. Narwhal the lead. I will let the terribly blurry photos tell the story from here.
I was not looking forward to being smashed in the face, as Mr. Narwhal was telling me he was going to try and get as much in my hair as possible.
As I braced myself for the pie, Mr. Narwhal dropped the entire pie!
In that moment, I picked it up and asked everyone if they think he now deserved a pie in the face for dropping the pie, and everyone cheered. A new pie was prepared, and I got to smash Mr. Narwhal instead.
Much to my dismay, he felt kisses were necessary in that moment, and I think I ended up with more on me as a result.
Best moment of the night!
Finances
Now, the financial aspect of the event. We spent around $4,000 for the event, and made just over $7,000 (with a profit of about $3,000). Between all of the tickets we sold and the approximate 130 people that came through the doors, each person probably spent an average of $50 with their ticket purchase.
- Hall Rental, Insurance, and Liquor License - $624
- Shuttle Bus – $340
- Prizes - $1,050
- Liquor and Beer - $1,500
- Mix and Food - approximately $300 (Momma Narwhal and BM Mel and GM JB also brought food)
- Miscellaneous (tickets, decorations, etc.) – approximately $300
Overall, this night will forever fill my heart with joy and positive memories. We have had countless people message us and thank us for such an amazing night, which is just crazy to Mr. Narwhal and me. We are so thankful for the people that spent an evening celebrating and supporting us and to our wedding party that worked so hard to help create such an amazing night.
End of night cleanup crew selfie with Mr. Narwhal’s coaching friends, GM D, and BMan TLW
*You may notice that we didn’t go above and beyond with decorating. This is fairly common practice, so set-up doesn’t include fancy linens or flowers. So while in photos this may not look the best, the point of the night isn’t to be fancy with decorating, but to create a night of lots of fun. I promise this isn’t an indicator of what the wedding will look like, or how much fun we had.
**We hired the same company that we’re using for our wedding, so this was a great test run. I did not go on the bus, but we heard nothing but wonderful things.
***This indicates a donated prize.
Tags:
The Stag and Doe: Part I
04/30/15 @ 5:18 am
Wedding Website
02/27/15 @ 5:08 am
Tackling the Stationery
03/02/15 @ 5:27 am
