That's more or less what we had in Chicago, and it worked very well.

I believe the issue is that we don't get the room cheap/free unless we use their booze/food. Also many hotels don't want you bringing in your own booze even if you don't pay for the bar.

Oh sure. If it's what it takes to get the room reasonably, it makes all kinds of sense. In Chicago we lucked into a deal where they gave us the restaurant, which had direct access to the cocktail lounge where we got out drinks, and there was some small amount of bottle smuggling as well. It was great, but not a usual situation. What it sounds like is shaping up at the St. Louis I'm sure will be fab as well.

What ND said.

Also, it might be worth noting that we aren't doing "tickets" this year, right? We're just going to have a general donation pool so that those with more can give more and those who don't have the extra cash don't have to fret. I know we don't want huge costs in any case, but I thought I should remind everyone that we'd talked about doing it this way so people don't worry as much about individual costs if it seems like doing a bar and/or food is raising the price too much.

Edit: This message brought to you from the Department of Run-On Sentences.

Correct, I'm going to be starting up two donation pools as soon as we get some decisions on hotel made. One pool is to pay for the weekend/party and such. The other pool is to help our fellow Buffistas attend the event. This extra pool can be cash sent in via pay pal, or if folks want to donate Frequent Flier miles, etc. etc, they will be able to emai me and I'll keep track of it all, and anyone who needs to take adavantage of the awesome generosity that this board always comes forward with can pop a note to me and they'll get hooked up.

That is awesome. I skipped 800 posts so I missed that part.

If it's financially viable, I would much much much rather have nice pretty hotel food (that we didn't have to clean up, or worry about storing) than grocery store food.

I'm with Laura on letting the hotel staff deal with setup and cleanup. I'll open up the PayPal account in December and start pooling the donation money and see what we raise.

If it's financially viable, I would much much much rather have nice pretty hotel food (that we didn't have to clean up, or worry about storing) than grocery store food.

This.

I'm with Laura on letting the hotel staff deal with setup and cleanup.

And this.

The thing is, any time we have to provide our own anything in a situation like this, we end up adding to the stress-factor. Someone has to organize it and make sure it happens, and while I know that there are many many capable and resourceful Buffistas, do we really want to take that chance? Because if it doesn't happen for whatever reason--miscommunication, someone dropping the ball due to a personal situation, etc.--then we have a recipe for resentment, irritation, and other bad ju ju that I think we would like to avoid. Even if we were all responsible for bringing food ourselves, since most of us are coming from out of town, it adds an extra layer of "things to do" and requires planning about where to get food/drinks and how to transport them. Then there's the layer of "where the money is coming from" that can make things ugly on a number of levels. If everyone was left to do their own thing and just meet later, there's also the chance that some people wouldn't get the message and would end up being (or feeling) left out. I know that we would all have the best of intentions, but...I've just seen it happen before with large gatherings, many times.

I agree we need to keep costs reasonable, but especially with the donation pool set-up, I would love it if the hotel was responsible for as many of those details as possible.

I just really would love everyone's biggest worries at the F2F to be tiara placement, corset cinching, and making sure there is an ample supply of candy necklaces. I would say that was my two cents, but I talked too much. Hope you all see that I'm not trying to be bossy; I really just want everyone to be relaxed and happy on the Prom night.

No, you just want more candy necklaces FOR YOU. I know how your mind works, missy.

t /faux teacher-stern voice