Elle Carnival for a cause

A Carnival for a Cause, where fashion joins hands against breast cancer. And that's precisely what it was. Held at the Taj West End on Sunday, in association with Elle magazine, India, this carnival supported the cause of breast cancer awareness, with its proceeds going to Ogaan Cancer Foundation.

The carnival was a blend of fun and fashion. A festive, fun filled day where guests could amuse themselves with games, tarot card readings, posing for portrait of themselves painted on t-shirts, a silent auction with designer products and works of eminent photographers and a dance performance to spice up the atmosphere. The free flow cocktails, courmet lunch and designer merchandise were the highlights of the event.
I wouldn't dream of dragging Marc to an event like this of course but hey..."Girls just wanna have fun" and we did!

Monique admiring the designer clothes

Kim, Domonique, me and Rita enjoying our cocktails while waiting to have our faces read.

Kim opening her prize she won in the can toss game.

I won nice serviette holders and chocolates with the can toss game too!

Myself, Edith and Rohini being photographed by one of the many press photographers walking around.

We had a ball!

It took many months of planning, negotiating, "shopping" for donations and all the other administrative tasks that go with putting together a fundraising event, but it paid off. The annual OWC Charity Ball & Silent Auction held on Saturday 23rd February at the Le Meridien was a huge success!

Edith, Frances and I spent a couple of hours setting up the auction room, numbering and completing bid sheets with information for approximately 110 items.

At about 6:50 I quickly ran to get changed into something a little more Ball like than the casuals I was wearing. Just in the nick of time too...as I came out of the bathroom the first guests started arriving while Edith and I had to do still do some last minute numbering, coordinating the raffle ticket selling, finalizing details of the event programme with the MC, make sure the balloons are blown up for the special balloon draw, and when we looked again the evening was already in full swing with guest enjoying welcome drinks and an excellent selection of hors d'oeuvres.

Kayoko, Edith and I finally getting a chance to taste the hors d'oeuvres.

Guests sipped bubbly, nibbled and socialized while bidding on their favorite auction items in what was referred to as a "treasure trove", bought raffle tickets and had their photographs taken in their finery!

At 8pm guests made their way into the beautifully decorated white and silver ballroom. Where they sat down for the start of a fun filled evening. We didn't bore our guests with long speeches or drawn out raffle draw. The welcome was quick, dinner was served, approx 28 raffle prizes given away after dinner. At 9:30 the sounds of DJ Rony encouraged everyone onto the dance floor, getting the party started.

Marc, Anne and Ale enjoyed the evening is style.

Doing the raffle draw

We gave away another 15 spot balloon prizes when a couple of lucky guests (in the hot seats) had to burst balloons to find out if they won anything.

During the evening guests continued bidding on their favorite items and lucky for us, the silent auction bidding sheets filled up line by line. At 10:30pm the bidding ended and our finance team started collecting money, while we were holding thumbs that the funds raised would be a decent amount. And it was...We raised over Rs.2 lakhs from this event which will be donated to the 25 Bangalore based charities that the OWC support.

I at least managed to get one or two dances in but only after 11:30 when the auction items were all paid for, and collect and between begging the manager to just let the DJ play one more song..."just one more please....ok, just one more, pleeeeeease, promise"!! Dancing continued until nearly midnight which is a rare luxury in Bangalore.