Last week Fake Bake hosted a night of Golden Glamour at the Crowne Plaza in Glasgow.  As part of the team who helped orchestrate the event, I wanted to take a sec to tell you a bit about what went down in Glasvegas town.

Starting with a brief from Sandra Vaughan (my boss and the UK founder of the brand) to organise a night to celebrate Fake Bake’s 15th year in the UK and the culmination of our Save Your Selfie campaign, it quickly grew to become one of Glasgow’s most glamorous nights to date.

 

The pre-event prep

When attending an event, it is easy to overlook the work that goes into organising it.  The late nights, anxious annie moments, constant team catch ups, calls, negotiations.  I guess you could say however that it is the sign of a good event when it runs so smoothly you don’t question the work behind it.

Like all event planners we started with a focus and a concept:

The Focus: Firstly to celebrate the brand’s success over the past 15 years.  Secondly to mark the end of our Save Your Selfie campaign, which came to fruition after Sandra overcame breast cancer and wanted to run a campaign that celebrated both positivity and inner confidence

The Concept: Gold (to symbolise this being a golden moment for Fake Bake and to echo the colouring of our most recent product launch)

From there we were able to work on the dressing of the room, recruit sponsors, partners, performers and of course, mastermind the marketing for the event.

Although we were out until 1am the night prior – at Crowne Plaza making up 400 goodie bags and then carting 13 big trestle tables to the top floor of the salon, followed swiftly by a spray tan (obvs essential) – the hard graft was all worth it in the end…

The day

The day kick started with the Style Suite for the VIPs attending the ball.  This took place in chic city centre salon: 132 West Regent and comprised of facials and hair and make-up, followed by the opportunity for them to receive gifts from partner brands.

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Frankie Essex

Frankie Essex

Gifting suites are an American phenomenon and are bloody great for anyone who is lucky enough to attend one. Essentially brands do it to get their products into the hands of influencers, who could help to promote their product and drive sales.

In our gifting suite we had headline sponsors Oh Polly, dressing the stars for the event and XIP Professional gifting their amazing new range of cruelty-free make-up.

Fulford Flowers had decorated the salon with beautiful blooms, whilst we had music from DJ Elisha, a very well known performer in the club scene in Glasgow. Peak Boutique, The Vintage Cosmetic Company, Sleep in Rollers and HD Brows all had bags of goodies made up to gift, whilst Dentistry in the Square offered teeth whitening kits, Click N Curl provided their amazing rollers and new Air Motion brush and Deemonte Designs gifted bespoke glitter canvases.

All the while the afternoon was catered by the uber healthy Kcal Kitchen and for those who couldn’t resist, we had Fake Bake branded cupcakes from The Kerrigan Cake Club.

The evening

After taxi’ing the stars back to the hotel, it was time to get ready for the main event.

Golden Glamour with Fake Bake

Liz McClarnon

Helen Flanagan

Helen Flanagan

Francine Lewis

Francine Lewis

Miss UK & James Harknett, Fake Bake's Global Creative Consultant

Miss UK & James Harknett, Fake Bake’s Global Creative Consultant

With Golden Glamour we wanted everyone to feel like a star and walk the red carpet, so we had two!  We had a press room set up for paparazzi to take pics of the celebs and then in the main foyer area, we had the Fizz Buz prosecco van set up to pour guests prosecco from the kegs at the back of the van.  Ain’t no half measures with Fake Bake.

Twinnie Lee Moore performed as guests then took their seat for the meal, followed by an intro to the evening from PR guru and presenter Nick Ede.  A raffle with prizes worth over £23K ensued , with performances from girlband Stooshe to mark the end of dinner and start of the the partying, which carried on until midnight with 70s Love Train act Brutus Gold.

Golden Glamour w

Golden Glamour was the biggest event I have worked on to date.  Although a challenge, it has been very rewarding in terms of how much I learned (from press calls to the importance of AV, cue cards etc etc etc).  And to me, that is what life is really all about, throwing yourself head first into any challenges that come your way.  For in doing so, you automatically expand your horizons.

If you made it to the event, I would love to know what you thought? Oh and incase you are wondering where the gold dress came from in the pic above, I was rocking Chi Chi London on the night! x