Hey guys

So here's the update and the deal with the reunion. Mary and I have gone to a couple places and got prices. One was way too much for our budget and another will be roughly about $115 per person. We went to the Renaissance hotel in Ft Lauderdale and that's the place we chose because its really nice and its a lot less.
The total price for Saturday nights event it $85 per person. This will include 4 hours open bar, food, decorations, photographer, DJ, slide show, etc. They are blocking rooms for 89.99 a night as well. We have all either helped or planned a wedding and know that it cost a lot. This is a special event that we are trying to have so we can all have a great time, drink as much as we want and eat as much as we want while catching up with old friends. Its not going to be a sit down formal dinner. It will be like a cocktail party. The bar is open for 4 hours and that's unlimited. We will have 3 stations with different kinds of food. No assigned seats so we can sit wherever we want and with as many people as we want.

We need to have the deposit of $500 immediately in order to hold the date. This means we need everyone planning to attend to please send this deposit in so that we can lock the date down. Remember the $20 you send in will count towards your total amount due. You will get a receipt as well. If in the event we have any money left over we can donate it to the school for the class of the following year.

Class of 99 did things a little differently. Robin put in her own money towards the deposit and hoped for the best. Neither Mary nor myself have that kind of money so we really need you guys to step up and pay the $20 (which will pay for the deposit, give us an accurate count and go towards the final price of $85). They charged each person $80 and it didn't include as many things as we have.

The first $500 collected will be used to pay the deposit but by December 1st all people planning to attend must RSVP but turning in the $20. That will be the last date because we need a final count. June is not that far away and we need to know how many people to count on. By now you have all decided whether or not you will be attending so please just turn in the money and lets finalize this already.

If there is another way to go about this then it should have been brought up a while ago. Mary is paying for the website, I have volunteered to collect everyones money and make sure each Penny is accounted for, Janelle looked for places and Mary and I checked those places out. I haven't heard anyone else volunteer for any of these tasks. If someone has a better way to do things, please step up and let me know who I can send my $20 to and I will gladly do it. A lot of thought has gone into the process and the planning. I know people were concerned about where the money is going and I feel we have done plenty to show you where the money will go. You can look up the hotel online and check it out for yourself. We just want to put the money down already set the date and start all the other planning and organizing name cards, hiring the DJ, collecting all the pics we want to put in the slide show, start the decorations and all the other things we are planning. As we get closer we will continue to update everyone on how far we are and what we will need help with.

Fridays event will be at Americas backyard and each person will be responsible for their own food and drink. Whoever said they had a hook up there please reply to this email so we know what we need to do to reserve the back room and get details. If this doesn't work out then we will have Saturdays event and Sundays event. Someone volunteered to coordinate Sundays event so that will be separate. I will continue to volunteer my time to help but if we don't get a response soon by enough people at least for the deposit, then someone else will have to take over. I'm not sure what else needs to be done for this to happen but all the research is done and all the details are planned out.

Lets spread the word about this and email me or Mary if you have any questions. My address is 331 Ives Dairy Rd 4 Miami FL 33179 and remember to make it a cashiers check. Its $20 per person and planning Saturday is hard enough so we are not going to make shirts anymore. Its one less thing we have to do and worry about.

I'm really hoping for positive feedback and all planning to attend to not only send the money but motivate others so they can go too.

Thanks,