Wild West Themed Awards Ceremony at Gleneagles
The brief from our client was to create and co-ordinate a whirlwind event for their top achievers consisting of a fully themed day of activities followed by an awards ceremony, gala dinner and all night party.
After initial discussions with the client it was agreed that the whole event would be themed around ‘The Wild West‘.
Event Design & Planning
The 88 Events team was responsible for the whole event from the design and planning stage through to event management on the day and the theming of the awards ceremony and gala dinner and coordination of the amazing entertainment.
Day Activities
The guests awoke to the beautiful backdrop of rolling Perthshire hills covered in deep snow. After a hearty breakfast, everyone was split into pre-arranged teams to compete in the main daytime activity.
Entitled ‘The Gold Rush‘, the teams searched for clues and completed challenges all in a bid to find the elusive gold hidden somewhere in the grounds of the vast Gleneagles estate.
They were helped along the way by strange characters such as ‘Big Jim McKay‘ and ‘Buckshot Betty‘ who assisted the teams in trying to complete a series of mini challenges such as horse riding, in order to progress to the next set of clues. The most successful team eventually found the elusive clue that led to the gold!
Later on the teams got involved in more fantastic activities such as:
- line-dancing lessons from gorgeous dancers in tiny denim shorts & cowboy boots
- bucking bronco
- cactus lassoing
- horseshoe throwing
- quick draw machine
- loads more wild west fun!
Awards Ceremony
After some well earned rest it was time for the main event of the night – the gala dinner and awards ceremony.
This particular client likes to go over the top which was music to the 88 Events design team‘s ears! Our job was made easier as we had exclusive use of Gleneagles Hotel which allowed us to transform the hotel into a wild west frontier town featuring a burlesque style saloon at its centre.
Guests arrived downstairs to a scene featuring horses tied up to drinking troughs at the old jail in the foyer.
It was immediately apparent that this was an era of excess and danger as scantily clad cowgirls with shot glass holsters served shots of tequilla and bourbon to help get the party started to the backdrop of a barbour shop quartet.
Guests were then ushered down a corridor featuring oversized wagon wheels, horseshoes and cowboy silouhettes through swinging saloon doors into the Gleneagles Suite which had been transformed into a burlesque style saloon bar.
The walls were covered with bespoke ‘flocked‘ wallpaper, period draping and wanted posters featuring the names of all the team members as oversized weaponry, mining trucks and saloon backdrops dominated the room.
In keeping with the opulence of the era, the table styling featured rich coloured velvet linen in violet and chocolate, elegant gold candelabra and gold nitelight cages with sparkling cut crystal glassware, coloured glass charger plates with damask napkins tied with authentic lace ribbons and incredible atmospheric lighting to complete the transformation from function suite to burlesque saloon.
Entertainment
Between courses of old style western food, guests were treated to an amazing array of entertainment including costumed actors, dancing cowgirls and a honky tonk pianist.
After dinner the CEO handed out the awards for outstanding service and everyone then danced the night away until the wee small hours to continous live music featuring two interchangeable 10-piece bands and an amazing Johnny Cash tribute with the Man in Black!
