Well, I forgot to grab the disc of pictures from Arianny... I will keep trying to this week so you can see the pics from inside the club at her birthday party.. I'm exhausted as I write this; It was a VERY long, but exciting weekend...
Friday, November 14th, 2008-
I was up by 7am... I hadn't gone to sleep until pretty late because of Arianny's birthday party the night before (seems like you guys liked the blog about that one! If you didn't read it, you can find it here: http://www.combatlifestyle.com/words/gdetail.php?id=123) but had to be up to get the blog done, get to the gym, and get everything done that I needed to for the One Year Anniversary party that night. I actually was quite unstressed for most of the day..
I headed over to Costco to buy alcohol for the party. I had no clue how much I was going to need but I knew I needed a lot. I got one of the flatbed carts that the warehouse offered and made my way to the back of the store where the party favors were located. Now, as I list the alcohol I bought, keep in mind that these were from Costco so were economy sized. Also keep in mind that I don't drink so was kinda clueless. The list is as follows: 8 bottles of Ketel One, 1 huge bottle of Patron, 1 Cuervo, 2 Captain Morgain, 2 Bacardi, 2 Jack Daniels, 2 cranberry juices, and 2 orange juices. I grabbed beverage napkins, cups, and small plates and then pushed the loaded flatbed to the check out. I realized I must have looked like the biggest alcoholic ever as the lady running the register goes, "Wow, you must be having some party!" If she only knew, lol..
My friend that works at Costco helped me through all of this journey including loading it in the car. It was almost 2 by then and I had to get in the shower, check into the hotel, and make it to weigh ins by 4pm. I made it home and got the shower and get ready part done, then drove to Planet Hollywood where I ran up to the Mezzanine level from Valet (you can't check into the celebrity suites at the normal check in) and although winded, managed to tell the girl I wanted to check in. It seemed like it took forever, but I was soon in my car and on my way to weigh ins. It was as I was walking in that I realized media check in was all the way in the hotel. Fortunately some of the UFC employees grabbed me, gave me a credential, and pushed me into the arena.
I had a few minutes to spare as I took some deep breaths and tried to relax. Stress was starting to sink in as I got closer and closer to my event that night. I had gotten hot pink bracelets to hand out to the invitees to let them in the preparty at the suite and then party at Prive after. My roommate Krissie sat in the stands writing the suite number on the bracelets so that I could hand them out after the weigh ins. Unfortunately once weigh ins were done, everyone dispersed so quickly I barely handed any out.
I waited in valet to pick up my girlfriend Krista (who was visiting from Vancouver) and as she was getting her stuff from her friends car, I worked on loading the weigh in pics. I made her drive back to my house so that I could finish working on the way home. I know she's going to read this so I hope she doesn't hate me too much when I say that she scared the shit out of me with her driving including running a stop sign near my house. We made home in one piece, thank god, where I packed a bag for the night, and then took off to complete the final details.
The final details included stopping at the grocery store for more mixers (pineapple juice, soda, tonic), triple sec, and sweet and sour mix. We stopped at Home Depot as well to pick up some large buckets for Ice and the Keg. Yes, Keg! It was about 7pm by this time and I drove to Planet Hollywood to drop off the stuff in my car.
We loaded all the alcohol and party favors onto a luggage cart and I sent her to the room with all of it so she could start getting ready. I took off to the liquor store where Miss Rara and her friend Jaycee met up with me to pick up the keg. In hindsight, a half keg would have been a much better purchase, but I knew I wanted to do this party right. We needed shot glasses and limes but it was super late by this time, so I called my friend Neil and he agreed to pick some up.
I know that the bell hops must have thought I was crazy with the amount of alcohol I had them take to the room. I tipped them well so they didn't really say much as they lugged the rest of the stuff to the suite. I knew it wasn't their last trip because my roommate was arriving with the food I had catered from Elephant Bar. We ran into Rob Yundt and his date as we were walking through the lobby and they joined us on our way to the room.
Finally at the suite, I figured out the theme of it was Aubrey Hepburn. The one that we were in around New Years last year with Clay Guida had been the Sylvester Stallone suite and had guns everywhere. This one had purses; Go figure! I made vocal statements as I was getting ready about wishing their were guns in the room.
I was ready by 8:15. There were about 15 of us hanging out; the alcohol and food were all set up. Now, I have to mention that I WAY over ordered on food. I couldn't believe how much showed up with my roommate. I had gone off the reccomendation of the manager of the Elephant Bar, and I have to say that his recommendation was wrong. I had enough appetizers to feed 300 people, I think.
By 9pm, there was about 30 of us in the room (75% girls). I was stressing because we had to go to the club at 11, and I had so much food and drink I was afraid that it would be a waste! I had commissioned my sister to make a cake for the party and the octagon shaped masterpiece was placed in the middle of the table. You can check out her other cakes at: http://www.myspace.com/ilovejaimeecakes
I had a feeling that everyone went to dinner and that they were all going to show up at the same time. Sure enough, as 10pm rolled around, the suite all of a sudden got PACKED! I saw people eating the food but there was so much that it didn't seem to be making a dent. My sister was bartending and the area around the bar was a major traffic jam. Neil arrived with the limes and shot glasses around then, but somehow the bottle of patron was the first to go so it was a little late for those. I ran around taking photos of everyone until 11pm rolled around.
The general consensus was that no one wanted to leave. They were having so much fun in the suite they tried to convince me to stay. By 11:45 I started kicked everyone out saying, "If it weren't for having the party downstairs, we wouldn't have this suite. Afterparty here later!" I managed to get everyone out the door, with hot pink bracelets on and towards the club.
There was at least 75 people in our group waiting for us at the ropes in front of the club. The VIP hosts didn't hesitate to start letting them in and up to the tables they had set aside for us. I didn't realize till we got there, but tons of people had arrived before us and gotten tables in the area surrounding ours. The next few hours were a blast as at least 200 people I knew partied around us. By this time, my phone was going insane with text messages so I handed my camera to my girl rachel (she used to work for me so is familiar with my camera) and I took a break to hang out with my friends.
My party was sponsored by Tapout, UFC Undisputed 2009, and Gameness Gi's. The flier for the party was projected on the wall of the club 10 feet tall. All the sponsors (except gameness) were on hand partying along with us and having a good time. A ton of people who hadn't made the suite made it to the club and I bounced around saying hello to them all. Many faces of the MMA Industry showed up to celebrate and I want to thank each and everyone of them for their support over the last year.
I think we stayed at the club till 2:30 before deciding to take the party back to the suite. By this time, I didn't even care who came up. I had so much food and alcohol to spare that the more people that showed up, the better. We were at least 30 people deep when we walked into the empty suite. It wasn't long before the place was wall to wall.
I was thankful as I watched almost every person that walked in grab a plate of food. My sister cut the cake then and at least half of that huge thing got eaten too. Rara was in the bedroom passed out so I tried my hardest to keep people out of that room the rest of the night by making people climb through the bathtub to get to the bathroom.
Security showed up around 3am with complaints from the other hotel guests. They allowed our party to continue with the warning, any more calls and they would come and shut it down. We went at least another hour in which the crew from the One More Round party hosted by Arianny Celeste made it over to join the festivities.. At 4am, security came back and kicked everyone out. I was thrilled tell you the truth because I didn't want to be the bad guy to shut everything down.
Brad Blackburn and Dennis Hallman were about the only ones that stayed; Brad was passed out on the floor of the bedroom. Dennis helped me to clean up (thank you dennis!)the suite a little bit in the hopes that I could avoid extra cleaning bills. Somewhere in that time, Conor Heun and Scott Epstein came back. Conor doens't want me to tell you guys this but he was so wasted he knocked a bowl of honey mustard off the table; half of it landed on the carpet and the other half doused Scott. I told Scott to get him the hell out of there saying, "Conor, I'll love you tomorrow, but I really don't like you right now!"
After cleaning up for an hour, Dennis stole the blanket off Miss Rara and her friend Jaycee. I gave him shit about it as he took one couch and I took the other. I made sure to pull closed all the curtains and set my alarm to wake up at 8:30. I had a photo shoot with Arianny the next day, as well as had to get to the fights. My feet hurting but a smile on my face because of an extremely successful event, I drifted off to sleep.
Again, I want to thank everyone for coming out and making the Official Combatlifestyle One Year Anniversary a huge success! I also want to thank everyone who has supported the site and brought it to what it is today. Look for some new features, contests, and exciting events in the near future!
