Jewelry Box Game - A piece of jewelry was the prize. (Last year's group had a necklace/earring set worth about $700 donated. We couldn't get a donation, but found a diamond tennis bracelet valued $595 on a clearance sale which we got for about $70). Get 100 small boxes and decorate nicely with pretty ribbon. Stack around the jewelry and sell boxes for $5 each with instructions not to open until announcer says. The boxes have a piece of paper or other indicator of who the winner is. Until "unveiling" attendees leave them sitting on their (dinner) table so others see and hopefully buy a chance. Ours was a Mardi Gras theme, so we had a set of beads and gold plastic coin in each of the "loser" boxes. Winner had beads plus a baby (like in the cakes). Door prize winners (3) had beads plus a colored plastic coin.
It's a fun game. Our costs were less than $100. Reveune was $500. For the boxes, look in wedding supplies for "favor" boxes. They run about $20 for 100, but at many stores (Michael's, Joann's) they have coupons.
Note - you need a backup plan in case all boxes not sold. (i.e., what if winning box not sold when you unveil.) For us, we numbered the boxes in small print on the bottom and the committee stuffed all the boxes as "losers". Later - one person went back and re-stuffed the grand prize winner box and 3 doorprizes, noting the box numbers. She was the only one who knew. If we hadn't sold them all, she could have checked what was left. Our backup would have been that we drew numbers from a hat.
Love the jewelry box game- I'd love to try that at our auction in the spring.
We do a balloon pop where everyone has a balloon tied to their chair and if you get a note in your balloon you win the prize. This way you can determine the odds. We have also done the plate dot thing but for obvious reasons you can only do that once.
Thanks for the ideas, I am curious about the Jewerly box game, the link did not work to get the directions, if you could do it again that would be great. Thank you everyone!!
We did the heads or tails at our auction last April- hugely popular; everyone laughed and we made some moo-lah! Having an animated emcee is the key who hams it up. And push selling those wristbands ahead of time! Our's were $20 a piece....Good Luck!
In prior years, we've sold light up martini glasses at $25 a piece. They are displayed (filled) on a tiered mirrored base....when the lights are dimmed and they are all on- it's automatically pulls you to it. Everyone who bought one (or more) had their name in the drawing for each glass they bought. Winner was drawn during the live auction.
We get small denominations of gift cards ($1, $2, $5) from Starbucks, McDonald's, etc. place them in little envelopes and attach to anything blinky/glowstick.....sell them for $10 each. Some of them would have higher end gift cards ($20 and even a $20 bill) and some would say "Everyone is a winner for supporting our school). The blinky/glow stick thing is key, b/c everyone at the dinner dance then sees the glowing people.....if you can get the gift cards donated, all the better. Good Luck!
