Kingdom of Knuffel

Oh, yes, definitely! :)

I'd love to go to a ballroom event, sadly the ones hosted that I could go to aren't serious events, usually just glorified parties where people say its ballroom and classy but in reality half the people show up in short dresses and the guys in a nice shirt but with jeans :'/

Awww, that sounds disappointing. On our ball, people were dressed nicely overall, even though most weren't quite as extravagant as me ;)
But we were a bit disappointed by the music, most of it was more like party music, too :( not much to dance to properly and it was very loud. There was a piano concert in a side room at one point that would have been really nice but you could hear the bass from the main hall all the time :(

You have me daydreaming now about what all it would take to host a ballroom event and actually be able to pull it off.... right now I'm sitting here, mentally designing the posters to advertise the pre-event events.

(I'd want several announced times with a big space to get together ahead of time with specific teachers that people could come to, things like "Dancing in a ballgown 101", "Dancing with another ballgown 101", "Fancy ballroom dance tricks you can do when you're both in suits", "Navigating the dance floor when your partner's dress takes up extra space", "sitting down with hoop skirts", etc.
Then a really long one in the uni craft center "Making / repairing costumes" so people who can't afford to buy a suit or dress can come and create one with help.
Then one that's just about photos so the actual event, no one has to deal with photos there....)


It would be SO much work!

I think I would only want to try it if I were expecting it to become a thing that happened twice a year every year, so that it would be worth investing the time and energy into creating a set-up and take-down procedure and locating other people to organize and teach and run it, and then there'd be a whole crew who could help and we'd be able to repeat it enough it would be worth it....

I'd love to host a proper ballroom/gala event myself, and once was almost at the point of sitting down with a group of people and discuss specifics, but the group turned out to be less professional than I expected :'c

There is a wonderful event that I know of, but its held in another country and its not worth the trip/costs for one evening of frivolity.

The HP studios host a yuleball thing once a year but they also charge enough that with added travel and board costs, its not worth it :/

Yeah.... there'd be a need to rent a space, for sure. And I think it would be a little gender imbalanced in the people who would be interested to go, so there'd have to be a way to account for that. (Could probably create a number of English country-dance styles of dances that don't require a specific gendered partner, so people could come and dance without worrying). And there'd need to be some way to make sure people actually did wear costumes so it didn't turn into a casual event too quickly. Maybe have some spare suits and gowns available for people to put on if they come without any. Hmm, that might be more possible if they're also offered for sale, people can pay a small amount extra and just use it for the evening or buy the item outright, and anyone who volunteers to come help at one event gets to go to the next event for free, so you could have a few people to help out in specific roles that were available as a sign-up basis (getting swamped with volunteers and no one paying to cover cost of place rental would be an issue)...
Hm.
I can see how it would all work.
But it really would be so much work.

You'd want a room with sewing supplies to take care of any costume issues.

I'm thinking this would almost be better if it were a once-a-season thing, 4 times a year, so that people become familiar with it and how it works and they can drag their friends along, too, so it grows enough to sustain itself.
Probably best if each one was a theme so people don't just stand around blankly and get bored.
If you choose them right, it's not too much extra in cost and then everyone goes home with a little "extra" each time that sort of gradually adds to their costume so they only need the one suit or gown, and the accessories accumulate from attending....
Then there could be little events related to the theme. You could have very similar events each time, just flavored differently, so you don't have to be endlessly creative.
Like a cakewalk and the cake prizes match the theme.
Masked balls are popular but everyone would know who everyone was, so you'd need to add something to that. Hm. Maybe have a few mask stations in different corners of the room, and quietly put face paint on under the masks? Then the drama of the moment of unmasking isn't finding out who everyone is, but seeing the facepaint under the masks.
Then, another theme/event, maybe a fan competition? Every so many songs someone could come up and give a demonstration of the historic fan language, one new meaning each time, people can go around practicing on each other and having fun, and decorating blank fans, and creating beaded or braided loops to hook the fans onto their wrists or gowns/suits, however (because fans were for both genders, once upon a time). People who want to enter a competition can display their fans along one wall and vote with half their entry ticket and the winner gets some prize or another.
You could do it with flower languages, too, and boutonnieres , that would be harder and more expensive, though, so maybe not? Maybe not actually have flowers, just pictures of ones and a talk on flower language, and along each wall you have a whole conversation (with fake flowers or pictures of flowers) and people go around trying to decipher it? Every so often the conversation along one wall is announced (what it really is) and then of the people who guessed that one right (people can put their guesses in a box, signing it), you draw one out and the winner gets access to the flower pictures and designs a new conversation to put up.... you could have that going on for a while, I think.

Hmmmm....

Lemme know when you've got it all covered Li :P

ha ha, well, I might as well blather about all this to you guys, since I really don't think I am up for actually putting any on.
I might finish mentally organizing it though, and split out the specific jobs and steps and timing and estimated costs, and then just release it as a sort of free "how-to" so maybe some folk somewhere could use it to jump-start their own events.
(It's easier to amend an existing plan sometimes than to come up with one from scratch, after all)

Then I can tell myself I was being helpful, even if no one ever sees or uses it. >.<

That is helpful though, it reall is. People that host events always look at existing events or plans for events, any inspiration is nice to have eh c;