Great Fall Equinox Spa Party last night...

I conducted a focus group back in July of 2009 with some of Pavia's best clients. I played several games with them and ran some ideas by them on a warm Sunday afternoon. One game I played was called, "Speedboat," where I asked them to imagine that Pavia was a speedboat and that we had anchors that caused our speedboat to be "slow." I asked them to each write down the name of the anchor and come and post it on the poster of the speedboat. This is a game intended to get them thinking about what they don't like about Pavia.

One of the biggest anchors was, "Have more parties." Meaning, they wanted us to have more events and spa parties - I didn't realize these events were so enjoyable, so I decided to listen to them and do quarterly parties. Along came the inaugural "Fall into Pavia" equinox party, to celebrate nothing more earth-shattering and impactful than the seasonal transition. Which, in California, is kind of non-existent. (The full import of this realization occurred yesterday, as I was scattering leaves throughout the spa and putting paper pumpkins into vases, that it was fall inside the spa, but it was definitely summer outside, if the 95-degree weather had anything to say about it).


Nevertheless, we proceeded bravely with our "Fall into Pavia" event last night and we had a great time. Even me, though I was running around for the most part a la a headless chicken. For the first time ever, the party was completely sold out, and I think this was due to our membership program. Every guest was either a member or the guest of a member, and if they were neither, then they became a member by the end of the night. We offered services that I tried very hard to name as "cutely" as possible:

• Stick-Me: Acupuncture. Although our LAc, Anne Dugan, is so fabulous she can do needle-less acupuncture.
• Peel-Me: Facial, featuring our Yam & Pumpkin Enzyme Peel from Eminence. Great for fall!
  
• Read-Me: Tarot reading, featuring the ever-insightful Theresa Hatcher. 
• Forget-Me-Knots: Massage. Forget my knots, get it? Haha. 
• Wrap-Me: A body wrap, which included dry-brushing session followed by a wrap in the Eminence Pumpkin Cream Wrap in our wet room, which has a 5-headed Vichy Shower in it (makes for an fabulous water treatment).
• Me Dogs Are Barking: A foot treatment. Because the swine flu has hit our town pretty hard, I included a hot oil treatment with Thyme and Eucalyptus to bolster immunity.

All the guests seemed relaxed and content afterwards, which is always a good feeling. It was stressful this time, especially as the person who was going to cater canceled on me one day before, and she was also one of the estheticians who was going to perform the peels. We did a last-minute scramble (thank God for our new hire Kim Boyd, who is a nail technician possessed of an esthetician license), begged Summer to come in and do the foot treatments, and all was well that ended well.

Took a quick poll to see if the next party should be before or after the holidays, and they seemed to concur that it should be post-holiday, when everyone has time to relax and detox. Am going to have fun concocting mini-treatments for that, for sure!