Party & Event Planning Archives

Here’s What Makes a Great Party Planner

Some things are best left to the professionals — oftentimes, that includes planning events. While it’s certainly possible to DIY a great soiree, hiring a professional party planner ensures you can put on a successful event and actually enjoy it, too.

So, how do you know what qualities to look for in your perfect event planner? Look no further: We’ve done the research and talked to experts. Read on to see what we found out.

They’re organized

Let’s face it: Party planners are often so crucial because there’s just so much planning to do! Even if you’re naturally organized and a master of systems and checklists, a great planner should have processes in place that top even your best DIY ideas.

Ask them a bit about what they do to stay on top of all their work. While they don’t have to show you their personal templates, reports, or spreadsheets, they should be able to give you some background on their method of organization.

Do they have a unique way of wrangling vendors? Do they vow to check in with caterers regularly? Ask questions about their workflow so you know they’re intentional about how they handle all the moving parts. The last thing you need is a planner that prefers to wing it.

They track stats and data

Did you know that event planning software and analytics tools are a big market for event planning professionals? Many of today’s top planners use some form of data products to keep them on budget and on time.

They also often use these tools to provide them with precious performance stats so they can tell you how everything went. While you don’t necessarily need to know the nitty gritty of how this is done (or what tools they use), it’s a great dose of transparency.

They take their work seriously

Even if you find out about a party planner from a referral or mutual friend, it’s wise to take the time to research their business and ensure they do things like a professional. Start with their website or social media platforms to see how they communicate. Look to see that they have more than one way to reach them. Can you call? What about text or email?

You may also want to check any online reviews for the planner if they’re big enough to have them. Not all of the best planners will have reviews, and that’s OK. Remember that a bad review or two isn’t necessarily accurate or representative of their work as a whole. Seek out a broad range of reviews or comments, and take them as a collective account of how they’ve done business in the past.

They can provide references

More than just online reviews, a seasoned event planner will likely have references who can speak to their work. To take things a step further, it might also be helpful to ask if they have references that aren’t just former clients.

Venues or caterers, for example, could add some depth to their history that shows how easy they are to work with or their communication style. Whether the planner offers references as part of their proposal or you ask for them directly, they shouldn’t balk at the idea of third-party testimonies that you can confirm with the sources personally.

How to plan the perfect party in 5 easy steps

Whether your’e coordinating an office event, setting up a kid’s birthday party or celebrating something special with family and friends, check out these simple tips to help you get the party planning started.

Step One: The big one – budget

Whether you budget is set by your boss or hammered out between you and your spouse, setting a dollar amount and making every decisionwork with that number is critical to your planning success.

Once you decide on the maximum spending amount, make a list of projected expenses – food , party venue, entertainment, party furniture, lighting, catering equipment, marquee etc record all the costs keeping in mind your maximum allowance. It is a good idea to have a provision in your budget say 10% for unexpected expenses this will provide a cushion for items that may have been missed in the planning stage.

Step Two: The party team

Enlist the help of a team of people, they will help to come up with idea’s for your theme, make a list of who will help with what task. Time management on the day of you party / function is critical to the success of your party, everything needs to run on time.

Step Three: Planning, create a checklist

Creating a to do list in order of time can assist the team in ensuring that all the tasks for the party are organised and ready to go on the day, the checklist can also include a run sheet for the day.

Arrange regular catch up meetings with your team to ensure everyone is on track. A team member who is ahead of schedule can reach out to another who might need a little extra help.

Step Four: Invitations

Ensure invitations are sent out with enough time prior so that guests have plenty of time to plan ie babysitters, transport etc. As you are working to your budget it is important to maintain the number of guests that you have budgeted.

If you are using social media to invite your guests ensure you use a closed event and that invitations are controlled.

Step Five: On the day

Its important that the checklist is used to ensure nothing is missed and everything runs to the plan. If their are any minor issues on the day these often aren’t noticed by the attendees, it is important that any issues are handled with discretion.

Ulimately the success of your party will be based around the guests having a positive fun experience on the day.

Special event planning timeline

Ideally, you want to start planning a major event a year or more ahead. Once you have a date and venue, here’s what else you’ll need to do:

12 months before

Choose a theme and work on a budget. Decide the general type of event, such as sit-down dinner or buffet meal, and other major aspects, such as entertainment.
Get cost estimates for food, drinks, entertainment, decorations and gifts. Food alone can cost from $10 to $35 a person, so feeding a party of 100 people could cost at least $3,000. A professional DJ for the entertainment could cost between $100 and $300 an hour.

Six months before

Finalize details with all vendors.
Buy decorations and choose invitations.

Two months before

Mail invitations six to eight weeks before the event.
Finalize details for transportation and guest lodging.

One month before

Contact guests who have not responded to the invitations, so you can provide a final head count for vendors, especially the caterer and event hall.

One week before

Plan to be busy with last-minute details, including decorating, seating arrangements and preparing gifts or favors for guests.

What are the benefits of hiring someone to plan my party?

Planning a party can be downright stressful, but most people don’t even consider hiring a professional event planner for anything other than their wedding. However, hiring an event planner is more affordable than you might think and they can help coordinate any type of party, such as:

Children’s birthday parties
Teen parties
Bar and bat mitzvahs
Corporate events
Company holiday parties
Fundraisers
Bachelor and bachelorette parties
Weddings
High-school and college graduation parties
Memorials
Holiday events

Benefit Hire a Party Planner?

A party is always an exciting event. It’s something that people look forward to escape stress and just have a good time, so parties shouldn’t be complicated events – especially for the guests! Of course, it can be a different story if you’re the one planning the event. It might be a little nerve wracking and stressful, and you’ll need a solution for that.

Hiring a party planner may be the best option. You might think that hiring professionals can become costly and unnecessary, even for big events, but at Scarlet we , our luxury wedding planners and party planners often provide even more help than our clients ever imagined. Many people don’t consider the many benefits of hiring professionals until they’re presented clearly:

1. It Saves You Time

This is one of the primary reasons for hiring party planners. Time is such a valuable commodity that you wouldn’t want to waste it at any stage in the planning process. An initial strategy meeting that plans out the whole event is what’s going to happen. After that you could let your planner do all the meetings and whatever else is needed. He’ll basically organise the whole occasion for you.

2. It is Cost Effective

Yes, you read that one right! Our event planners ask about the budget early on and help establish the best way to use it with you. From there, they can easily go to suppliers and vendors who can fit into that budget of and make everything work.

3. Your Party’s Going to Look Great

You’ll probably get by on your own, but it’s not going to look as great as if you had when you have professionals planning your event for you.

4. Help with event planning details

An event planner will help figure out location, seating, food and drinks, and entertainment to make your event unique and a smooth and seamless production, no matter how large or small. They’re experts in coordination, and know what details to consider — even when you don’t.

Avoid Shaky Footage

Have you ever watched a video and the person filming just couldn’t keep the subject in frame? You probably got so frustrated, you wanted to just give up watching.

This is not the viewer experience you want to give you audience.

Now, shooting handheld footage, in some cases, works really well and can be an effective way to move your audience in an emotional direction.

Unfortunately, when it comes to shooting your business videos, this may not be the best style to take. The fact is, shaky footage looks amateur, and although you may be a beginner, your videos shouldn’t reflect it.

Remember, videos are an important touchpoint with your brand and achieving that clean, professional look in them will build credibility and trust.

No Tripod, No Problem

There are a couple manual techniques you can use to avoid shakiness while shooting your videos:

T-Rex Arms – Take the camera with both hands, and bring your elbows into your body just under your armpits and the camera close to your chest.
Human Tripod – Use your surroundings as a place to rest your elbows. Find the ideal height for your shot and spread your legs about shoulder width apart to form the “Human Tripod.”

Stabilizing Gear

Ok, so you have techniques for when you’re on the go with little equipment, but sometimes, you need gear to give you that extra edge. What should you get?

Monopod – Ideal for almost every scenario, a monopod allows you to move quickly and set up quickly. A monopod is simply a tripod but with only one leg (hence the name monopod). It’s almost like a selfie stick that stands on its own.
Tripod – This is the most common of all stabilizing gear, and a great tool for all types of situations; Interviews, close-ups, time-lapse just to name a few.
Gimbal – A mechanical device that gives an object, such as a camera, the ability to rotate around a single axis. In simple terms, it’s a device that allows you to attach a camera and with the right calibration, that camera will stay centered and fixed on a single plane.

Give importance to sound quality

A video is essential to capture the picture of your event, but it’s equally important to care about the sound quality of your event video. Especially when you have a human figure talking on the screen in videos with speech, presentation, anchor hosting, interviews, testimonials, etc. You may choose to add the audio during post-production, but be sure that you are carrying the right equipment to record clear sound bites from the event.

ADD TEXT TO YOUR EVENT VIDEO

Consider adding text to those videos where sound quality fails to deliver the message. A lot of videos are watched on mute these days. In fact, a recent study says that 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Modern-day viewers consume videos passively while commuting to their destination or in public spaces. Adding text to the video is critical since they would help the viewer understand the video in its context in spite of its bad sound quality or on mute.

Set up Your Event Like a Professional Party Planner

If you’re just starting out in event planning, this video will still be really helpful for you as this professional event planner shows you her event set up process for an actual client. Most private events won’t include event staff to help you, so knowing how to successfully set up an event is a skill you’ll need at some point.

Main Takeaway: From production kits to client communication, this event planning video has you covered for all your event set up basics.

How Event Videography Rates Are Determined

First, let’s consider what to expect when budgeting for event videography, how rates work for your event filming. Most videographers or professional event videography companies will charge a base rate such as a “day” rate or a “half-day” rate. This is the bare minimum cost that you can expect for event video production services for a full day, which is 8 to 10 hours, depending on the company or a half-day, which is usually 4 hours.

MULTI-DAY COVERAGE

If you have a multi-day event taking place, you will likely need to budget for a multi-day event videographer to cover your event. While there may be discounts for multiple days of filming, you can generally expect to pay the full-day rate for each day that you utilize event videography services to record real-time footage.

DURATION OF EVENT

For short events, an hourly rate may be more budget-friendly. However, keep in mind that with an hourly rate, you are often required to secure at least 4 hours, and if your event goes over at all, the rate is significantly higher than the standard rate. As such, it is generally best to pay for a half-day even if you believe your event will be less than 4 hours in total length.

KEEP IN MIND

Various factors influence the amount you will pay for event coverage. As you’re budgeting for event videography, keep in mind that the following factors have a lot to do with the total cost of event video production services:

Location of the event. Filming in major cities may cost more at peak times.
Date and time of the event. Peak dates, including holidays and weekends, may cost more.
Editing of final footage. Events that include final footage with customizations, extensive graphics, or another major editing will cost more.
Special equipment needed for production. Things like drone footage, additional lighting, special audio equipment, or other needs can add to production costs.
The number of cameras used. Each camera adds resources and increases costs.
Consulting for the script, talent casting, or storyboarding. Although generally not required for events, additional consulting can add to the total budgeted cost.

Category: Party & Event Planning

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