Find Your Venue Resources
Find Your Venue Top 10 Event Planning Tips
Planning your event properly is the key to ensuring that it is a success and that everything runs smoothly on the day. As you are no doubt already aware, there are many things which need to be considered as part the planning process.
Findyourvenue.com has put together a brief set of 10 tips that will assist you and provide guidance on the most important aspects of planning your function. In addition to these tips you can search our detailed directory of related services and source a specialist event planning company who can provide the necessary expertise and take away the stress!
Determine the budget for the event that you are planning
The amount available to spend needs to be agreed before the rest of the planning process is undertaken. This figure will have an impact upon all of the following criteria and, if not set in advance, could spiral if numbers and location are booked prior to the budget being put together.
Decide who will be attending
Nature of attendees and numbers attending. Put together a guest list well in advance if possible.
Decide when the event will be taking place
Date, start and end times etc.
Decide upon a suitable location
Ensure that the location is convenient for the majority of those attending and that transportation links are adequate.
Find Your Venue
Use the findyourvenue.com database of venues to find your perfect location. Factors to consider are availability, capacity, cost, facilities, accessibility, overnight accommodation and appropriate licences.
Determine your catering needs
Make sure that you can choose what food and drink will be served to your guests and ask if it is possible to attend a tasting before making your final choice from the menus available. Factors to consider are will you be providing a sit-down or buffet style meal for your guests and how many persons are you planning to feed and water? What type of food would your guests enjoy and at what time would you like the food to be served? Will you be providing a drinks reception and canopes or simply going straight into the main meal?
Entertainment
Whether you provide entertainment and the type of entertainment chosen will depend upon the nature of the event being planned and those persons attending. Nothing beats the atmosphere of a live band but the quality of the band and the type of music being played must be considered carefully and must also fit in with the overall theme of the event. A live band can also be quite costly so have a think about other forms of entertainment such as a disco, comedian, guest speaker etc. Also ensure that the venue has the necessary licences in place and allows for firework displays if applicable.
Establish a dress code if applicable
If applicable, decide upon a dress code that fits in with what you are trying to achieve from your event. Consider a theme for corporate and private functions. A black tie dress code gives an evening function a touch of class and can create the right atmosphere. Whatever you decide to do ensure that you communicate any dress code to your guests to avoid any embarrassment.
Send out invitations
Either prepare your own invitations or source a suitable stationer from the findyourvenue.com related services database. Aim to send the invitations out to your guests 6 weeks in advance and include a map and directions with the invitation. It is often worthwhile preempting this with an E-mail notifying attendees of the event that will be taking place and any important information that they may find to be useful.
Seating plans and place identifiers
Deciding upon a suitable seating plan can be a difficult task but can be vital to the success of an event / making sure that everyone enjoys themselves / meets the relevant people. Make sure that seating arrangements are clearly communicated and use place cards if necessary. Depending upon the nature of the event, try to be a bit different in terms of the styling of the place identifiers. Named pens can be a good idea at a conference or corporate function. Heart shaped tags are a nice touch at weddings. Try to be creative where possible.