6 tips you need to banish your event planning woes!

You're stressed out, fed up of emails and calls, not knowing if you're booked in for something or not. Probably on the verge of killing each other too!

The past year has been challenging for the event planner, and with so many different kinds of events postponed, its a been a common frustration among people everywhere!

The weddings

The big birthday celebrations

The charity events

The corporate dos

The family fun days

One big headache all around!

We've searched high and low for some practical tips to help ease your struggles as event season ramps up again:

6 must-dos to banish your event planning woes!

Stay Flexible

We all set a date, and hope for the best. But with the recent pandemic we might need to re-think how we plan events in the coming months as restrictions ease. Where possible provide back-up dates. And where not possible (like weddings) keep reading...

Put agreements in place

Make sure that you have contracts and agreements in place, including what happens if things need to change, and how you are protected. You can find some great agreement templates online. In our business we use jot form, which is free for up to 5 forms. We use these for our model releases and 'time for print' agreements for styled shoots and when working with other vendors.

Get organised

Organise your to-do list based on urgency and importance. A great pro tip from Social Tables. You can find a template and how to use it here in a blog post by concept board.

Make a schedule

If you are running an event with a lot of moving parts (like a DIY wedding where you are doing a lot of it yourself vs. the venue planning it), make sure you have a schedule to keep your day flowing, and your guests knowing exactly what's happening where. This could be on something you send out, or display in creative ways like pallet schedules, check out some inspo below:

Check, check and check again

Create yourself a checklist to do a final check the week or even day before your event! Make sure everything is ready and nothing has slipped through the net (which can happen so easily!).

Over communicate

Even if you think it's too much, keep on communicating. A great example of this is a recent styled shoot we planned. We created a 'concept look-book', and sent this out to potential vendors in a PDF format. Once vendors had confirmed we then created a 'shoot information book' and sent this out with all of the vendors details in, schedule, mood boards and Covid precautions. This was then updated and resent out with a reminder the week before, along with multiple communications to individuals on different aspects of the shoot (e.g. florist, clothing, location).

Just keep those communication lines open, and try to address any possible questions your vendors or guests might have before the event even begins!

Good luck with your event planning!

Cover photo by Ibrahim Boran on Unsplash