Festivals bring up thoughts of parades and food trucks. Outdoor weddings conjure up images of elegant white tents, pretty lights, and table/chair combos with linen tablecloths and fragrant floral centerpieces. Graduation parties celebrate accomplishments achieved and plans yet to unfold; showers anticipate milestones ahead and help the guest of honor plan for the arrival of those moments.
Toilets and forks and dumpsters are not part of the “pretties” that get discussed at planning sessions for these types of events. And yet if they are not discussed, the client runs the risk of being unprepared for bathroom emergencies, table bussing, and trash removal once the event has concluded.
Event Planning Consideration #1: Hiring a Dine ‘ n’ Ditch Caterer
Consider the DIY bride who rented out this beautiful facility in the next county, that provides the venue but leaves it up to the bride to provide the caterer and staff. The bride hires a Drop n Go caterer, which provides the meal and dishes on which the meal is to be eaten, but no staff to restock the buffet or bus the tables as guests finish… which means the trash just. Piles. Up. The property manager arrives the next morning to find, what she calls, “chicken wing bones on the floors” because no one thought in advance about the clean-up. The client had to pay the venue a fine for having cleaning staff come in after the fact.
Event Planning Consideration #2: Where’s the DJ?
Or consider the company who wanted to offer an employee appreciation event for their workers and their families, with food and games and music under a pretty tent outside one evening. But they didn’t know what questions to ask about power/electricity at the outdoor site, or WIFI, or how far the DJ had to park from the place where he was setting up his heavy equipment. The music was late starting because the DJ had to make so many trips back and forth from the van to unload his expensive and heavy amps and lights, there wasn’t enough power for all the lights and effects the client had originally envisioned, and they kept losing their internet signal in the rural setting for their event and so even the music was intermittent.
The Difference Between an Indoor Venue vs. an Outdoor Venue
You see, when a client selects an indoor venue that supplies things like forks, a dancefloor, electrical outlets, and restrooms, these factors don’t become factors. They’re included. When a client chooses an outdoor venue that may or may not include these things, they all become factors. And clients don’t know what they don’t know. The park ranger or gatekeeper of the outdoor venue is not an event coordinator and can’t be blamed for not knowing what questions to ask, either!
Aunt Sally doesn’t want to cut your cake. Uncle Louis doesn’t want to oversee loading your dirty DIY table linens into his pickup truck at the end of the night. Cousin Louisa didn’t know what she was signing up for when she volunteered to assemble your centerpieces on the afternoon of your event…complete with unwrapping all the shrink-wrapped floating candles and snipping the hydrangea stems so the big blossoms aren’t so top-heavy that they knock over the antique bud vases!
Why You Should Hire an Event Planner
This is where your handy-dandy events company comes in. When there’s a group of industry professionals who know what questions to ask, who know how long things take, who can anticipate things you haven’t thought of, you’re able to enjoy the event and know everything’s been thought of!
Your secretary doesn’t want to do it. Your nephew who worked at a fast-food place for a minute and has friends who can “probably bus tables” won’t be good at it.
Hire the professionals!
Aunt Sally and Uncle Louis will thank you.