Pitfalls to Avoid when Planning Events

Trying to plan an event is not an easy feat. There are so many things to consider and organise that sometimes we can feel out of control. Perhaps you are planning your wedding and are missing out on all the fun due to stress. Or maybe you are trying to organise a presentation or event for your business but don’t know where to start. Hiring a venue, catering, and vendors are only a small part of event planning. You need to understand where things go wrong so you can avoid these pitfalls and be successful.

Saving Grace Events has the experience to understand the specific needs of planning various events. With a hard-working team and an extensive knowledge of event planning, we can help you plan the perfect wedding, party or business event so that you are stress-free and happy.

Please keep reading to learn more about event planning and the pitfalls you could face during the planning process. With ingenuity and our help, you can avoid expensive mistakes and ensure both you and your guests are happy.

Choose Vendors Carefully

One mistake many people make when planning events is not choosing their vendors carefully enough. From the venue to the entertainment, you need to do in-depth research before you hand over any money. It would help if you looked at reviews, testimonies, photographs and evidence that the job they carry out will be top-quality. The research will enable you to see if the vendor is reliable and if they will live up to your expectations. This means you can avoid an expensive mistake if a vendor is not reputable or does a poor job.

When choosing a venue, you need to look at the amenities to ensure they can cater to all of your guest’s needs. Is there enough parking for your employees, toilets for your attendees and even hotel rooms for overnight wedding guests? You should be looking into issues like this on their website or over the phone to ensure you aren’t panicking last minute worrying about your guests.

With the amount of time needed for researching venues and vendors, it’s no surprise many people try to take short cuts. Event planners dedicate their career to helping you create the best event, in-budget. Not everyone can be an event planner, and we understand it’s not fun planning events either, so let us handle the stress so you can relax and prepare speeches or presentations.

Too Many People Or Too Much Food

Do you know how many guests or attendees you have? Have you considered if your venue can hold this number of people? Not every venue will ask for numbers if you are hiring the location and bringing in your catering or entertainment. You might think this will save you money, but when the day arrives, and your venue is filling up too quickly, it can ruin the day. Make sure you have a set list of who you want to attend the event, so you have the right numbers. From this, you can look for venues with the right capacity and amenities. 

The number of attendees can also affect your choice of caters. Having an understanding of the number of guests will allow you to order the right amount of food. At weddings, you are often advised to order enough evening food for 75% of your guests. Give your guests ample time to respond and let you know whether or not they can attend as you can alter the amount of food you are providing. The last thing you want to do is order more food than you need as this is wasted money.

Saving Grace Events can handle the complicated process of finding the ideal caterer for your event. We take into consideration your wants and search for the best caterers who can serve your guests at your location or venue. Once we have the okay from you, we can go ahead and book the caterer and ensure they know all the details of the event. If plans or numbers change, we can inform the caters or find a more suitable option.

Think About The Overall Event Flow

One mistake you can make when planning an event is thinking too much like an event planner. By taking on all of the event planning yourself, you may forget to consider the guest experience. You need to put yourself in the shoes of your guests to truly gain an understanding of how the flow of the day will feel.

As experienced event planners, whether you are hosting a wedding or a business event, Saving Grace Events understands the necessity of excellent guest experience. By handing all of the planning, you can sit back and think about what you would like to experience as a guest at the event. This allows you to come up with more ideas and insights you may not have discovered before.

Fail To Prepare, Prepare To Fail

The biggest mistake a person can make when planning an event is failing to prepare. You need to plan everything about the day for it to go off without a hitch. You need to consider timing, location, catering, attendees and even parking if you want to be stress-free on the day.

Make sure you have a solid plan in place of everything you need to book, everything already organised and other things you may be able to fit in-budget. Prices, dates for payments and times of vendor arrival written down will make the planning process a lot smoother. However, you can ensure that you are entirely prepared by allowing an event planner from Saving Grace Events to handle all of the stressful organising for you.

Saving Grace Events will make sure you have a contingency plan in place in case things go wrong on the day. Maybe you’re having a winter wedding, and a vendor can’t make it through the snow, or the caterer has backed out of your business meeting. Either way, having a backup plan will ensure that even if hiccups happen, there is always something or someone waiting in the wings to get things back on track.

Check out our website to learn more about Saving Grace Events and how we can support your event planning needs. We understand the stress and time that goes into planning business events, birthdays or weddings can often be overwhelming. Let our experienced team take control and plan an unforgettable event for you.