Parties are thrown all year long. Sometimes they are thrown for a holiday or a major celebration like Easter or Birthdays. However, more parties happen in December than any other month. This is because it marks the end of a year, but also Christmas time and, what’s Christmas without a Christmas party? When you’re throwing a party like this, there are a lot of things to do and there’s usually a long checklist the organising team follows to ensure that everything goes well. However, it’s also recommended that you make a list of things to avoid when planning a party. Here are a few:
Poor Contingency Plan
Every time you’re planning a party, you need to create a worst case scenario for everything. The best case scenario is that things happen exactly as you have planned it or even better. Regardless, you should try to figure out what happens if nothing you planned works out the way you want. What if your vendors don’t show up? What if your DJ suddenly falls ill and is unavailable? What would you do if your caterers mix up your orders and come with something totally different from what you asked for? You need to think of every single detail, think of how they might not work and then come up with a solution.
Miscommunication
This one is a really big problem because with all the planning and the efforts to keep up with a tight schedule, miscommunication almost always happens. It could be with the planning team or with an external factors that affect the event. Always try to stay calm and give instructions as clearly and as definitively as possible. A good way to avoid this is to make sure there’s a paper trail. Pass out instructions via text or email so people can always refer back to them when they are unsure.
Insufficient Staff
You have to make sure that you have more than enough people at the venue to take care of guests. If you have a rough idea of the number of guests that will be attending, you should be able to use this to figure out how many staff you need. Guests might need information and they will need to ask questions to get directions or answers. There should be enough people to cater to this need.
Shooting Over Your Budget
It is very easy to go over your set budget. This is because the more you plan, the more you see the need for things that you might not have seen before. Because you want the party to be successful, you start to add these things which consequently shoot up your budget. The best way to avoid this is to divide your budget into unequal halves. Take a small percentage and set it as a contingency budget. Also, make this open to your team members so it would keep you from going above and beyond.
There are many venues that can help you ease a lot of the stress involved with planning a party. Find a venue on VenueFinder depending on your location and discuss with the management about what services they have and how best they can help you eliminate these problems. VenueFinder has a large pool of venues in different locations all around you. You can also specifically search for the exact area you’re hoping to throw a party. For example, if you’re in Southhampton, you can select that as your city and you’d find the best Christmas Party Venues Southampton has to offer.
