New Year's Eve 2007

New Year's Eve is undoubtedly one of the most notorious party nights of the entire year. Clubs host parties and charge guests up to 100 dollars per ticket. Fortunately, because we are in the event planning industry New Year's Eve can be an exciting time or a very dull time. Corporations usually have holiday parties in the beginning of December because their employees are on vacation so New Year's Eve parties normally do not occur in a corporate sense. New Year's Eve parties can also be very exclusive and a great way for an event planning company to make a large sale. New Year's Eve parties tend to be very flashy and thus usually cost a large amount of money to produce. Most of the best venues have been booked since the summer and therefore, if you've waited to plan a New Year Eve's party until December you probably will not get your first choices as far as venues go. Everything in Southern California is very exclusive so New Year's Eve is even more so. People go out of their way to impress their guests not only to have fun but for safety as well. In the anticipation of drunk drivers everywhere, the police is on high alert waiting for someone to make a mistake. A great place to have a New Year's Eve party would be a hotel. People could party in a fabulous bar, stay as long as the want and indulge as hard as they want and then retire to their hotel room to sleep off their intoxication. Event planning is a lot of fun, especially if you get to host and enjoy one on New Year's Eve.

crystal p smith
event solutions
crystal@eventsolutions.com
Southern California Event Planning

Partnership

There are certain venues in Southern California (and all over the whole world I'm sure) that everyone wants to be. Everyone wants to host a party there, get married and be seen entering or leaving. Because of their popularity, these venues request huge bucks to rent their space and are booked solid. Once a host determines that they are having an event and have secured a venue, they then want to know about the food. Who will be serving it, what will they be serving, etc. These fabulous venues that get to charge thousands of dollars for only a couple of hours of rental have formed alliances with catering companies, so when you rent the space you have to use their caterer or pay an additional fee. Often times, the cater associated with the venue has fabulous food but the point is that as the host you have no control over who caterers your event unless you spend extra money to bring in your own caterer. Some venues won't even let you rent the venue, unless you do use their caterer. Event Solutions is both an event production company and a caterer and so we think that partnering with a venue is a great opportunity. First of all, because we specialize in both areas it gives us the opportunity to not only cater events that are held at the venue, but plan them as well. If a company is paired with a really great venue then it can operate one of two ways in a client's mind. Either they will jump on the bandwagon and assume the catering services will be stellar and top of the line so they will feel as though they are being tricked. The only way to really impress a client is to have fabulous food. yes, partnering with a venue is a great way to get business initially, but if your food is subpar and you exude a sense of entitlement then the client will most likely pay to bring in another caterer or change venues. We think this partnership is great because our food is fabulous, distinctive and original and would complement any event beautifully.

crystal p smith
event solutions
crystal@eventsolutions.com
Southern California Event Planning

Ghost Town

Having an event manager is not only a good idea for the client but acts as an insurance policy for the event planner. The “BEO” or banquet event order is a crucial document that provides the event manager with all of the information they would need to run the event successfully. In the case of the holidays when everyone is on vacation, or wants to be it is good to have someone who can run the event if you can not be there. Obviously, an event planner would always wish to go to an event that they planned but sometimes cannot due to their daily office responsibilities and planning for other events. In this case, it is appropriate for the event planner to meet with an event manager to go over all aspects of the event. Many of our event planners are out for the holidays but luckily we have a full staff of experienced event managers and staff who can fill in to get the job done. All of our events have been planned and timed to the key so it’s really just a matter of having someone who can follow directions.

crystal p smith
event solutions
crystal@eventsolutions.com
Southern California Event Planning

Funky Christmas Floral Arrangement Fiasco

Flower arrangements light up a room and are a very important part of an event. Without them, a dressed table looks sad… completely bare and boring. If you work with a flower shop to make the arrangements you can only dream about make sure that you can draw or have time to drive to the shop and build exactly what you want. Event planners have to be jacks of trades. You must know the basic etiquette and table setting rules, audio/visual basics and be a master at arts and crafts. It is sometimes difficult to verbally demonstrate exactly what you want out of a flower arrangement. You could say funky fresh and end up with a frilly funeral arrangement. You could say summery and green and end up with daisies and sunflowers. Everyone has a different perception of a flower arrangement and of life in general and what might look eccentric to you looks depressing to someone else. One of the event planners here ordered a flower arrangement for her most high maintenance client. When it was delivered to our offices, it had nothing to do with Christmas at all and looked puny and boring. Naturally, she was upset but used the flower arrangement for her first tasting and ordered another in anticipation of her high maintenance client. She explained to the florist her need for something beautiful, extravagantly high end with a Christmas feel but I was still skeptical. The arrangement was supposed to arrive at 3pm but at 2:30pm we began to get nervous so I went to pick it up. It wasn’t even ready when I got there so I had to wait while they put together yet another floral arrangement with only one hint of red… a single red rose. Once the arrangement was finished I piled it into my car and zoomed back to the office. When I arrived our event planners face dropped in horror. She said it looked like a funeral arrangement, I totally agreed with her and tried to come up with another solution but it was hopeless. The client arrived and echoed our same impression of the arrangement but of course our food was a big hit so all ended well. The next day, our event planner made a stop at the 99 cents store and found some really funky red Christmas balls. She went to the florist with a glass squared vase and they built her ideal Christmas floral arrangement themselves and everyone lived happily ever after. Moral of the story: Sometimes you have to give people a push in the direction you want them to go… and they just might surprise you.

crystal p smith
event solutions
crystal@eventsolutions.com
Southern California Event Planning

When the band stops playing

An event planner needs to know the planned time frame of the party so that they know how many hours to bill the client for. We need to know what time the party intends to start so that we can alert the valet, servers and entertainment when they need to be set up and ready to go by. If you say your event will end at 12am, that does not mean that your guests will be rushed out of the door or that the lights will come on suddenly blinding them but it does mean that drinks will cease to be served and the help might hesitate to serve additionally goodies. It is totally up to the client whether they would like to be billed for additional time but it is up to the event planner to alert the client to that fact. I think that if you communicate with the client and say, “It looks like everyone is having a great time and not yet ready to leave. Would you like to be billed for additional time?” If the client says yes, then you should ask them how much more time and then alert your staff so they won’t begin to close up shop when the CEO is getting ready to order his third dirty martini.
I think that in this situation, communication is always the key because it saves you from having to explain and reason later. If you feel your client might not remember what they agreed to in the morning, then ask them to sign something or find someone else who does have the power to make a financial decision. The worst thing that you can do is force people out of the door… it’s just really rude. Parties never really end on time now do they? The only place that is even close to ending on time is an LA nightclub and that’s because they call for last drinks at 1:15am and turn on the lights at 1:30am. It is really rude to do this to people who have paid lots of money to have a good time, so simply ask your client for direction. The client is never billed for clean-up hours but they will be charged for staff, bar and valet overtime and believe me, it will be a problem if you never said anything and was just an innocent bystander. If the client still wants to shut the party down even though everyone is having a great time, then simply continue on your clean up plan. Eventually, everyone will get the idea and realize that the party is over, especially once the band stops playing…

crystal p smith
event solutions
crystal@eventsolutions.com
Southern California Event Planning

Candles

Candles are a nice way to illuminate a room and add a glow to the decor. Candles look beautiful in entrances, on tables and as centerpieces. At an evening event, candles really add a special ambiance to the room. There are many different options when it comes to decorating an event with candles. Most candles cannot be displayed with an open-flame because of the fire regulations in most venues but even so, many decorative things can be done with candles. There are tea lights, votives, tapers and pillars and some candle makers can even custom design candles. Any fragrance can be added into a candle for aroma, however it might be better to use unscented candles as you are not aware of your guests' sensitivity to smell. If you are using candles on tables then you need to make sure that the candles aren't overwhelming in stature, so tea lights or votives might be a better option for table decoration. Candles are often used at weddings, outdoor events, cocktail parties and sit down dinners but can be used at any event. For a picnic, you should try to look for candles that deter insects to keep your guests comfortable. There are also many different way to display candles- the options at an event other than your home are a little more limited yet still beautiful. There are hurricane, pillar, votive and tea light holders but be sure to make sure that you check the fire regulations before committing to a particular style.

crystal p smith
event solutions
crystal@eventsolutions.com
Southern California Event Planning

The Giant Christmas Tree

Event Solutions had five events that started around the same time on Saturday and I am happy to report that they all went fabulously. One of the events that was scheduled for a weekend in late December was moved up to this past Saturday so we were under the gun all last week. The hard work paid off because every single one of our event was a huge success. On Friday, I drove to one of our locations in Northridge where I supervised the delivery of a sixteen foot tree. I'd never seen a real tree that size; it was so beautiful and filled the atrium with an amazing holiday smell. The tree hadn't even been decorated yet but still caught the attention of everyone who passed by. It took seven men to set up the tree on top of a two foot stage. They brought it in on a platform and then used manpower and the assistance of a wooden pitchfork device to lift it. I have never seen a tree that size- its water bucket was the size of a mini child's pool. One of the maintenance guys searched the office for a Sparkletts water jug to fill the bucket until he could get there Saturday to check the water level. The tree wasn't as messy as I'd anticipated which, I assume was due to the level of expertise the delivery company embodies. They deliver thousands of different sized trees all over Southern California around this time of year. As I stood there gazing up at the giant symbol that represented my favorite holiday, I couldn't help but dream about the house that would be big enough to accommodate it.

crystal p smith
event solutions
crystal@eventsolutions.com
Southern California Event Planning