As Told by a Recent Bride Working in PR
By Lizzy Vaida, Account Associate
My event planning experience first began in my college years when I served as the Public Relations Officer for a research team at my university. With that team, I led the charge on hosting outreach events that were large-scale and small-scale, in-person and virtual, in town and out of town. And I learned a lot. Then, I spent time working for my university’s marketing department, where I had the opportunity to plan an event at an even larger scale. And I learned even more. And then, late last year, I got married. And in the 14 months I spent planning my wedding, I learned the most of all. For example, I learned that planning a wedding is hardly different from planning an academic or professional outreach event (except, of course, for the massive personal element). Now, working in public relations at a marketing and communications agency, I’m ready to put my outreach event skills to use and continue learning.
Here are the top lessons I’ve learned about event planning through my own experience, from organizing a Covid-friendly, holiday-themed meet and greet with a robot, to planning my own 150-guest wedding.
Be Strategic with Your Timeline
My cardinal rule in event planning is to plan everything as far in advance as you can. This isn’t always an easy task if you’re working with a quick turnaround. But, if you have wiggle room while putting an event together, take advantage of that luxury because you never know when unexpected obstacles will bring unexpected delays.
Wedding example: If you’d like your groomsmen to purchase their suits by October, ask them have them purchased by the end of August. It might just so happen that, by the time the first groomsman goes to place his order, you find out that the suit has been discontinued and the groom has to start from square one with choosing a wedding suit. If you’ve given yourself a month or two of buffer time, you’ll likely shed *less* tears than you would have otherwise.
Professional translation: Ask your collaborators to have things done well in advance of when you need them and give your vendors some buffer time as well. But don’t let the team know that your true deadlines are secretly much farther down the line than you’re letting on.
Know Your Clients and Collaborators
Whether you’re working only with people from your own team to plan an event, or you’re collaborating with representatives from other companies, it’s important to form a good understanding of who you’re working with. Is your supervisor especially hands-on, or do they prefer you to run with things and provide updates? Does your client frequently change their mind? Is the caterer prone to over-communicate or under-communicate? Do your best to learn the quirks of your team, and you’ll be better prepared to anticipate their next moves.
Wedding example: Not to pick on the poor groomsmen, but if you know they like to sleep in and you need them at the getting-ready venue by 9:00, tell them that they need to arrive by 8:00 and they’ll be getting picked up at 7:00. Then, when they all show up early (because you gave them a stern talking to at the rehearsal dinner), you can breathe even more easily in the makeup chair.
Professional translation: Maybe your event photographer likes to show up early and rearrange the way you’ve set up an event, or maybe they’re prone to running in at the last second in a frenzy of flashing lights. Try to find out and perhaps plan accordingly.
Stay in Constant Communication with the Planning Team
Open, thorough communication is key to event planning. It’s vital to keep an eye on updates from the team throughout the event planning process. No matter the size of your event, there are sure to be lots of moving pieces, and frequent team meetings can help to keep things from falling through the cracks.
Wedding example: If you’re planning a hometown wedding from 700 miles away, it’s extra important to plan for frequent communication with your wedding planning team (i.e., your mom and sister). That’s where scheduling a weekly Group FaceTime call comes in.
Professional translation: Schedule a standing Teams or Zoom call (or, better yet, an in-person meeting if the planning team is all in one place) for the team to share updates and receive instructions. Whether you’re planning a public meeting for your local government or working with organizers across the country in preparation for an event involving hundreds of volunteers, this is an important practice to implement and stay consistent with.
(Bonus tip for both weddings and professional events: Be open to input from your planning team. Odds are, you’re working with people who have experience and/or expertise in various fields, and it’s good to consider what they’re saying, whether it’s your graphic designer suggesting a different visual style for the event’s branding and collateral or your mom telling you that artificial florals are just as beautiful as natural flowers and way less stressful at the last minute.)
Know Yourself and Plan Accordingly
When planning any event, it’s important to know what works best for you, especially in terms of an organization system. Finding your groove typically comes via some trial and error through planning multiple events, but once you learn your preferred styles and systems, things will be much smoother sailing.
Wedding example: Your wedding planner (again, mom) may be a numerically-minded person who thinks in spreadsheets. But when she shares a large and detailed spreadsheet full of wedding timelines and to-dos with you, it may just make your head spin until you close your laptop and pretend you didn’t see anything. This sounds stressful until you realize that you’re a visual planner, so organizing the to-do list into color-coded sticky notes that you stick to the wall in columns sorted in descending order of priority…now that makes sense to you. Your mom can keep her spreadsheet up to date, you can keep translating that spreadsheet into a wall full of stickies, and everyone will be happy.
Professional translation: This one is actually pretty similar to the wedding. While the content of the to-do list may not revolve around bridesmaid dresses and cake toppers, the concept remains the same. Learn what style of planning works best for you, implement that for yourself, and don’t be surprised when other members of the team take a completely different approach to planning and organizing.
Get Comfortable Delegating…Really Delegating
When you’re planning event, it can quickly begin to feel like *your* event from top to bottom; your responsibility, your pride and joy, your greatest stress. And while the pride and joy part is nice, the stress and headaches that come with shouldering an entire event just aren’t worth it. You most likely have a team to work with, whether it’s made of internal support or external collaborators, so you might as well use them! There’s nothing quite as freeing as learning to hand off a portion of the responsibility to someone else and truly not think about it until the next update meeting. It’s a skill that can take time to learn, but your event is much more likely to be successful in the end if you weren’t spreading yourself so thin that you couldn’t give anything the attention it needed.
Wedding example: It’s the week of your wedding, the list of last-minute things to get done seems to be growing exponentially, you’re desperately trying to get enough sleep every night leading up to the big day, and you feel determined that you’ll be the one to write out all 150 place cards containing each guest’s name and table number…Until you realize that there are at least 10 other tasks that require your attention and your mom has better handwriting than you do anyway. Let it go, and get some sleep.
Professional translation: Although nothing feels quite like a person’s own wedding, plenty of events can keep their planners up at night, tossing and turning with stress or working until the wee hours of the morning. At risk of sounding like a broken record, you’re working with a team of professionals who know what they’re doing. Take advantage and, once again, get some sleep.
Be Prepared for Things to Go Wrong
Lastly, with any event, something is bound to go wrong, even if it’s only something small. If you go into the day with that expectation, you can be prepared to fix whatever it is calmly instead of panicking. This isn’t to recommend a sense of pessimism, but preparing for mishaps is a wise way to keep things running smoothly on the big day.
Wedding example: If your limo driver misinterprets the 10-minute drive through town and takes the bridal party on a 30-minute joyride, cutting into photo time before the reception, it doesn’t have to be cause for panic. If you’ve built buffer time into your schedule (the buffer-time tip applies to both planning and day-of scheduling), you’ll still have time to do it all. Plus, focusing on remaining calm despite mishaps will help you to remember that no one is going to start the reception without you, so if you’re getting bustled behind schedule, who really cares?
Professional translation: If you’re planning the event, you also get to set the tone. Plan ahead to account for buffer time, anticipate mishaps so that you can calmly address them and remember: if you keep a positive, level-headed attitude, those around you will be more inclined to stay calm as well.
Event planning can feel daunting, but employing these tips can help to ease some of the pressure and overwhelm. I learned them all through experience, and I still have plenty to learn. So, remember that with every event you plan, you’re sure to come out with even more expertise on the other side. Just breathe. You got this.
If you’re planning an event or in need of other marketing and communications support, Rasor is here for you. We’re an award-winning Cincinnati agency serving clients in industries such as business-to-business, business-to-consumer, healthcare and public works. Email us at info@gorasor.com or call 513-793-1234 to learn more.