Ready…Set…Action!  You are a producer but it’s not Hollywood, Baby… We are talking about…Event Producer!  The party is completely reliant on you to coordinate, design, and manage all of your event details. If you don’t have the luxury of hiring a Party Planner, pay close attention the following topics (décor, flowers, lighting, and music).  By the time you’re done reading this article, you’ll be on your way to producing the perfect event!

Space Planning
One of the biggest things I’ve seen overlooked at events I’ve attended was the lack of space planning.  If you crowd the room with too much décor and not enough seating, you will have some unhappy guests.  As the event designer, you’re responsible for making sure that at least half of your guests have a place to sit.  Get creative when providing seating.  There are a number of things you can use that will make your event feel more comfortable than just laying out folding chairs.  Make a lounge area by grouping couches, loveseats, ottomans, you name it, together.  If you don’t have any of these furnishings, you can rent them. This not only provides a comfortable party atmosphere but it also promotes socializing amongst your guests.

Simple Elegance for Table Design
Flowers- the major substance of your table arrangement.  You’ve heard more isn’t always better.  Such is the case with table decor; the accents can be subtle but very chic.  Take one single-stem, lavender Orchid and place it in a long slender clear glass container.  Place a few small battery operated LED lights in the bottom of your vase and highlight your flowers!  Accent it with all white linens and plates and watch the color POP!  Your guests will appreciate a creative and simply elegant approach to your table top design.

Clutch Centerpieces

• Beach sand, seashells, and sand-dollars- placed on the table or in glass bowls.
• A large mirror with candles in varying sizes on top.  Place black and red rose petals for a hot, sexy ambience!
• Floating candles always do the trick.  Go with white candles and add green food coloring in the water to complement an outdoor spring dinner party at dusk.
• Autumn party?  Place fall leaves that have changed colors into a straw basket.  Add a small sized pumpkin to top it off.

Who’s who…Place Cards
As the event planner, it’s your job to make sure your guests socialize.  That is the point of a party, right?  Place cards are extremely important in making sure that happens.  Even with a small party, it makes it much easier for your company to strike up a conversation with unacquainted guests rather than sitting next to someone they already know. 

Place Card Design
Place cards should, for the most part, complement the event theme and go with the table top décor.  If you are having a formal event, I always suggest that that your place cards look a lot like your invitations. Consistent is the key here.  Try to use a similar style, paper, motifs, and font.  If your party is more casual, then there are no hard and fast rules.  Use your imagination…

Stop and Smell the Flowers
This can be costly or inexpensive.  Sure you can hire a florist and mark that off your check list.  Or with a little creativity and a visit to your local grocery store or nursery, you can make the arrangements yourself.  The grocery store oftentimes carries very reasonably priced floral.  You can also visit your local nursery for foliage.  Bring in a few miniature palm trees for your tropical island party.  There are even companies that rent out live trees for such events. 

I can’t preach consistency enough.  Your floral should match the theme of your party.  If you’re doing a seasonal theme, like a feast for the fall, find flowers to match.  Bright orange honeysuckle combined with glass cylinders filled with Olives or Plumbs, which are both in season during that time of year, would work wonderfully.  For the summer use sunflowers along with shells and sand. 

Keep yourself from spending too much money by overbuying flowers.  Make sure you envision how you want them to look when it’s all said and done.  Oh and don’t forget the supplies which is a common mistake.  Keep in mind you might need things like an oasis (moldable material that soaks up water and fits inside containers so you can stick your flowers in them); otherwise, you might overbuy or windup without the proper supplies.  The things most people overlook are the supplies.  It takes more than a vase and some blooms to make an astonishing arrangement.  It’s all about the equipment.   You might need an oasis, chicken wire to hold the oasis together, and green floral tape.

The last thing you want is wilted flowers.  Immediately cut the flower stems when you bring them to your event or party location.  Once cut, place them in room temperature water for about three hours before putting the arrangements together.  This will help prevent withering and make the flowers stronger.  Add flower food from the florist (Crystal Clear).  You can also use three spoons of sugar and a cup of bleach in a gallon of water.   Follow these tips and your company will think you hired a celebrity event designer!

Lighting Makes Ya Pretty
If there is one thing I tell my clients over and over again is that lighting will make or break your party.  It sets the mood and makes the average individual look stunning.   This is one critical item you must give much attention to.  Romantic or Dance Club, the lighting will turn an ordinary room into something completely different. 

Envision the event and the outcome you want to give to your guests.  If you want your party’s mood to be progressive and change throughout the party, I always suggest using programmable LED lights.  You can set these lights to change colors and patterns over the course of the night.  The LED lights give of a much sharper and refined lighting output, far more effective than conventional lighting.  LED lighting also doesn’t require much electrical power.  It’s ideal for a space that is not capable of handling large power loads.

Inside Lighting
I’m sure you’ve been to a night club before, dancing until the early hours of the morning.  You find an attractive dance partner, but when 2 a.m. comes around and the lights come on (I call these ugly lights) as the club closes, they aren’t so attractive anymore!  The moral of the story?  You never want you’re your party space to be too bright. 

A couple of ideas to make that happen:

• I’m a big fan of dimmers.  Head to Home Depot and spend a few dollars on DIMMER SWITCHES.  They are fairly easy and quick to install.  What a big difference this makes!
• COLOR LIGHTBULBS.  Again drive over to Home Depot and take a stroll down the light bulb aisle.  There you’ll find color light bulbs from blue to red.  If they don’t have the color you’re looking for, visit a craft store such as Michael’s.  There, you will find floral paint with virtually any color you want. Spray any clear, low-wattage light bulb with the color you want.  Let it dry for several hours and presto- custom lighting!  Do these with recessed can lights or regular end-table lamps.
•  Adjustable UPLIGHTING is very effective for highlighting a certain area of the room such as cool artwork or maybe a chocolate fountain. 
• Replace floodlight bulbs in recessed lights with SPOTLIGHT BULBS.  This creates a really awesome ray of light effect.
• CANDLES are the most common, least expensive, and easiest way to transform your room lighting.  Rule of thumb: don’t use more than one to two candles per one hundred square feet of space. Not only will they give off more light than you need but there is also a temperature factor you need to take into consideration.  You’d be surprised on how much heat a candle will generate.

Outside Lighting
You won’t be much of an event coordinator if your guests are late because they got lost.  Make sure your event venue is very visible by making it well lit.  If you really want to get fancy use search lights (you can rent these).

            Get creative outside by using tiki torches, bonfires, and lanterns.  Twinkle lights (Christmas lights) are an easy way to highlight landscape.  Just make sure the twinkle lights are for outdoor use (waterproof). Just about everything is for rent, including heat lamps.  They serve two purposes, obviously they keep your guests warm on cold winter nights and they give off great light.  If you have a pool party, use floating floral arrangements with candles in the center. 

Turn it Up
Just like lighting, music is crucial to making your event a smash hit or a total bore.  In my experience as an event producer, I’d rather be at a party where the food and drinks were mediocre but the Dee Jay was on his game.  Having a good Dee Jay or a talented band is only half the battle.  Make sure your music genre and track selections match your party’s theme.  Common sense says you don’t want hip-hop blaring if it’s a romantic dinner party.  Get it out of your head that having a live band is much better than a Dee Jay.  This is not always the case.  Better to have an awesome Dee Jay than a garage band out of key.  If it’s in your budget, it is ideal to have both a Dee Jay and a live band.  You might want to rock out to say Dave Matthews or Pearl Jam with the live band, but then have the Dee Jay take over towards the end of the night to spin hip-hop or dance beats. 

If your budget is really tight iPod it!  Put together a cool track list and hit shuffle.  Simple but effective.

 

By: Michael Bassolino