Chapter 01
Three numbers everything else follows from
Guest numbers, date and budget. Until those three are known at least roughly, no venue can be chosen and no programme discussed, because every option works out differently.
With guest numbers, the people invited and the people who come are not the same figure. At company events a smaller share of those invited tends to arrive than at family celebrations, where nearly everyone does. So the venue is chosen for the real number rather than the invitation list, and confirmations are collected up to a date after which the food order can no longer change.
The date is more than a day in the calendar. Fridays and Saturdays in season are expensive and booked out; a weekday is usually cheaper and easier to get, but some guests will leave early because of the morning. December in Prague is booked months ahead.
It is worth splitting the budget into parts before asking for any quotes: venue, food and drink, programme, equipment, photography and a reserve. The reserve is not a formality. It is the line the unplanned things get paid from.
A venue is chosen for the guests who will come, not for the invitation list.
Chapter 02
The venue and what it will not do
The capacity in the offer applies to one layout. A hall for a hundred and fifty in theatre style holds considerably fewer at round tables, because the service has to get between them.
Three things are worth checking in person rather than from photographs: how equipment gets in, where the power is, and how the room behaves acoustically. High ceilings and bare walls photograph well and swallow the spoken word.
Ask about time twice: from when the build may start and by when everything must be cleared. If the room opens at six and the event starts at seven, everything that takes longer than an hour to build is out, and that is most staging and lighting.
For outdoor places, ask about the wet-weather option before anything else. A marquee is booked weeks ahead and is rarely free on the day.
When the build may start and when the room must be cleared. More events come apart on that than on the programme.
Chapter 03
A schedule that survives contact with guests
An evening does not fall apart because of one large mistake. It falls apart through a series of fifteen-minute slips that add up. Arrivals take longer than planned, a speech runs over, and the first course leaves the kitchen at a time that no longer applies.
It helps to split the programme into fixed and loose points. Fixed ones cannot move: the band's arrival, a speech at a stated hour, a performance booked for a fixed time. Loose points sit between them and get shortened when things run late.
The official part belongs at the start, while people are seated and listening. After the food and the first block of music, not even a good host will get the room's attention back.
The last item in the schedule is getting people home. Who looks after guests with no way back is settled before the event, not at midnight.
The official part belongs at the start, while people are seated and listening.
Chapter 04
Food that follows the format, not the organiser's taste
A buffet and a served dinner are not two prices for the same thing. A buffet moves people around and lets them talk to more of the room; a served dinner seats them and holds attention at the table. Which one you want follows from what the evening is for, and only then does the menu come up.
Quantities are calculated from the real guest count plus a small reserve, not from the invitation list. Surplus food is the most common wasted line in an event budget.
Always order a meat-free and a gluten-free option, even when nobody asked in advance. The allergen question belongs in the invitation; a minority will answer it, and that minority is exactly the one that would otherwise have nothing.
With drinks, agree what is included and what is paid separately. Leaving that vague ends in an argument over the bill that pleases nobody.
A buffet moves people, a served dinner seats them. Format first, menu second.
Chapter 05
Equipment: four things it rests on
Sound, light, picture and power. Sound decides whether the room can hear; light, whether the stage and the food are visible; picture, whether the back rows can read the slides. Power decides whether all of it runs at once.
A microphone for speech and a microphone for singing are not the same thing and are easy to confuse. If someone is going to present, a headset or lapel microphone belongs in the order, because a handheld occupies a hand the speaker is going to need.
A rehearsal before the event is short and saves the kind of problem that cannot be fixed while it is happening. What needs going through is the transitions between programme items, not just that the sound works.
Ask about the power draw specifically. A large hall with old wiring will carry either the lighting or the kitchen, and which one drops out becomes clear only when it is too late.
A handheld microphone occupies a hand the speaker is going to need.
Chapter 06
What you sign, and what happens if it rains
Four things belong in the contract by name: what the subject is, what is delivered by when, when and how much is paid, and what happens if either side cancels. Everything else is detail that can be settled later.
Deposits hold the date with suppliers, and how refundable they are depends on how close to the event the cancellation comes. With bands and venues the last week tends to be non-refundable, because the date can no longer be sold to anyone else.
Changing the guest count has a date of its own. After it the food order does not change, or changes with a surcharge, and that is the most common misunderstanding between an organiser and a caterer.
For an outdoor event, settle who decides to move inside and by when. A decision taken two hours before the start is usually not a decision any more but an observation.
Event insurance is worth it where a large deposit hangs on a single evening. Ask what it covers: cancellation on health grounds, damage to a rented space and liability for guests are three different things.
A decision to move inside taken two hours before the start is not a decision any more.
What to have settled a month before
- A confirmed venue with load-in and clear-out times agreed in writing
- A realistic guest count and the date after which it stops changing
- A schedule with the fixed points marked
- A menu including a meat-free and a gluten-free option
- Equipment ordered and a rehearsal date agreed
- A wet-weather option and the name of whoever decides on it
- Signed contracts and a list of deposits with their deadlines