Curated by our booking agents, follow our exclusive guide on how to plan a successful event.

Event planning can be a stressful business for even the most savvy and experienced professionals; for those who take on the role infrequently, that stress is only magnified. From booking a venue to hiring caterers and sorting out the decor and entertainment, every element of an event must be planned in order for it to run smoothly.

The sad fact is that the one detail which wasn’t quite right is much more likely to stick in a guest’s mind than the 99 elements of an event which were just perfect. Whether it’s not allowing enough time to dress the venue or finding yourself short of canapes, there’s nothing worse than an event going wrong.

Luckily, you can steal a few tools from the kit of an experienced event planner in order to make sure your event goes off with a bang – and the most important of those is a timeline.

Why is an event planning timeline important?

The further you are away from an event, the easier everything will be to plan. By allowing enough time, you’ll find that stressful tasks become mundane without a ticking clock in the background. If you create a timeline or checklist as soon as the idea of an event is mooted, you can stay on top of things right up until the day that the event takes place.

By writing down each of the things that needs to be done before an event, you’ll also have a visual cue as to the workload involved in planning an event. You can then take steps to share out that workload if necessary, alleviating the pressure on yourself and ensuring that things are done to a high enough standard.

What should be included on an event planning timeline?

When you write a timeline, your goal should be to be as comprehensive as possible – but know that it won’t be a static list. You’ll have to add, remove and check off tasks constantly, so if there’s more than one person involved in organising the event, a document on a shared drive to keep track of progress would be a good idea.

Try to think of every single task, no matter how small, which will need to take place before you open the doors of your event. Begin with booking a venue, entertainment and caterers, choosing a theme and sending out invitations and work all the way down to things like inflating balloons, printing out name badges and procuring parking permits. The more you can think of ahead of time, the lower the potential for nasty surprises on the day!

Where can I find event planning tools?

The internet is a brilliant resource for event planning tools catering for every need. Even if the ones that you find are not 100% relevant to the event you’re planning, you can probably use elements to create your own timeline or checklist.

The website Wild Apricot offers a free downloadable checklist that’s very comprehensive – if you want to rearrange it into the order in which tasks need to be completed, it could form a useful starting point. Ticket marketing site Eventbrite also offers a useful blog post with tasks to be completed before the event launch, after the event launch and on the day. Although less comprehensive, it might give you an idea of the order in which to do things.

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Take a weight off your shoulders and let entertainment agencies like MN2S help with all of your event entertainment needs. We have a wide range of celebrity talent and celebrities to hire, from all walks of life, so there’s sure to be someone suitable for your event. Get in touch to find out more.

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