Xplosive Blog

January 27, 2023 • No Comments

Normally when we create these blogs we provide helpful tips based around items/concepts you want to ensure are present for the success of the event. This time around, we are going to be giving it you straight and telling you the ways you could possibly sabotage your own event.

INVITED GUESTS

This topic here can be very tricky. How do you tell your child that a certain friend can’t be allowed to come to their party? Now, we aren’t saying this because we are mean but sometimes in the friend group there are just some “bad eggs”. If you know that certain kids (unfortunately this could pertain to adults as well) are just unruly, destructive or unmanageable, then just avoid any potential nightmares by simply not inviting them. You want to make sure you’re enjoying yourself, not babysitting out of control guests.

VENUE SELECTION

One of the most important details to note is the size of your reception space. If your room is too small then you risk not having the real estate for all of your booked enhancements and your guests. Making sure you have a detailed floor plan with measurements will help avoid this mistake. The opposite can be said as well. When your room is massive and you can’t fill it with guests/enhancements then the room could look barren. Even when you have all of your guests on the dance floor, the space will look empty and it could effect the overall energy and vibe of the event.

SPENDING TOO MUCH ON SWAG

We totally understand how you can go overboard on swag. We also love the sweatpants, t-shirts, customized or authentic jersey’s as much as the guests do. You name it, we’ve seen it…. While these are amazing to give away and certainly can inspire dance floor motivation and participation from the kids, there is a point where it becomes “too much”. Now your party motivators are just constantly handing out prizes and continuously running behind the booth or to a separate closet to grab these items and it can affect the way they perform and entertain.

SPENDING TOO MUCH ON LESS VITAL ITEMS LIKE INVITATIONS OR TABLE DECOR

Most of us, are on a budget when it comes to planning a celebration. Making sure you allot your budget to items that will enhance your overall vibe and guest experience is key here. While beautiful centerpieces and invitations can certainly start the event on an exciting note, if you’re chewing up a majority of your budget on these, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Spend the money on activities or enhancements that your guests can enjoy that fit your theme.

PHOTOGRAPHY OR VIDEOGRAPHY

One thing you may regret after the dust settles from your event is not having the memories captured by a reputable professional. We’ve heard this many times months or even years after an event that people wished they had booked these teams to have the memories saved for a lifetime. You work so hard to plan this celebration, make sure you can watch it for years to come!

VENDOR SELECTION

Not trusting your instincts when it comes to selecting your vendors can certainly come back to haunt you on event day (and even the future when you’re reminiscing about your special day). If something feels off about a vendor or you’ve heard negative things, don’t book simply because they have a better rate than vendors in your market. The saying you get what you pay for is often true. You must feel completely comfortable and have all of the warm and fuzzies with all of your vendors when making your final decisions. Remember these vendors will helping you plan for months or even years so there will be a lot of interaction not to mention that they will be with you the entire day on event day so that “chemistry” needs to be there in order for everything to run smoothly. Vendors should feel like family by the time your celebration begins.

OUTDOOR CELEBRATIONS

Who doesn’t love an outdoor celebration with gorgeous views?! I know we do! However, when you decide an outdoor celebration is for you, we must emphasize the importance of having a solid back up plan should there be inclimate weather. Essentially, this can equal almost double the work and sometimes may come with an added cost but it certainly will alleviate any day of stress should there be a need to switch things up. Also to be noted here, be prepared mentally to have things switch up should you have to change your original plans. Everything happens for a reason, right?

BACK UP WARDROBE

We’ve seen this mistake many times where something red gets spilled on a white shirt or when the heels start to really hurt the feet or hinder the ability to dance. Having back up wardrobe/shoes handy and readily available can help you to avoid any headaches day of.

DRIVERS

If you plan on drinking at the celebration (hey, you worked hard for it, you deserve it) then let loose and have a good time. Just ensure that you have a sober driver to take you home. Whether you rent a car service or limo, just make sure you and your family get home safely. Relying on uber can be risky if they aren’t any drivers in your area at the conclusion of the event. If uber/lyft is your choice then we highly recommend scheduling that in advance on the app.

DECORATOR/PLANNER

It’s important to have a team dedicated to setting up and breaking the decor elements of your celebration. The day is so hectic already trying to get the family ready, go to the service then immediately to the cocktail hour where your photographer is going to want to take more family photos. Having to set up the decorations is just simply not in the time frame, nor do you really want that added stress day of. This is just as important for the end of the event to ensure you don’t have to stick around cleaning up when you should be thanking guests for coming and then taking your valuables (card box, gifts, kiddish cup, etc) and getting on the road. You most likely have a hotel where guests are staying or possibly in your own home so you would want to focus on that rather than taking down centerpieces.

One last bonus tip and quite frankly probably the one I find to be the most important…. 

INACCURATE GUEST COUNTS

There’s two ways this mistake can go. You can guarantee more people to the venue than you realistically expect. This error will cost you in the end because you’re going to be paying per person to meet their quota, whether those people are present or not.

The other side of the sword is purposefully giving a lesser count than expected and I can not stress enough how much this egregious error could cost you. First off, if these adults aren’t included in the head count, they likely do not have a place card to know where they are supposed to be seated. Now, day of the event, your event staff is scrambling trying to help accommodate those guests rather than making sure the event is running smoothly. f there are more than can be seated in existing tables, now they are wheeling tables and chairs out in the middle of what should be an epic dance set to start the party off right and get the energy created for your grand entrance. It’s just a snowball effect of disaster that can absolutely be avoided. This could severely delay your timeline. Not to mention, those guests will usually feel either embarrassed OR they could feel like you as the host, neglected them. On the kids side, you could likely not have enough seating in the lounge as well for the unaccounted for guests. From a catering perspective, there could not be enough food to feed all the guests which another mistake that is easily avoidable. Regarding the entertainers, we will only book the amount of entertainers you need based on your guest count as well, so a much higher than anticipated guest count could be detrimental to the success of the event. I promise you, it’s not worth it to save a few dollars. You work so hard in the planning process and spend your hard earned money for this celebration and it could all be futile by these self sabotaging acts.

 

In the end, there’s nothing more that we want than to ensure a phenomenal, blockbuster event for you, your friends and your family. Help us to help you accomplish the most epic night of your life by simply listening to us and your other trusted professionals.