5 Most Common Event Planner Mistakes

Event planning can be an exciting job but if you do it for life, you may find that from time to time things don't go according to plan and all because of your own mistake. This usually happens to the less experienced employees but the main thing to take from any mistakes is to learn from them! You didn’t plan for bad weather - you’ve organised an outdoor event: a festival or a wedding and forgot to order cheap umbrellas to shield the guests from rain. Now last minute, you’re struggling to find a supplier that can deliver them before your event starts. Tip: this is a very common thing at our umbrella store head office. We receive a call asking if we can deliver umbrellas next or same day. The sooner you realise you need cheap umbrellas, the better. We offer a next day delivery and we can do our best to have the brollies delivered on the same day. The latter is not always possible and adds an extra shipping charge so remember, time is of the essence! You went over budget - you forgot to include an essential part of the event in the budget and now you’re stuck with no money for food or transport. You can try returning any non-essential decorations or look for new sponsors but once you overspent that’s it. Tip: Use a budgeting template or compare the cost to a previous similar event. You didn't order enough of something - chairs, food or umbrellas. Don’t panic and before anything else: apologise to the guests. Next call your suppliers for an emergency delivery or send someone from your team to a local shop. You dressed inappropriately - one thing you should remember is that you need to be comfortable on the day of event. Forget being fashionable, you will be running from one side of the event to another and the last thing you need is uncomfortable shoes or short skirt needing adjusting every minute. Dress simple and practical but if you find yourself uncomfortable, try to get back home and change or find a shop on local shop that sells basic garments. You can also be lucky to have a same size colleague with a spare pair of shoes. You forgot to update someone - there’s plenty of people to communicate with before the event. Suppliers, colleagues, clients... You might have ordered a bunch of cheap umbrellas but forgot to let everyone know and someone placed another order. Tip: Set up a task with everyone involved following it and fields that you must tick after updating those who are not on your system. Organisation is essential in this line of work. If the worst happens, don't blame things on someone else just admit to the mistake. Everyone makes them and its better to take the blame and try to fix it asap that create more drama by blaming others.