How to Get the Buzzzz Going About Your Event!

So I had a close friend of mine ask, "How can I get my event to appeal to the most amount of people and spend no money....and by the way its tomorrow". As I laughed, I said..."That's easy, one word....Facebook"! I like to use Facebook when I need to create an event on the fly. Its free, its easy and its the best way for me to reach the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time. It creates a quick, easy Buzz in the air about your party! What I like the most, is it advertises it self. I once hosted a pub crawl to benefit a local charity. So that being said, I wanted to get the most amount of people to come without spending any money. I turned to Facebook. I invited 100 of my facebook friends. Withen 2 days.....the invite was seen and added by an additional 300 people! When your event is created, it shows up in the newsfeed. I allowed friends to invite friends..and then it took off like wildfire. For an extra little marketing, I updated my status to include the event's link. Here is the link to the event I hosted:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=277547316200

How did it turn out you ask? Awesome! A huge success in my book! People posted pics on the event site as well as wrote on the wall...the guests created the buzz too!

So next time, think of Facebook for your event planning needs!
-Christina

Now and Zen: “Welcome to the Dirty Thirties!”

One of my favorite parties I have planned was for my good friend, Traci, for her 30th! She wanted something fun and light hearted. So I came up with theme, “Traci’s White Trash Bash: Welcome to Your Dirty Thirties”. Working on a limited budget of $500, my first concern was the venue. Due to the amount of people on the guest list (80-100 people), I wanted to keep the space open, so a house setting would not work for this party. So working on a limited budget, I need to find a cheap/free venue. Luckily, a friend of mine had an amazing rooftop downtown Memphis, off of Main St. The roof top had a restroom, and for a small fee, we tipped the security guard of the building to all escort of guests to the roof. So the costs of this venue was about $100. So I had $400 to get décor, invites, food and alcohol. We hired a good friend of mine, Carson Rotisseries to do the catering-grilled steak, veggies, bacon-wrapped chicken and brown-sugar glazed grilled pineapple. So for décor, I wanted it to tie into the theme concept. What better way to find cheap, trashy décor you might ask….Dollar Tree! This place was the Mecca for my theme! I picked up white Christmas lights, plastic pink flamingos, clearance 4th of July décor and Nascar posters! We made her birthday cake out of 3 boxes of Ding Dongs! I know it sounds cheesy, but it all came together on the warm July night!

As far as invites go, due to the large amount of invites, I kept it simple and used Evite. Music choice for the night: Charlie Daniels Band, Garth Brooks, Gretchen Wilson just to name a few. White Trash Bash still remains as one of my favorite parties to date! What a great party to celebrate such a great friend!

RSVP's...What A Pain!

Asking people to RSVP to any event will prove to be tedious. What's the point in RSVP? Well, for me the host, I need to know how much drinks, food and space I need. So when planning an event, I like to use what I refer to as "tracking" invitation ventures. As we embark on the next decade of the 21st century, paper invites are becoming a thing of the past. Yes, I admit, there is nothing like that thick card stock on my eager fingertips, but paper invites will prove to be useless on many facets, Paper invitations are expensive and non-trackable. RSVP's get forgotten and once again they will become "Fridge Art of Events Past".

Paperless Options=Online Tracking and Lower Costs!

So when thinking of online invites, Evite is the most commonly used.
http://evite.com

The best thing about Evite is that its FREE! But with that being said, they advertise on your event page. I use Evites for big events, where I am looking to cut costs by using free invitations. This website is very useful for casual get-togethers. I like to use these for my cooking teams, dinner club events etc. Evite is very easy to set up, use and track. As the host on Evite,I like that I can see who has read my invitation, control how many guests can attend. I can even requests for guests to bring things (as this works great for Pot-Luck Style events).

Now if you want to make you online invites a little more personal, I have used a great website:

http://www.paperlesspost.com/

This website have several classy pre-designed online invites. The invites look as they are actually printed on card stock. Now what I like about Paperless Posts, is that when the invitation arrives in the guests inbox, it is addressed as from me, not the company name. Also, when the person clicks on the message, an envelope appears with the guests name, and your custom invitation is animated and slides out of the envelope. Paperless Post also has a fantastic tracking site that also allows you to see who has responded and picked up the invite. They also have a feature where you can export your guest list to an Excel format. I love this feature! Now, with all the bells and whistles, this website is not free, although very inexpensive. You purchase 20 stamps for $4.00. Now compare that to the $10 it would have costs just in postage.

After your amazing online invite is made and sent, and you have those pesky few who refuse to RSVP, a little phone call or text never hurts! I make sure everyone is accounted for and now I am ready to plan for the number of guests attending!

Introduction...

So a little introduction...

I am 26 and I live in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee. I love to laugh, plan parties and cook. So Zen Planning and Events is the best way for me to bring all 3 together. As the years passed, many of my friends got married, had babies, shared birthday celebrations and so on. I found myself volunteering to plan for some of these events, not out of obligation, but out of fun! My friends joke and say, "I plan to plan"....I guess they have a point!

I want this blog to share a consulting aspect on planning events within your budget and vision. I love sharing great ideas, tips, budgeting aspects and so on with people looking to throw fabulous parties!

-Christina

"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both."
-James Michener on Zen wisdom