Your Party Planning Template + How to Use It

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Planning parties is as much of a rush as attending them. So many things can go wrong — essentials can go forgotten, communications can slip, decorations can go awry.

But on the flip side, if you are organized and prepared, so many things can go right. Make sure you don’t miss a detail by reading our guide to party planning below and downloading our party planning template via the form. We’ll have you hosting killer events that guests talk about for years to come quicker than you can say, “what’s a Gantt chart?”

Party Planning 101

Call them basics, fundamentals, or non-negotiables—here are our unwritten rules of party planning: 

(You may want to ‘pin’ these in your party planning template as a reminder.)

Get organized 

This may sound obvious, but it’s amazing how many potential issues you can avoid with solid organization. The trick is to use the slow periods to plan meticulously for the busy ones. Remember, parties should stretch planners but not break them.

If you’re operating within a team, consider using the RACI model to ensure to-dos are being completed on time and with the right level of oversight. Block out your calendar to work on specific tasks, shutting off your email and text alerts where possible. Take regular breaks. Ensure every meeting keeps to time and lean on AI or a team member to create summaries and action items. 

Plan around a theme or concept

Planning a party with too loose a brief can lead to indecisiveness and inconsistency. So, even if your event doesn’t have a specific theme or focus, create one for yourself and your team to guide decisions and ideation.

Take time at the beginning of the process to consider how you want guests to feel about your party once it’s over, then work back from there. Use Pinterest to conceptualize the look and feel. Research what the competition is doing and take note of current trends. Source ideas from your would-be attendees. Then, once you have a clear vision – communicate it clearly to your planning team and venue staff. 

Work to a budget (even if you don’t have one)

Not all parties have a formalized budget. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create one yourself to avoid costs getting out of hand.

Here’s how having a set budget helps:

  • Prevents overspending and unexpected spending
  • Helps with prioritizing cash flow 
  • Provides clarity to team and venue

Not sure the best way to create one? Take lessons from this article, which sets out the fundamentals of event budgeting and includes a free template. 

Order more food & drink than you need

Guests will forgive a lot of things but not having enough food & drink on offer is not one of them. And from the host’s perspective, no-one wants hangry. 

As a rough rule, order in 10-15% more food than the number of guests. Five drinks per guest is a decent estimate for an evening event and you’re going to want to have a healthy amount of non-alcoholic options.

Build a (robust) relationship with the venue

As a party planner, you’re only ever as good as your venue. And though things may seem rosy at the time of booking, there will inevitably be snags. 

Here, it pays to do your due diligence and build rapport with the venue’s staff well in advance of the event, so that if and when things do go amiss there is plenty of goodwill to fall back on. Tell them what you love about the place and take time to get to know everyone’s names and roles.

Plan for no-shows but take steps to avoid them

Unless you’re planning an audience with Taylor Swift, no-shows are inevitable and rates can be up to 60% depending on the ticket price (free events typically come with a much higher rate of drop-outs) and other factors. 

Be prepared for that, but don’t be resigned to it. Because there are plenty of ways to incentivize attendance among those who already have a ticket. A few pointers:

  • Remind attendees in the lead-up to the event – on Eventbrite it’s easy to send communications to all registered attendees before (and indeed after) the event
  • Trigger FOMO by teasing yet-to-be announced elements, such as a special guest or performer, or food & drink specials
  • Let them contribute. Folks are more likely to attend if they feel invested in the event. So, give them a chance to add to the playlist and vote on menu items.

Be calm (even if you don’t feel it)

Remember that dinner party you went to where the host spent the whole evening in the kitchen stressing and sweating over the food. Don’t be that guy. 

Vibe is a sacred thing when it comes to parties and if you’re there, clipboard in hand, barking orders and on the edge, chances are your guests will pick up on that. If you’re working the floor, try to smile and be pleasant to your guests. Remember, you may see all the things not going to the plan but they most likely will not.  

Expect the unexpected

Good party planning is as much about anticipating where things might go wrong as the opposite. So take time to make contingency plans and drill your team on what needs to happen as and when certain situations occur. 

Have back-ups in place in case the performer gets sick at the last minute, the venue has a flood, or the food & drink doesn’t arrive. Create policies around things that might come up, such as an unannounced VIP, dress code or troublemaking guests. The more issues you anticipate, the less you’ll be affected by them on the day. 

Get party planning!

Now you have the fundamentals, it’s time to put them into action. Using our party planning template based on the Gannt model (which maps out to-do’s against a pre-agreed timeline), you can create an action plan for your next party, one that can be shared with the venue as well as your own team (should you have one). The template comes with sample action items and, handily, has ‘how to use’ instructions.

Download it now via the form and open in Excel or Google Sheets to get started.