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Event Design & Styling Module 12

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12. Module 12: Special events

Table of Contents

12. Module 12: Special events ............................................................................................................... 1

12.1 Types of events ........................................................................................................................................ 2

12.2 Weddings ................................................................................................................................................. 3

12.3 Charity, cultural and social events ........................................................................................................... 7

12.4 Corporate events ................................................................................................................................... 12

12.5 Employee events .................................................................................................................................... 16

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12.1 Types of events

While there will be many components which are common to lots of event types there are particular criteria

which need to be considered when planning specific occasions. In this module we will look in more depth at

four of the most common event types.

What you’ll learn in this module:

Weddings

Charity, cultural and social events

Corporate events

Employee events

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12.2 Weddings

With an estimated 2.5 million weddings taking place annually in the United States alone and an industry

which has grown in value to a staggering $40 billion a year, weddings are definitely big business. The event

stylist will most certainly get involved in organizing weddings during their career and there is a lot to learn!

A wedding is often the most important day in the life of the bride and groom so the anticipation and pressure

is second to none.

Key to getting any wedding right will be for you to really get to know the bridal couple well, to quiz them in

depth about what really matters to them on their wedding day, to firmly establish the budget and then to

guide them through the process of planning and design. You will need to get them as involved as they want

to be treading the careful line between being their imaginative, creative friend, there to offer guidance and

advice and then stepping back when they want to plan things together.

The variety of weddings is virtually limitless. Gone are the days of any kind of standard event; now even a

more traditional couple will look to find interesting twists and details to make their special day really

memorable. For the more adventurous, options range from crazy venues such as lighthouses, boats, towers

and monuments to wild and whacky outfits and totally unusual wedding vows. As long as the legal aspects

of the wedding are covered – anything goes! Herein lies the challenge, and the fun, for the wedding event

planner.

Crucial to the whole process, for whatever type of wedding, will be meticulous planning. Many weddings

take over a year to prepare and the event designer can be called in at any point during the preparations. It

will be important to offer the couple lots of imaginative suggestions for how they might want to style their

wedding. Keeping abreast of current wedding fashions and trends will be really important. Deciding upon

the kind of wedding the couple want and the theme they wish to pursue as early as possible is ideal. Then

the designer will have a chance to do their research and prepare a design scheme for the event.

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The theme which is chosen for an event will appear throughout the day and will bring a sense of cohesion to

the wedding. Styling a wedding is very much like preparing a theatrical performance. The day needs to be

really special and so the stylist will need to get every detail right to make the event look and feel

extraordinary, a wonderful experience.

A theme can be as simple as a color scheme where similar or complementary shades are picked up

throughout the event. The groomsman’s buttonhole flower matching the flowers in the bride’s bouquet for

example. A theme can however be more extensive and perhaps reflect the tastes of the couple or their

ethnicity. Once you have decided upon the kind of theme for the wedding, it will be time to look at the

details. The designer will need to make sure that every component of the event works in harmony and there

are certainly lots of elements which make up a wedding event. The event designer will more often than not

be required to include the theme in any or all of these:

Venue – This will be the anchor point for any design plan and will be the central starting point to set the tone

of the event you are planning. Some couples may choose to have the wedding ceremony at one venue such

as a church, mosque or other religious building – and then relocate to another venue for the celebration. In

this situation it will be important that any color schemes work for both venues. However some couples will

choose to have the wedding ceremony and celebration in one location. In some ways this is easier to style

but it will be necessary for the venue to be prepared flexibly so that any seating and tables can be set up in

varying patterns for the different parts of the day. The theme you settle on for the venue will need to extend

to the tables and seating, lighting, layout, decorations, favors, music and more. Bearing in mind that there

will be a lot of other bridal couples also making plans to wed particularly in the summer months, make sure

that you start the planning early particularly if the couple have a very specific venue, officiant or date in

mind.

Clothing – The bridal gown, shoes, accessories, jewellery and other garments as well as the groom’s suit, the

bridesmaids and groomsmen’s outfits will all need to be coordinated to make sure that they work in

harmony. Often the colour of the bridesmaids’ dresses will be the key display of the wedding themed colour.

The choice of clothing will be very personal to the couple but at the moment floating fabrics and lace are

popular and dress designers are extending their bridal gown colour palette from the traditional white and

ivory to also include very subtle shades of pink and other muted tones.

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Floristry – Flowers really make a wedding and at whatever time of year they add a beautiful freshness to the

event. Choosing seasonal blooms in your floral plan is a great idea and remember flowers will be needed for

the ceremony, the bride and bridesmaid’s bouquets and hair, any corsages/buttonholes for the rest of the

wedding party, centrepieces on tables, decorating side tables and maybe banisters and other architectural

features. The effortless style of wild flowers are trending at the moment as is the fashion of using flowers as

garlands and canopies – over the top is the way to go.

Wedding transport – There are so many choices of how to get the wedding party to and from an event and

the transport you choose can be a fabulous way to extend a theme. How about a pink Cadillac for a 50’s

theme, a horse and cart for that rustic flavour and what could be more romantic than the groom rowing his

bride across a lake at the end of the ceremony?

Food and drink – There is really no excuse to be dull when styling wedding food. A sit down three course

meal is still really popular but think how you can add some interest. Make the first course canapés served

while the guests are milling around chatting and for desert how about a chocolate fountain or mini cakes

served from platters. Often the pace of an event is really set by the food and how it is served. If the bridal

couple want to get their guests circulating and mingling the least time spent sitting in a more formal pattern

the better. Trending at the moment are food vans. For an informal and friendly feel, gourmet food vans

serving lovely fare which your guests can choose from will go down a storm. Another popular way to break

the ice is to seat your guests at long trestle tables and serve the food on large sharing platters, always a good

way to get the conversation started. Don’t forget the late night catering as well.

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Huge platters of comfort food served towards the end of the evening will be very welcome with guests who

have been on their feet all day. Food and drink are a great way of extending the design style. Going for the

color green? Then how about serving mojitos and mint choc chip ice cream?

Wedding stationery – Often the first indicator of the upcoming nuptials will be when the guests receive a

save the date card or invitation to the big day. This will be your first chance to showcase your theme. Think

carefully about the kind of cards you send and the tone they will be setting. With the flexibility now available

in printing, it is so easy to include photographs and graphics into even a small print quantity. Premium card

stock with the guests name scribed in beautiful calligraphy is an enduring style choice but there are plenty

of fun and funky alternatives. Also don’t always think rectangular – cards can be styled in all kinds of shapes

and finishes to really make them stand out. Once you have established your stationery theme it can be rolled

out for the invitations, directions, place cards, order of services, menus, table layout, and thank-you cards

and even onto a bespoke wedding website.

Photography - Recording the wedding for posterity is really important. Make sure you have liaised with the

professional photographer prior to the event to set up the key shots and to make sure that they capture the

theme and style you have worked to create. There are lots of other great fun way to record the event. How

about hiring a photo booth in a corner for those ad hoc silly snaps or setting up a ‘selfie’ corner with a camera

and a printer – photos can then be displayed as the event goes along and put on Instagram or other social

media.

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12.3 Charity, cultural and social events

Charity, cultural and social events are very popular and are a great way of bringing a community together.

This may be because all those attending have a particular love for a shared interest or be members of the

same local society. Think for example – the local rugby club Christmas dinner and dance, the town’s history

society commemoration day family picnic, a big fundraiser for a local or national cause, a quiz night and

barbeque for the local Girl Scouts… the number and type of events of this sort are endless and are a very

popular way for people to get together.

Oftentimes these kind of events are not for profit and their primary aim is to celebrate or share with

likeminded people. The organisation may often be driven by volunteers and there is frequently a particular

purpose to the event. This could be to highlight a cause, to encourage participation say in a particular sport,

to showcase local talent, to reinforce a shared belonging to a society or club and very often these kinds of

events are run to raise funds.

Whatever kind of community event is being planned, there are 10 useful steps which the event designer can

take in preparing for this kind of event:

1. Purpose

Key to organising events of this sort is to establish the purpose of the occasion. It is just social? Is it to raise

awareness? Is it to celebrate? Is it to raise funds? Understanding the motivation behind an event will ensure

that it is styled accordingly and that everyone involved has their eye on that goal. It can be that there is more

than one goal for the event. A charity could for example be trying to build awareness of their cause to raise

levels of education and understanding so that long term interest is promoted. Raising funds at the same time

will of course be desirable. In this case, publicity materials for the cause and banners, balloons, posters and

any promotional items in the charity’s colours and logos will need to be used to style the venue.

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2. Fundraising Goal

If the primary purpose of the event is to raise funds, then there are lots of factors for the stylist to consider.

Larger charities will have professional fundraising teams who have the knowledge, budget and experience

to run exciting and profitable events. Smaller, local events will frequently be run by committees of willing

volunteers and sometimes you will find there is a mixture of the two – paid organisers overseeing the

operation and guiding and rallying a team of volunteers. Whichever way the event is run, it will be important

to establish the fundraising goal for the event after any expenses are deducted. Fundraising often has a

specific target in mind such as a figure to rebuild a church roof, to fund a charity expedition overseas, to

purchase new equipment etc. etc. Having a particular goal to aim for rather than just aiming for a monetary

number is often a great way to get support as it is a tangible and emotional cause which people can

appreciate and understand.

3. Budget

For all events a carefully planned budget will be key. This is of particular importance if the primary focus is

to fundraise as every expense incurred will be taken out of the funds which have been raised. The main items

which will need to be costed are:

venue hire

catering

publicity

equipment hire

decorations

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entertainment

prizes/incentives

transport

phone bills, postage and other administrative costs

insurance

volunteers’ expenses

health and safety including first aid

fees for licenses and permissions

The next consideration will be how you plan to pay for all of the components of the event. The most

successful events, and the ones which have the ability to raise the most funds, are those where there are

several revenue streams. In this way the burden of the payment will be spread further and will have the

added benefit of getting more people interested, aware and involved in the event. Some of the ways of

funding this kind of event are through:

entrance tickets

sideshows and stalls

business sponsorship

grants

donations

raffles

games on the night

silent auction

running a bar

selling merchandise

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selling other refreshments

4. Organization

These kind of events are often run by voluntary committees with or without the guidance of a professional

event stylist. Such committees need to be comprised of dedicated individuals who will treat their role

professionally and will respect deadlines and so forth. An organizing committee is usually made up of

representatives of the charity or society assisted by any local business people or councilors. If any local

celebrity or well-known figure can also be included the profile of the event will certainly be raised. It will be

key that the committee has a chairperson who oversees the whole operation and allocates tasks accordingly.

Goodwill and dedication is what will get things moving. Choosing a chairperson with good diplomatic skills

and powers of persuasion and motivation will be vital. There may be a lot of opinions on how the event

should be styled so the professional stylist will need to adopt a flexible approach and potentially work with

a committee to settle on a final plan.

5. Who to invite?

Before you can begin promoting an event of this sort it is important to decide upon your target audience.

Are you looking to include all members of a particular social club or organization? The inhabitants of a certain

town? Those who are personally affected by any cause you are promoting or fundraising for? Try to cast the

net wide as in this way you will get more people to attend your event but by the same token be pragmatic,

not everyone will be interested in all events on offer.

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6. Marketing

Just as you would launch any product, a strong sales and marketing plan is needed to promote your event

to the target audience. Prepare a detailed plan of attack and draw upon the skills of the organizing

committee to allocate different promotional activities. A launch event works well and you will need to create

as much noise as you can to get the event noticed. Play upon the good nature of the target audience, use

the emotional pulls of the cause to convince them to come along.

7. Sales

Think about how you want to price any tickets for the event – is it a flat fee entrance? Are there any add ons

such as a VIP area or early/late access which you can use to justify a second or even third tier premium priced

ticket. Likewise if you are allowing paid stallholders at your event, think about the size/location of the pitches

and set prices accordingly.Make the actual purchase of tickets as easy as possible. To cater for all, provide

an easy online ticketing platform as well as allowing for physical sales in several locations – don’t put any

barriers in the way of the audience buying into the event.

8. The event day

As with all events, detailed planning will pay off on the day. Decorate the venue with flair and think laterally

to use the available resources. Community events are not always held in the most glamorous of locations,

so you may need think carefully about cost effective ways to transform an environment which is used for

more everyday activities. Think about clever use of wall drapes and lighting to cover large areas and make

an impact but without the issue of an enormous budget.

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9. Appreciation

If the event has relied a lot on volunteers and goodwill from the local community, it will be really important

to make sure that proper thankyous are sent out to all so that they feel that their efforts were appreciated.

If you were running a fundraising event, do the sums as quickly as you can after the event so that you can

let everyone know as soon as possible the net fundraising total of the event. Keeping your volunteers onside

will have the added benefit of a happy, appreciated team who would hopefully answer the call again in the

future. Design a lovely card or prepare a suitable small gift so that the volunteers feel their efforts did not

go unnoticed.

10. Momentum

While your event is fresh in people’s minds and they are still talking about the great time they had, keep the

momentum going by setting the date for a further event, getting press coverage to keep the cause fresh in

people’s mind or creating a newsletter or get another communication going so that you can continue to

engage with the audience long after the event has finished.

12.4 Corporate events

The primary function of a corporate event is to build upon your brand, to engage with your existing

customers and to court new ones. Engaging the services of a competent and experienced event stylist will

be crucial in ensuring that a top notch and professional level is reached. With any corporate event the

attendees will expect the event to reflect the standards and values of that business, if the two are

mismatched or the event is not run to the highest standards, then the event will quite possibly have a

detrimental effect on the business rather than growing it.

One benefit of running a corporate event is that budgets can be rather more generous giving the event

planner the scope to include interesting and unusual components. However as with all events the starting

point in planning will be:

1. What is the aim of the event - Promotion? Brand awareness? Product launch? Customer

appreciation?

2. Who will be attending – Existing customers? Prospects? Suppliers? Industry experts?

3. Where, when and how much – Venue? Timings? Cost?

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1. What is the aim of the event? - There can be many motivating factors behind running an event:

Is it for promotional purposes? – An example of this might be to raise the profile of a product which is being

repositioned or repackaged in the market place.

Is it to grow brand awareness? – Events are great at bringing customers up close to your range and to get

feedback and offer advice in a face to face environment.

Is it to launch a new product? - There’s nothing like the pizazz of an event to build anticipation of a new

product in a range or to finally launch something which has been teased in the media in the lead up to the

event. Apple are masters at this. You only need to look at the queues outside their stores on launch days to

see the power of a top brand in action.

Is it to thank existing customers? - These kind of events are often held in social, sporting or cultural locations.

Rewarding key customers with hard to come by tickets for a hot music act or sporting fixture will buy a lot

of love and customer loyalty. This is particularly important in sectors where corporate hospitality is expected

and prevalent. If your business is not wooing customers as well as the competition, you will almost certainly

lose your edge.

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2. Who will be attending? – Corporate events can often aim to cover many bases. Whatever the motivation

for attending, you need to make sure that you offer interest, value and entertainment for all of the attendees

so that they leave feeling that the time they have invested has been worthwhile and that they have benefited

in some way.

Existing customers – They may have been supporters of your business for many years. Events are a great

way of building upon those relationships and reinforcing your appreciation of their custom. Getting new

customers is always important, but those who have already appreciated the value of working with you still

need to be nurtured and to feel that they are valued. Events are a great place to have those one to one

conversations where you might secure larger orders, move customers onto more expensive packages or get

them to buy into new ranges or product types.

Prospects – Events, in particular those like trade shows, are a brilliant way to showcase your business in an

environment packed with potential new buyers. You have the chance here to be at the very top of your

game, to pull out all the stops to show your business in a positive light and to try and aim to be the ‘best in

show’ to knock spots off your competitors. Having great publicity materials, relevant giveaways and

knowledgeable and approachable staff at these kind of events will be really vital.

Suppliers – If you are looking to keep your suppliers on side and perhaps to secure better terms, it is highly

appropriate to invite suppliers to relevant events. They will also get to understand better their role in your

organisation and appreciate your custom with them.

Industry experts – Corporate events are not always about sales and promotion. In certain sectors it is

important to show your knowledge, expertise and technical capabilities. If you need to position yourself as

expert in a field, securing the best keynote speakers and running relevant seminars and presentations will

be crucial.

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3. Where, when and how much?

Once you have settled on the aims and the audience for your event, you can begin work on the logistics of

creating a relevant, professional and original event. As with all events, meticulous planning will be the

cornerstone of success. In this sector you are likely to be dealing with an exacting audience who will have

high standards and will be used to attending events held by your competitors so the stakes are high. All the

more reason to put a lot of effort into getting every detail just right.

Begin by choosing a suitable theme and then selecting a venue to match. For example the launch of an up

market ice cream brand could be held at a glass fronted exhibition space overlooking the ocean; a new drug

at a science museum, an eco-range of consumer products at the country fair – think logically about a venue

and make sure that it reflects the values of your business and what you are trying to achieve.

Set an appropriate budget and then brainstorm an appropriate theme to match your aims. If the business

you are working for is well organised you will usually have a decent lead time to get something really special

planned. However don’t become complacent – any more bespoke elements you decide to commission could

take a long time to prepare. You may want to get special printing done for the event so remember to factor

in concept development, design and printing times. As with all events the deadline will be immovable so you

will need to really be efficient and organised to make sure that everything is good to go on the day in

question.

Think imaginatively about any giveaways or promo items you want to have on the day liaising with specialist

suppliers if necessary. Any additional event staff will also need to be recruited and trained in good time. They

will need to have as much knowledge as the regular employees as they will need to communicate with the

guests in a totally professional and capable fashion.

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Remember that the best corporate events will be the ones which are consistent with the ethos of the

company, they are professionally branded and they leave the guests feeling that they have been well treated

and given lots of special attention. You want guests at a corporate event to leave with an improved opinion,

knowledge and inclination towards what your business is doing so that they are ready and willing to engage

in business with you in the future.

12.5 Employee events

Employee events have the incredible power of engaging staff in the business more, building team spirit,

rewarding performance and engendering loyalty. All of these benefits can be had for a pretty cost effective

budget too. As with life in general people like to feel thanked and appreciated and this is no less true in the

work place. Research has shown that employee events can often have as much of a positive effect on an

employee as a small pay rise. Money is not the only way to reward good service and hard work and it is up

to the business owners to recognise this and act accordingly.

For an employee event to fly the business owner will need to allocate a reasonable budget. There’s nothing

more counterproductive than trying to reward staff on a shoestring, employees will feel insulted and

undervalued, it is honestly better not to hold an event if funds are massively tight.

Employee events can either be held during the working day which has the added bonus for the staff of getting

a treat and extra time off. This can work well for example at celebratory times of year such as Christmas,

Thanksgiving and Halloween. Productivity is often down during such times so it’s a pretty good time to run

an event as the impact on the work front will be less noticed. The employer will also appear to have entered

into the spirit of the times which will again promote a positive feeling amongst the staff.

Employee events can also be held in the evenings or weekends and can include partners and families too.

These types of events are a great way for staff to get to know each other better and are good at promoting

bonding.

It is really vital to run an event which the employees will actively want to attend and not feel that they need

to go along out of any sense of obligation. Bringing a group of people together who only have the shared

experience of the workplace can be a little risky. You will need to involve staff of different ages and

backgrounds, of different levels of seniority within the business and quite frankly of different personality

types. To lessen the effect of these differences, planning an event which involves some kind of levelling

activity such as a sport or a challenge works well.

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It will be really important to provide fantastic catering and free drink usually works wonders at fostering

team spirit! Employee events are a good occasion to announce awards and provide a fantastic public

opportunity to reward staff in front of their colleagues. Providing really great prizes and rewards will be

highly motivational and will make the rest of the staff set their eyes on that podium at the next event.