This happens with every event! With corporate clients, we know they have a planner which then reports to the president or maybe a vice president with ultimate budgeting power. With weddings, there are parents, and sometimes two sets of parents, with opinions, advice, and ultimate veto power as they are likely paying for or contributing to the event. How does one manage all these personalities without going mad?
Even the most laid-back planner will want to pull their hair out at some point and that is understandable! It’s important to focus on managing these relationships from the beginning. For those corporate clients, especially new clients, work on building a strong rapport with them and find a common interest (outside of the event). Once that relationship is established, work on arranging a meeting between you and the client as well as the VP, President, or appropriate manager for a site visit to walk them though the plan. Seeing a space in person can really help non-creatives understand the vision as many decision makers have a hard time imagining the flow of an event without ever being in the space. This will also help alleviate some of the questions that are bound to be asked throughout the early stages of the planning process by these decision makers.
Wedding clients are a very delicate balance, but this is understood from the beginning. It seems once you meet with the couple, you begin getting calls from parents to ask you the same questions already covered with the couple. There is no way around it, no matter how hard you try to establish one main point of contact. Therefore, try to listen to all sides, note their unique views and piece together what would be the most in line with the couple’s vision. Always keep in the back of your mind what’s best for the venue as well; not all great ideas will fit with the venue selected. Overtime, you’ll get to know the wedding clients and their parents so well and start to understand their nuisances as well as their passions and where to direct them. For example, you may have a mom that is passionate about flowers. Fantastic! They can be “in charge” of the floral concept. There could also be the parent that wants a million things monogramed, so let them monogram the toilet paper if they feel so inclined (and feel the need to pay for it)! The more they feel included, but also distracted in a useful direction, the happier and more harmonious the process will be.
Now some clients are extremely creative and can understand the vision and how the room will look. Venue walkthroughs are also perfect for the visionary and best when they can be scheduled on the same day an event setup is happening at the venue. These requests are not always accommodated as venues are busy enough with another client, but if possible, can be extremely helpful! Even if the setup is for an event that is larger or smaller than yours or something completely unrelated to your event type, it’s helpful for clients to see the potential table locations, general bar(s) local and overall flow in, out and through an event.
Once there is trust established with you and the higher powers, send them your external timeline and while we know they more than likely won’t read it, they will appreciate being included! Remember, these are the same people that will show up early to the event to “check everything out”, so have the event completely set 30 minutes early (with the exception to food being out) and their favorite beverage waiting at the bar because they will have questions no matter how amazing the event looks!
