Event Planning: It's more than a job...

It didn’t take even one day of work before I learned that event planning was not a glamorous job; Linda and Jaime told me at my interview. A job in the event planning industry, and especially at Gala, meant a lot of hard work, weekends, long hours, and straight business. As daunting as this may have seemed, however, event planning has provided me with opportunities and challenges that have benefited me in ways that I could never have imagined.

In my three years at Gala, I have had many experiences. I have traveled to Jamaica for a destination wedding, I have worked on a runway fashion show for St. John Knits, and I have organized two fundraising auctions for the Herb Gordon Foundation for Gastrointestinal Cancers. I have designed a contemporary club lounge rooftop event, a Mardi Gras client appreciation gala, and even a modern Toyko-inspired Bat Mitzvah, complete with low plank tables and pillow seating. But, the most significant experience I have had at Gala has been the professional skills that I have acquired as an event planner.

I have learned the importance of time management, organization, and planning ahead. I have learned the essence of team work and delegation as a means of getting things done in the most efficient and effective manner. I have learned to make decisions under pressure and how to be flexible and poised when last minute changes inevitably occur. I have learned how to deal with difficult clients, changing minds, and different tastes. I have learned to negotiate contracts with vendors and venues, and how to provide the biggest bang for the client’s buck. I have learned to stand up for my company, my client, and most importantly, myself.

Event planning is an extremely tough job. Like most work, it requires extreme attention to detail, vast creativity, thorough communication, intense follow through, and always a back up plan (or two). But what many people fail to realize, though, is that event planning is an extremely physical job. It’s emotional. You have to work with brides to plan the wedding of their dreams, with mothers to plan their son or daughter’s religious rite of passage, and with corporate committees to plan their highly anticipated company holiday parties and office retreats. You have to have a tough skin. The ideas and concepts that took you hours to create may not be in line with the vision or budget of your client, and the new ideas and concepts that you come up with may not be either. They may not even be after the third or fourth revision. It’s demanding. Events take hours to set up on the day of, not to mention break down, and a good event planner sits in every chair, tweaks every centerpiece on the table, and stays until the end of the event to ensure that everything flows smoothly.

But, what keeps us working at Gala, and keeps people wanting to take on the challenges of event planning, is the reward and fulfillment that it provides at the end of the day. The kiss of the happy bride and groom, the smile on the face of Bar or Bat Mitzvah child up in the chair, and the repeat business of corporate clients makes the job worth doing. Event planning provides many important job and life skills, and event planners are more than just “event planners.” We are proposal writers, décor designers, coordinators, managers, negotiators, teachers, and even therapists at times, and there is never a dull moment, a day spent behind a desk, or an event that can’t be made more exciting with a unique spin. Ultimately, being an event planner has helped to shape the professional and the individual that I am today, and I am so lucky for all of the challenges that it has helped me to take on and overcome.

The author of this blog is Claudia Frank, Event Planner at Gala Events, inc.