In this episode we discuss why party invitations are so important and the different ways you can invite guests to your party. We discuss tips and ideas to getting people to show up to your event.

If you want to hear more podcasts about party tips click here.

The second part to choosing a venue and we look at the pros and cons of having your event at home. In this episode we discuss all the things involved in throwing a party at home and what to think about. Lots of tips and ideas to make sure that if you have a party at home it is a great success.

One of the first things most people decide when doing their party or event planning is what function venue or event space will they use to hold the event. This episode looks at hiring a function venue as opposed to having your party at home. In this episode we discuss all the key things to look for when choosing a function venue for any type of event. We discuss all the important factors that can make or break your party success.

Choosing the right venue for your party or wedding is super important and getting it wrong can really have an impact on guests experience. If the venue is too big or there are too many different rooms can all cause issues.

Listen to this episode of the Partyology podcast to help get some important tips when choosing the right venue for your party.

Checkout part 2 of choosing a function venue by clicking here.

No matter what type of event you are planning you need to come up with a style or certain theme from the beginning. In this episode we discuss choosing a party style or theme and how important it is. We discuss how choosing a particular theme or style can make your event and party planning a lot easier from the beginning. Lots of great party tips and ideas.

There can be a lot of anxiety that goes along with planning a party which can make the whole experience less enjoyable. In this episode we talk about some of the pain points when it comes to planning a party wedding or event. We discuss how long it takes to plan a typical party or wedding and options to make it stress free. We look at the pros and cons of hiring an event, party or wedding planner and what they can bring to the table.

Introduction (00:05):

Welcome to the Partyology Experience with your host Marcus Prentice.

Marcus Prentice (00:16):

Hi guys. Welcome to the Partyology experience. Yes your here with Marcus Prentice and I’m here today with our guest speaker, Emma DeJong, the general manager of feel-good events. Welcome Emma.

Emma De Jong (00:25):

Thanks. Hello, how is everyone?

Marcus Prentice (00:27):

Excellent. How was your weekend?

Emma De Jong (00:29):

Yeah, you know Good. I’ve had a week off, so I’m feeling great today.

Marcus Prentice (00:33):

Im sure you are. Now enough of the small talk in today’s episode, we’re talking about planning. Now this is something we’ve talked about before and is super, super, super, super important and thats is planning. We quite often say the you can’t over plan it. Well, I guess you probably could, but the more planning you do, the more chance that your party, event or wedding is going to be a success.

Emma De Jong (01:01):

I agree. Be organised.

Marcus Prentice (01:04):

If you think about planning a party or a wedding, the stats going round, if we’re planning a wedding, say, is it takes about 200 hours to plan a wedding, which is a lot of time.

Emma De Jong (01:13):

It does. Yeah. Trust me Im in the thick of it.

Marcus Prentice (01:17):

Yes Emma would know and you’re in, you’re in the event industry. So you have a head, start. You already know a lot of stuff, but for Joe blow, who knows nothing or has an organized a wedding before, which is most people, 200 hours is alot of time.

Emma De Jong (01:31):

Yeah. Minimum, I think. Yeah. I think even more by the time I’ve done research and everything above. Yeah. You’re looking at a minimum of 200.

Marcus Prentice (01:37):

We say for organizing a party, you’re looking at at least 50 hours again, by the time you do all your research and venues thinking about venues and whether you go and look at stuff, or it’s just done online. Emails back and forth from suppliers, venue, whatever it might be you know, even going out and trying on a new dress or a suit or something like that, it takes time. So it can take a lot of time.

Emma De Jong (02:05):

Yeah, it’s like a full time job. I know some brides will ring and go, I should have just started working part-time and then done all the extra wedding planning on the other days, because they just don’t have the time to organize their wedding. They say I just didn’t realize how long this takes. So its alot of time.

Marcus Prentice (02:19):

Usually with weddings most brides and couples think about it at least a year out because they know you’ve got to plan lots of things. So you’ve got a lot more time, I guess, for a wedding. For parties I don’t know if they think that far in advance and then it can become more stressful because there is a tighter time frame. They then become stressed because they there’s so much to do. They then realize there is as much to do for a party potentially as for a wedding, just slightly different. So in today’s podcast, we’re going to talk about where do you start? So Emma has a lot of experience in this, especially organizing weddings and we’ve organized obviously hundreds and thousands parties. We speak to people about this sort of stuff all the time. Emma, when you’re recommending what people should do from the beginning or where to go, what do you usually suggest?

Emma De Jong (03:10):

So for us, because we’re a supplier, we really need more details when people come to us. So making sure that they know exactly what they want. So if you’re having a party and you think you’re gonna have a theme or a style or something like that, you really need to do your research on what type of style you want to do and how you actually gonna execute that. So I love Pinterest, everything on Pinterest, like fanatical, like Marcus would know this, I have boards upon boards upon boards of themes. And I think that’s a really good idea because you start getting a bit of a pattern of what you, like. I find people we like are like this type of style, but then they start pinning things and then realize I’m going down a bit of a different path here. Where am I going to end up?

Emma De Jong (03:46):

So it’s really good for us as supplies and just other event companies to understand where you’re going. We have lots of clients that will actually share their Pinterest boards with us. And that really helps, Oh my God, I love it. I’m an organized freak. So I love any, like give me more information, overload me. I love it. So those sort of things, Instagram is becoming huge as everyone knows Facebook has such, I think it’s more for like communication and sort of working out some suppliers, but Instagram, these days for events, huge. Lots of inspiration and you get to see what clientele that company are doing, what type of functions they’re doing. Are they sort of on the same path as you? It’s a really good idea to start looking at all their socials and all those sort of things to get an idea of what you like.

Emma De Jong (04:28):

Be realistic of what you want. We have lots of photos of, you know, fairy light installations. God, they look good, but they look a hundred thousand dollar custom made very light installation. So be realistic as well. But research is a huge thing. Come to us with all the information. Of course you don’t know everything, but just a starting point would be really great just to get some ideas of what you sort of think. And then we can then add to that as well and say, what about, we could do this. You could do that. It really gets all the ideas flowing. And then we know if we are on the same page as well.

Marcus Prentice (05:01):

That’s what the research is all about. It’s about creating that vision or the mood board. So that then helps with the rest of the planning. So when people plan their events and parties, quite often, one of the biggest stresses that we’ve noticed in our business and lots of other businesses is that do you trust those suppliers? Or how do I find a supplier that I can trust because no matter what type of the event you’re going to deal with lots of different suppliers. Whether it be the function venue, a florist or somebody makes you a cake, the DJ, whatever it might be, how do you know you’re going to trust them? So is there something that clients can do to know that they can trust that supplier?

Emma De Jong (05:47):

Trust is a hard thing to come by when you dont, know that business personally, I think if you are a real people person, I would go and see the business in person or ring on the phone and have an actual conversation with them. You get a pretty good vibe from someone by either meeting them face-to-face or over a phone call. If you really sort of feel like they understand you and you kind of feel comfortable talking to them thats a good start. Everyone’s not going to be for everyone. We’re not going to suit everyone and vice versa for other companies. So make sure that you’re happy with that person you’re dealing with on the phone, or just also, you know, looking at all their socials and just their business as a whole. Are you happy with their culture? Are you happy with who they are? You happy with what they do. It’s sort of those things, all those things that add up to do you trust them? I think if you can say that they’re working at, you know, decent venues, they’re doing decent jobs, you know, all those sorts of things, you go, well, they must be doing a good job.

Marcus Prentice (06:42):

Google reviews and those sorts of things.

Emma De Jong (06:43):

Google reviews Is a hard one sometimes because you know, we’re not all going to have five star reviews and there is going to be like a juggle between good and bad. But most of the time, if you’ve got mostly good reviews, you know, there’s going to be one off. So it always is how can you get, if you’re getting five stars all the time then wow. Little things happen, but those things like reviews, you know, testimonials from other clients of how happy they are. Of course every company’s going not going to put out what everyone said about them, but if they got lots of testimonials from people saying they really happy and wrapped with their, their service and everything like that, then you kind of know that they’re a good business.

Marcus Prentice (07:19):

Suggestions from friends and recommendations, from function venues. Usually the function venue is the first point of call if you’re hiring a function venue and you’re not planning to have something at home. Usually a lot of venues have a supply list and some of them are strict on what supplies they let into their venues, because it does represent their business as well. So if a supplier does a bad job, then it can potentially make the whole function go bad. So a lot of venues will only recommend decent suppliers. So that’s a really good start. I know lots of venues will recommend some top quality suppliers whether it be florists or photographers or whatever. This is a good way to get to find some event suppliers to begin with and to make contact with them.

Emma De Jong (08:11):

The best thing about that, as well is that those suppliers know those venues. Now there’s lots of venues here in Melbourne and around the world that aren’t the easiest to actually get into. You might have to pick up equipment at midnight and having a supplier that already knows all those ins and outs is a good start. A supplier that knows all the ways that the the actual function venue works and the people that work there, it makes your life a lot less stressful. I already know that then you don’t need to do all that running around worrying about suppliers getting into venues etc the client is alot happier.

Marcus Prentice (08:38):

And sometimes, it may cost a little bit more for thats supllier, but it may be worth it just for the stress free experience.

Emma De Jong (08:42):

A hundred percent. I think that that’s the way to go. Of course you can find your own people and most venues will allow you to bring other people in. But people that know the venue is always a good thing.

Marcus Prentice (08:51):

That is another good point. Some venues are so fussy about who they let into their function venue, that they will actually charge you extra if you don’t use their suppliers. So that’s something that when you’re looking at a venue and thats not a lot of venues, but you need to look into that and ask those questions. If I bring in my own supplies, is that okay? And if so, are you going to charge me? Which does seem a little bit strange, but there’s certain venues in Melbourne that we work at that we know that the clients have to pay extra If that supplier is not on their preferred supplier list.

Emma De Jong (09:25):

There’s reasons behind that, that’s for them to make sure their reputation stays quite high, that their suppliers are always top notch doing a hundred percent to what the client wants. I’m not saying that all the other companies aren’t that are going to come in, but they’re just very particular on who they’re letting. I understand that.

Marcus Prentice (09:40):

Recommendations from venues. I think you can put a lot of value in, and also to your friends and family, if they’ve used a particular DJ before or photographer or whatever, you’re going to have a bit more trust from your friends or family. So that then leads to the key because it is so stressful in organizing a function or wedding or party, you know, should you hire a function planner, event planner, party planner or a wedding planner?

Emma De Jong (10:05):

All of the above what are you going to do? Everything.

Marcus Prentice (10:08):

Should you do it? Now there are some benefits and obviously most of these benefits all comes at a cost. So obviously you’re going to, you’re going to pay for that service, but in the long run, it can be worth your money. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed by organizing a party or a wedding, the first thing I would suggest is if you can’t afford a, a function planner or event planner, keep your function very simple. Don’t try and do elaborate things. just get the basics that you need and keep it as simple as possible. This will make it as stress-free as possible. If you are going to do it yourself and you want to keep it as stress free as possible plan ahead. Give yourself as much time as possible as that will help you.

Marcus Prentice (10:53):

If you do have it in your budget to hire a party planner or event planner then there’s going to be lots of benefits in that. They will know decent suppliers, they’ll have their own group of suppliers that they work with. They have expert knowledge in how to set up a function space, the dynamics of how the function works, what you should and shouldn’t do. They’ll help you with color choices and decor and when to do things and, and all those types of things, things that you probably wouldn’t even think of. All the finer details, they will will help work in with your budgets and they’ll save you a lot of time. They’ll save you money probably because, you’re going to save time. you’re going to save money as well. An event or wedding planner will keep you on the right path because they might have a mood board they’ve got so many different images and the clients thinking where do I go with this? The clients like I’m so excited. I love every theme and style which can cause issues. The event planner will then help keep you on the right track. There’s so many pros for this.

Emma De Jong (12:01):

It’s the money thing as well. I think sometimes if you can’t afford it, which is totally fine. Another really good thing is if you’re going to have suppliers, really use them to your advantage. Just Because suppliers might just hire equipment doesn’t mean that they don’t understand how things work. They can give you so much information. So I think use that as a key. Most suppliers we’ll give you information without having to pay for it. So they’re not going to plan your function for you, but they can give you really good key elements to really focus on and make sure that you’re sticking with your plans, you planning properly, and you’re actually doing what you want to do for your party. So you use that to your advantage.

Marcus Prentice (12:34):

And every supplier is an expert in their field, so they will give you good tips.

Emma De Jong (12:39):

That’s why we do this as jobs. We have all that information in our brains.

Marcus Prentice (12:42):

Again, that comes down to trust. If you do end up hiring a party planner, if you’re one of these people that just, I want to do it and want to do it my way, you probably better off not hiring a party planner or a wedding planner, You’re going to be frustrated because they may not agree with everything you say. So the party planner is there to help, you know, create your vision or your wedding vision so have some trust in them. That’s easier said than done but something that’s super important.

Emma De Jong (13:14):

You need trust because they’re going to do things that you might go, I don’t know about that. On the day you’ll get there and go, I’m so happy we did that. And that’s where you need to have some trust because they are the experts. It’s important to listen and we can do some things that you didn’t even think were possible.

Marcus Prentice (13:29):

One of the other key things, and this is something that most people sort of forget about is on the night of your event now, whether it be a party or a wedding, having somebody there to help run the night, Especially for weddings but even so for parties. There’s lots of things that happen on a night of a function that if you’re the host and maybe having it at your house or, even at a function venue, having somebody there to keep the night flowing and ticking over is a big win. Someone to be the function manager for that particular type of event can help with a lot of stress. So there’ll be things like entertainment showing up through the night that needs to have direction. Another example is the bar, if you’re having it at a home and you’ve organized by staff and they need some extra ice. Where do the cater is go, or I’ve run out of food or all these things If you don’t have somebody to manage those sorts of things on the night, you could end up working at your function and not enjoying your function.

Emma De Jong (14:31):

Most of them end up doing that and I’ve seen it happen so many times. We’ve had lots of clients who have gone to their houses and they wanna throw these amazing parties. I’m like, so who’s doing all the organization on the day and on and on the night. You got to remember all your suppliers are coming to do the setup on that day as well. Are you going to be there? Because if you’re doing hair and makeup, you’re not there for half the day, who’s organizing to make sure that they do what you’ve actually wanted them to do. And on the night when everyone’s actually arrives, supply wise and that sort of thing who is going to manage this. You’re going to be there with all your guest. You’re not going to be wanting to be worrying about everything that is happening? It is a lot to take on and I think if you’re wanting to have a good night and just relax, please organize help.

Marcus Prentice (15:09):

It might even be that you’ve just hired a friend,

Emma De Jong (15:11):

Or someone you work with. It’s not really a friend coming to the party, but it’s happy to take on the job.

Marcus Prentice (15:16):

Yes and you pay them a couple of hundred dollars for the night and they’re the go-to person. It could be something as simple as the neighbors are complaining about noise and they’ve come and knocked on the door or the police have showed up because it’s too noisy. Who’s going to deal with that. And you need somebody to manage all these things. The amount of times at functions where people as we say, they’ve run out of ice at the bar or they’ve run out of clean glasses and they’re going to go looking for the person who’s having the function.

Emma De Jong (15:42):

Because that’s all they know. And that’s where they live they’re going to know more than anyone else. Even just food if you, haven’t got a caterer they’re looking after the food or you’ve got a grazing table, for example, it’s very popular at the moment. Who’s going to look after that because I can get real messy really quickly. And then something like that, something so simple that you should not be wearing. If you spend all this money to have a party and it’s your 40th and you’re having to do that all night, you’re not going to have a good time. And then most people are gonna be looking for you to want to talk to you and stuff like that as well. It’s just not a nice, environment, especially when your spending that much money.

Marcus Prentice (16:12):

That’s where we say, do you want to work at your function or do you want to enjoy it? And a lot of people end up working at them.

Emma De Jong (16:17):

And most of the time they want to enjoy it and that’s what they want. And then they have the night and they’re like, I should have just hired someone.

Marcus Prentice (16:21):

But it’s just an oversight. They just don’t realize that they’re all these things going to be done. Now, obviously, if you hire a function venue, then a lot of this stuff can be taken care of by the venue, which is great. But even then sometimes there’s still things that come up that aren’t fitting in with their, what they normally do. And it might be, you know, something to do with the entertainment or, you know, you’ve got Showgirls coming in and where do they go to get changed and stuff like that. So having somebody there to manage those sorts of things is really important on the day. Extremely important. So yeah, again, lots to think about there when it comes to planning, which can be quite stressful. There is good and bad things about hiring a party planner or event planner. We strongly suggest that these days for weddings, more and more people, are time poor and weddings being even more involved and a lot more cost involved, sometimes hiring a wedding planner or somebody to think of all these small things and help create your vision, is super important.

Marcus Prentice (17:20):

Hopefully we’ve touched on some good ideas today and giving you some good tips on what to think about when starting your planning. Thanks for listening and tune in again soon.

Speaker 4 (17:35):

Thanks for listening to the partyology experience with your host Marcus Prentice. Don’t forget to subscribe or check out our website for more party tips and expert advice at feelgoodevents.com.au.

With so many things to think about when planning a party, wedding or event it can be quite overwhelming. In this episode we discuss 7 things to think about before you start booking a venue, inviting guests and what dress you will wear. These things will help you create a great party experience for both you and your guests.

Below are the 7 things to think about before you start planning your party. They will make planning your party a lot easier and give you more direction in creating a great party experience.

Marcus Prentice (00:06):

Welcome to the Partyology experience with your host Marcus Prentice

Marcus Prentice (00:16):

Hi guys. Welcome to the partyolgy experience. Yes, my name is Marcus and I’m here today with Emma DeJong, the general manager of feel good events. Hi Emma, how are you today?

Emma De Jong (00:25):

Im Good. How are you?

Marcus Prentice (00:27):

I’m good. Are you all pumped and ready?

Emma De Jong (00:30):

Totally Pumped Every time Im pumped .

Marcus Prentice (00:31):

You Got lots of good party tips. You can, you can give

Emma De Jong (00:34):

I’ve got many, many, many, many I’ve got heaps i can share.

Marcus Prentice (00:37):

Okay, excellent. So in today’s podcast, we’re going to talk about all the things that we think you should think about before you actually start planning your party. So obviously when you’re planning a party, the first thing is you start to think of is venue and what dress am I going to wear and what entertainment I’m going to have and what food are we going to have and what drinks should we have? All those fun and exciting things. Uh, but we’ve come up to today, put together today a list of seven things to think about before you start planning all those sorts of things. And these things may help you create a better party experience for yourself and for your guests. And that’s why we’ve sort of come up with these and we think these are sort of really important and they’re all sort of intertwined.

Marcus Prentice (01:18):

Um, but it will help you in your planning once you start getting into all those fun and exciting things. So the first thing, uh, number one on the list is what type of party are you planning for? So by this, we mean, do you want it to be party of the year, lots of energy people dancing crazy. Do you want it to be more low key? Or you know, just people coming in having a bit of food and drink, maybe you might have dancing depending on how the party goes. Maybe You’re not too fussed or is it more just a gathering simply just, you know, people in your back garden, having a few beers, or maybe it’s at night, you’ve got a fire, you know,

Emma De Jong (01:54):

Very casual.

Marcus Prentice (01:56):

So this is something that we think that if you think about this before you start doing any of the planning, it’s going to help you set the mood or the tone for when you do get into your planning. So, it’s no good saying you want party of the year and then organizing everyone to come and stand in your back garden.

Emma De Jong (02:13):

How exciting I can’t wait.

Marcus Prentice (02:16):

It’s not really, it’s not really going to create party of the year.

Emma De Jong (02:19):

No Its Not.

Marcus Prentice (02:19):

And look, we get lots of clients and we speak to lots of people about their parties and they do sort of say, Oh yeah, no, I want lots of dancing and all that sort of stuff, but then they don’t really have suitable entertainment or there’s no dance floor or it is outside and it’s cold. You know, they haven’t really thought of what’s going to happen

Emma De Jong (02:37):

really its poor planning.

Marcus Prentice (02:38):

So in part of this, we also sort of talk about party energy. Now I talk about party energy, a lot and party energy for those people who don’t really understand is if you think about if you’ve ever been to a concert or, a festival, any sort of really good party where there’s lots of dancing and energy from the, crowd that’s what party energy is. Good party energy is If you go to say a festival or I know I’ve been to some awesome concerts and stuff like that, where the crowd is pumped, they are going off, you know, there’s people waving their undies in the air, you know, all that sort of stuff there, you know, and it doesn’t even necessarily have to be, they’ve had lots to drink, although sometimes that does help.

Emma De Jong (03:21):

Of Course.

Marcus Prentice (03:21):

it’s the energy coming from the crowd is just awesome. And, and to me, I think you need to create a party that has good at party energy. Now, sometimes if you’re planning a low key dinner or get together, you know it doesn’t matter. You don’t necessarily need that sort of party energy, but if you’re aiming for party of the year where you want it to be exciting and fun, and you know that there is that, that great feeling coming from the crowd, you need to plan for that because it doesn’t always just happen. Sometimes it does.

Emma De Jong (03:52):

not very often,

Marcus Prentice (03:53):

not very often. So you need these key elements that you will need to do to make sure that that happens. So party energy is really important and you don’t need a lot of people.

Emma De Jong (04:04):

No, you don’t. People, I think always think you need to have hundreds and hundred people to make that energy. And you really don’t. You can have a party of 20, it could be the best party you’ve ever been to.

Marcus Prentice (04:13):

Thats Right and a lot of that comes down to the size of the venue. If you’ve got to a function space that suits 20 people and it’s, you know, people feel connected and together , it’s a comfortable size, then it can really work. If the music’s good, the lighting is good. All the different elements of the function, uh, are there, it can still be really good. So you don’t necessarily need 200 people to come to your event. It’s quality over quantity, isn’t it? Yep. So, uh, you know, that’s, that’s one thing that’s, that’s super important typically when it comes to party energy, and I’ve found this as a DJ, and I don’t know if you’ve seen this Emma at some functions, but younger people tend to create better party energy than older people. And I’m sorry to say that because I have done, you know, DJ’ed functions forties, fifties, sixties, um, that have been really good, but great party energy. But if you’ve ever been to a school, a primary school disco or, um, you know, a wiggles concert or something like that, the energy in those types of environments is on fire and they don’t need alcohol to, be going crazy. Even, you know, nightclubs and stuff like that, typically 18 to 21 year old age group, and add a bit, alcohol definitely does help, but the energy levels are a lot higher than say a 40th or 50th

Emma De Jong (05:31):

What are you gonna say here under 25 is the good sort of 25 is pretty good. So I’m over that now thats a bit sad

Marcus Prentice (05:37):

Yes and I’m way past it. So it can make a difference the age of your guests. And you can say, Oh, well, let’s not invite older guests, but I think you do need to be conscious when you’re inviting your guests. Are they going to create help, create the party energy that you want? And sometimes you don’t know.

Emma De Jong (05:58):

I Think sometimes you let the mums out and they haven’t been out for years. So you let them out having a couple of drinks. They’re like at the 25 again as well.

Marcus Prentice (06:06):

And that’s right. Yeah. I was going to say sometimes the forties and fifties can be better than the 21st’s

Emma De Jong (06:09):

Because they’ve not been out for you know, for a long time. So all their kids have been babysat. So they’re out on town, let’s go,

Marcus Prentice (06:16):

yeah,

Marcus Prentice (06:16):

That’s all right. The first night out in two years or something like that. Whereas sometimes it can be the opposite. The 20, 21 year olds are so worried about what they look like and on their phones and on social media the whole night that the party disappears before anything’s actually happened. So you get a mix of them. That’s right. So yeah. So number two, I always say people should start at the end.

Emma De Jong (06:38):

It sounds weird. Doesn’t it? People must be like, what?

Marcus Prentice (06:40):

Yeah. So what I mean by this is what party story or what do you want your guests to say about your party after the event? So if you think about if you’re having a 21st or a wedding or a corporate event and you want it to be something memorable, what do you want your guests to say in 12 months, time or five years time. Is it just going to blur into their memory and just go, Oh, that was just another function I went to or is it going to be something that they go, Oh, geez, that was a great night. So that’s what you want. And if you’re going to go to all the effort and we were just talking about this today at lunchtime, we always talk about events with all the team at, at, um, feel-good events. Um, yeah, we were talking about if you’re going to go to the effort of having a party.

Emma De Jong (07:24):

Go all out. You might as well. If you’re spending half the money, spend the extra half on, you know, making sure it’s absolutely, you know, off its chain, make it, you know, so those people are going to talk about it for years to come, because what’s the point of doing it otherwise. That’s what we think anyway.

Marcus Prentice (07:38):

Yes. We’re a bit biased because we want people to throw some parties

Emma De Jong (07:42):

But No one wants to go to a partyy that is boring. Especially if people have spent lots of money and time and effort, you wanna make sure it’s good.

Marcus Prentice (07:47):

Exactly. Right. So yeah. What sort of party story do you want to be able to tell in five years time. Oh, I had the best 21st or the best 30th? Um, it was crazy, there was people doing silly things, everyone got naked and jumped into the pool or whatever it is

Emma De Jong (08:03):

The entertainment or whatever it is exactly ,You want them to remember.

Marcus Prentice (08:06):

Yeah. Grandma was drunk on the table. I always use that one. Because I’ve seen lots of grandmas dancing on the table. I do some wild parties. So yeah. What is it that you want people to talk about? So if you think about that, that will then help you create that or work towards creating that type of an event. So that sort of then leads into, number three, which is guest experience. And this is something that we talk about a lot at feel-good events and is super, super, super important. And the question is what’s your guest experience? What do you want the guests to experience when they come to your party? Now, lots of people say, I just want them to have fun and have a great time. What does that actually mean? So if we talk about weddings and I heard this and this gets thrown around a little bit in the events industry, um, for wedding say specifically in the old days, back in the old, old days, the wedding was more about the parents of the bride and groom and everything was based around them and they got all the attention then, you know, as time went on, it moved on the focus was on the bride and groom, which seemed pretty obvious.

Emma De Jong (09:10):

That’s what your there for.

Marcus Prentice (09:11):

That’s what you think you’re there for. You’re exactly right. And then in today’s modern era, it’s more about the guests experience and I’m a big believer in this. I really feel that the guest experience is the most important because I know if I’m having a party, if the guests are having a great time, I’m having a good time. And if I see everybody on the dance floor or everyone laughing, having fun, enjoying themselves, socializing, whatever it is, um, I feel happy because the guests having a good time. So if you focus on your guests experience, I guarantee you, you will have a great experience yourself.

Emma De Jong (09:46):

Yeah. We’ve known that from the past, from other clients, you know, just if it’s gone really well and they all had a great time that they’re always coming back saying how awesome it is and if it’s been the other way, then you know, they’ve not had good experiences as well. So it really does. It’s, it’s an atmosphere you create. So it just passes on to everyone that’s there.

Marcus Prentice (10:02):

I’m sorry to say that I believe the party, although it may be your birthday, it’s not really about you.

Emma De Jong (10:08):

It’s not really, it’s a sad thing to say, but it is true. .

Marcus Prentice (10:11):

If you really want to throw a great party and great party experience, you’ve got to make it more about your guests and , as we say, you will have the best time. Like you will remember it way more than, as we say, everyone’s sitting there bored out of their brain or on their phones or, or at worst, they go home.

Emma De Jong (10:26):

You don’t want that.

Marcus Prentice (10:26):

No, you don’t. So then, number four, we’ve got stimulate your guests five senses.

Emma De Jong (10:34):

This sounds kinky, doesn’t it.

Marcus Prentice (10:37):

Yes it does , and you can stimulate your guests five senses. However you may like, uh, but this is something, again, we talk about a lot here at feel-good events and it does sound a bit kinky depending on how you want to take it

Emma De Jong (10:49):

Its quite easy to, once you talk about all five of them, it is quite easy to think of the things you can do for them.

Marcus Prentice (10:53):

Yeah. So, I mean, you’ve had and we’ve talked about this a lot Emma and you’ve had a lot of experience with this. What are some of the five senses and some ideas around that ?

Emma De Jong (11:03):

So a really easy one is the sense of smell. For example, now that can come down to, you know, smell of food, it can be, you know, making sure you have candles. So if you’re going to have people walking through a space or into the room, having candles throughout the whole space to so it smells nice. It’s not just, you know, people walking through and that’s it and nothing exciting. Taste is, you know, of course food, making sure you can have things that are fun for food. Like, you know, these donut walls are a huge thing at the moment. Food displays, grazing tables are a huge one as well. Sound of course, pretty easy, making sure the sound is good. This is a good one because you have to get this right. If you don’t get this right. And I don’t know, you know, this from experience being a DJ, if you don’t have the music, right. And the sound right, then you might want to even have the party.

Marcus Prentice (11:45):

That’s right.

Emma De Jong (11:45):

If you want party of the year and you’ve got no good music and you’ve got your home stereo full volume and it’s about to blow up and it can’t go any higher. Whats the point of having it.

Marcus Prentice (11:52):

and even if you’re not going for party of the year, sound or music is still super important. Even if it’s just a dinner party, it’s still super important.

Emma De Jong (12:02):

Even the background music. It’s just, it’s so flat. It’s a bit awkward if you’re still sitting there and not everyone’s chatting, you want something in the background just makes it a bit more exciting

Marcus Prentice (12:11):

Thats right i went to a restaurant on the weekend. And they had no music and everybody at the table, we noticed it within about five minutes of sitting down, we went, something’s not right. And everybody picked up on it. There was no background music and it just changed the experience of it. And it’s the same for your party.

Emma De Jong (12:25):

Exactly the same. Yep. A hundred percent. And then the next one is saw and then touch. So the five of them, there are so many things you can cover for those touch could be a whole range of things like you can do green walls that have got, you know, you can touch them and sort of things like that. It can be a whole inner sensory thing. It sounds a bit weird touch , but it can be a whole range of things

Marcus Prentice (12:44):

Yeah wev’e done, snakes and live animals for some events and visually decor is something we specialize in and we do.

Emma De Jong (12:54):

Yeah you want it to look amazing. People walk through the door and go, wow, I’ve never seen this before ,that is a key point for us.

Marcus Prentice (13:00):

So, you know, the more you can stimulate, you guests five senses in as many ways as possible, the better. And if you think about that, when you’re doing your planning, no matter what it is and go have I covered at least something for each one of these it’s going to make a better experience for your guests. Number five, plan for fun from the beginning. Now this is always an interesting one and this is everyone’s interpretation of this. It’s like somebody coming up to me and saying, can you play something good when I’m deejaying? And you’re like, well, what’s good to you. And it’s the same with fun. What’s fun for you. And what’s fun for me. And what’s fun for Emma can be very different.

Marcus Prentice (13:43):

So you need to plan for a range of fun and work out what’s, what’s grandma gonna like, because she might not like dancing on the dance floor or she might not be able to dance on the dance floor, but what can she do? That’s gonna make it enjoyable for her. Or, you know, if, um, you want it to be crazy and wild what’s going to create that fun and crazy sort of atmosphere. So planning for fun from the beginning is really, really important. And everybody’s, as we say, everyone’s definition of fun is very different. To me, a definition of a great party is a group of people gathered together to have fun. And you’re the more you focus on a range of different things that are fun, the better. Number six, what’s your biggest stress. Now, a lot of people stress about parties and have major anxiety when it comes to having a party.

Emma De Jong (14:37):

And different things about them as well. Like not people not showing up. I think that’s a really big one. People, people like no one showing up is a huge thing, not enough food and drink , guests not having fun. Like all those things are high stress for most people. And I, a lot of people don’t have their own parties because of these three things

Marcus Prentice (14:54):

Or they dont like being the center of attention and that’s where we go back to, if you create a party, that’s all about your guests then you wont necessarily be exactly the centre of attention. If you’re really stressed about having a party, get some help, that’s probably the key thing there and something to think about from the very beginning before you do anything else. If you’re not too stressed about doing the planning and all that sort of stuff, then you can easily do it yourself if you cover all the main areas, but otherwise get some help. Number seven is what’s the most important thing to you. Most people usually when they’re having a party will have something that they really want at their party. So some things, it can be really simple. Like it might be, I just want a donut wall or, you know, I want lots of dancing so everybody has something different that they want. Some people will spend money on a, on a cake or a light up dance floor because that’s what they want. So work out what that is and what that item or thing is that is most important, To me it’s always lots of dancing. I always make sure that I plan for dancing, good music, good lighting, a dance floor, obviously. So that there’s a designated place to dance. Dancing is super important to me for so many reasons because to me that’s a heart of a party, but, to you, it might be something different. So, but think about what that is and make sure you plan from that from the very beginning. So there are seven things that we think that we should think about before starting your general planning. These are the things we feel that the most important thing but the most important is to plan from the beginning.

Marcus Prentice (16:30):

So make sure you do lots of planning. And if you put in the effort, you’ll be rewarded for it. So those sort of, um, people that sort of just wing it and just go with the flow and don’t really think about their function or their party too much, typically it doesn’t tend to go as well as they may want it to. You then could spend money and waste it because you haven’t put in a few key elements. So planning is super, super, super, super important and will in most cases, uh, take away from some of the stress that you’ve got.The more you put in the more you’ll be rewarded .So that’s it for today’s podcast. Thanks for listening and you will to hear from us soon.

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In this episode you will get to meet Partyologist Marcus Prentice and special guest Emma De Jong. Learn what a partyologist is and listen to Marcus and Emma’s journey on why they are party experts.