The Basics: Article 1

Something I have noticed with planning events is that, no matter what the event there are certain basic things that need to be decided upon regardless. It's sort of like a checklist that is generic and applies to any event, whether it be a birthday party, a wedding, a shower or a tea party!
You gotta start by thinking about the following first...

- When is the event?
Most are driven by some kind of date - especially birthdays or pre-wedding events. Even though this seems to be easy, it isn't always that straightforward. Look at a calendar and determine if you want it to fall on a weekend, or a 3-day weekend. Also think about weather, is this a summer event or an indoor event so it doesn't matter? Do you want to base the date on people's availability? Especially the core people who HAVE to attend? Or, do you want to set the date and change it if you have to?

- Where is the event?
Again, not as straightforward as you may think. A dinner party may be held in a home or in a restaurant, or even in an empty hall where you have everything catered. Sometimes this is dependent upon who is coming and when it is, so sometimes all these decisions have to go together. If it is a wedding, there is a lot of research to be done...is it destination, or local? Is it indoors or out? What does the capacity of the room need to be? Basically the question is, what are your deciding factors for each of these questions...as much as you can list out, the better, so you can begin ruling out possible venues/locations.

- Who is invited?
It is hard to draw a line sometimes, but guestlist and a column with "Probability of attending" is great so you can get an idea of numbers...again this feeds into your answers for the other questions and will help eliminate some venues :)