Booking a party can sometimes be a stressful ordeal, particularly if you've never arranged one before.
Knowing who to invite and wondering if they're going to turn up is left down to you, however we'll try to help you out by providing some hints & tips that we think you should take into consideration to ensure everything runs smoothly.
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Weddings Surprises Fancy Dress Parties 18th Birthday Parties Invitations The Venue Setting Up Start Time Finish Time Buffet Time Requests Other Entertainment Children
Experience has proven that weddings can be very stressful especially if the wedding party and the organisers are working to a strict time schedule. It is an absolute certainty that due to all the events going on throughout the day, something will overrun or be delayed for whatever reason.
We recommend an interval of 60-90 minutes after the afternoon meal, to give your guests a bit of time to put their feet up. After all, it can be a long day. If possible move the guests into another room (the bar perhaps?). This gives the venue staff time to rearrange and tidy the room up for the evening reception. At the same time we will be hauling the equipment in to set up. It can get very awkward to do all this while the guests are still present in the room.
An alternative is to arrange for us to be there (and ready) for when you arrive to the room from the service. This means that you have the use of the PA system for all the speeches. This can be particularly handy when you have a large number of guests. Bear this in mind, however in certain venues it may not be possible to squeeze all the tables in as well as the disco equipment especially if there's no stage area. Not only that the equipment may contrast with your decor.
Why not arrange for a pianist or instrumentalist to provide background music while you eat?? - Just a thought.
When arranging surprise parties, ensure that all of your guest are there at least 30 minutes prior to the arrival. For our sake, ensure there is a representative present in the room to ensure swift proceedings, to keep people notified of your progress and to liase with ourselves. The chances are we have never met the person who's birthday it is!
When they arrive, we will personally great them with a round of "Happy Birthday", just to start the atmosphere off!
When arranging fancy dress parties, ensure all of your guest are willing. It would be quite embarrassing if you were the only one dressed up! Sometimes the idea of fancy dress can put people off from turning up as they are not very 'outgoing'.
Have a think before you go ahead.
These are very difficult to organise as many venues don't permit them. For several reasons being, lack of security and under age drinking.
However, try not to let it put you off - we love to do these parties!
Get your invitations out at least two months before. These days everybody has busy schedules and they need to plan it in. Look at it from our point of view - we rarely get to go to parties because of how busy we are!
When hiring a room the first thing to consider is its size. Don't hire a room that is too big. With too much open space it is incredibly difficult to build up a party atmosphere.
If you have 120 guests, hire a room that holds 100. There are always people who prefer to stand up (usually to prop the bar up!).
We have a lot of equipment that we use, however we do scale it down for smaller rooms. The better the access we have to the stage area, the quicker it will take to set the gear up.
Please don't be surprised if we charge extra for upstairs function rooms. It is incredibly hard work with the weight of the equipment and we can make as many as 20 trips from the vehicles.
Also, our large music collection requires tables to be put on. It would be of great appreciation to reserve a few for us to use.
Experience dictates that parties don't really get going till 30 minutes after the start time. Encourage your guests to be punctual, particularly in the case of younger parties where guests predictably turn up a lot later.
These must be verified with the venue manager. The finish time is usually 30 minutes after the bar has closed. This gives people time to finish their last drinks.
It is very rare for parties to go on after midnight as most venues don't allow them to, with the exception of hotels. If you are going to book the finish time to be after midnight make sure your guests are willing to stay. Many times people have booked parties till 1am but have decided to finish early as all the guests have left by 12.30!
Ensure all of your guests are present before opening the buffet. We recommend between 9pm and 9.30pm for a duration of 30 minutes. It is very easy to let the duration drag on, so keep a watchful eye.
The ideal situation would be to hire another room in the venue especially for the buffet. This way you can control the temperature better so your butties don't go stale, and it also gives people a bit of freedom, somewhere for them to chat or chill out.
Do you have a rare request or dedication. A track that has sentimental value?
Please advise us early to enable us to get it in (preferably two weeks please!). Send your DJ an email and he will be happy to send you a music/event planner. Other than that come and see us on the night.
Live entertainment always breaks up the night, however it doesn't come cheap. Please refer to the recommendations page.
If it is inevitable that there will be a lot of children at the party, please make sure they are kept under control. Let's face it, the kids love to run around and slide on their knees all over the place but the area that we work in can be quite dangerous for them. There are many cables and tripod stands that we use which we protect so far as is reasonably practicable.