Should I Hire a Party Planner for my Birthday?

If you have a significant birthday coming up – or simply like to celebrate every year – the thought of how to plan your party can be a daunting one. On one hand, planning a party takes up a lot of time and effort, making the celebration something of a chore, while on the other hand hiring a party planner can seem like an unnecessary indulgence or an expense that could otherwise be saved. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of hiring a party planner.

Cons

The Expense

Hiring someone to spend many hours creating the perfect party for you is costly – and it is only the first cost as all the other goods and services need to be paid for too! Some party planners charge a fixed rate for the event and this includes the venue, food, staff and any extras as well as their own salary, which can mean that you are not sure of what you will be getting for your money from that lump sum payment.

Pros

The Convenience

If, however, you simply want a great party with none of the fuss and stress, then a party planner is absolutely the way to go! You tell them what you want, agree on a budget, pay them the first instalment and off you go, merely needing to pay the balance and then turn up on the day, ready to have a wonderful time.

Their Networks

Party and event planners know their industry. From the moment they held their first event, they have been curating a network of reliable suppliers, from caterers to decorators to transport service suppliers, and they know who is trustworthy and reasonably priced, and who is likely to demand excessive amounts for shoddy work. In many cases, planners will have reciprocal agreements with their best suppliers, gaining their services for a discount in exchange for regular work – and the result of this is that you get superb service for a lower price than you would be able to if you were handling the planning yourself! A win-win for you. A party planner will also have knowledge of the party world, and might suggest solutions that haven’t occurred to you because you don’t really know about them: for example a planner might let you know about popular party bus rental in New Jersey as an alternative to trying to find taxis or navigate public transport.

Their Knowledge

Even a relatively inexperienced party planner has probably given more thought to hosting events than you, and a very experienced one will have learned, through trial, error and observation, what features of a party works well, and what does not. Photo booths are surprisingly fun and leave you all with wonderful memories of the party as well as being relatively cheap, especially with modern digital photography which removes photo printing costs unless you want to print them, of course! Planners will know the best place to set these up and how to encourage people to let their hair down and don the oversized sunglasses or the very tall top-hat to create those delightful memories. And this is just one example of how a party planner can make your party go with a swing.

Should you hire a party planner for your birthday? If you can afford it, yes, why not!