Creating a Frightfully Delightful Halloween Event

Halloween is one of the most exciting events to plan for because you can let your imagination run wild! It's also a time where you don't want to hold back because people are expecting a lot.

Your greatest planning efforts should go into decorating and setting the atmosphere. Halloween is the one night a year where everyone wants to be scared, so it's important to set the right mood. Jack-o'-lanterns and fog machines can be placed around the event entrance to start building up anticipation right away. Keep the lights in the event space low and use candles to create a spooky glow. Have creepy music playing as guests walk in to invoke that horror film experience  where you hear the music and know something bad's about to happen. Then hit them with something horrifying! Whether it's an life-size animatronic prop from the Halloween store or just someone popping out, use that opportunity to give them a good scare.

Decorations should be everywhere you can possibly put them to continue the scary effect. If you can't afford to buy out your local party shop, purchase a few key pieces that you think will really be spine-chilling and then be thrifty with the rest! Thrift stores are a great place to find decorations that are extremely marked down, or pieces that you can use to create decorations for a fraction of what they would cost in the store. Buy some dolls, spray paint them white, and black out their eyes with marker to create Dolls of the Living Dead! Buy a white sheet and cut out some bats from construction paper to create a fun Photo Backdrop.

The food at your event can be an extension of your decorations. Start with savory appetizers that will balance out all of the Halloween sugar. Try a Yummy Mummy Spinach Dip or chicken fingers shaped like Monster Claws. If you're short on time and decide to  serve a "normal" menu, put out tags in front of each item and assign them a creepy name. Sandwiches become sandwitches. Steak and potatoes becomes spooky steak with mashed boo-tatoes. Have fun with it!

Of course, what's a Halloween party without candy? Set out glass jars and fill them with different types of candies and mini scoops so guests can fill goodie bags to take home. Cookies and cupcakes are another great item to have because they're easy for guests to eat and fun for you to decorate. You can go simple by using orange frosting on a chocolate cupcake, or show off your decorating skills with Jack Skellington cupcakes or mummy cupcakes that have white frosting strips and red M&Ms for eyes!
 

Don't forget to plan for something to keep your guests entertained! Costume contests, pumpkin carving, and bobbing for apples are classics that people always enjoy. If you have a theme you can center your activities around that. Here at zEvent, our Halloween party theme will be Wizard of Oz. To go along with that theme, we're having a scarecrow contest, a band that will play creepy covers of songs from the movie, and a photo booth with a green curtain to elicit the idea of the man behind the curtain.

If you have any tips or creative ideas for Halloween party foods, decorating ideas, or activities, share them in the comments below! Happy haunting!

Sell Merchandise the 'ez' Way!

ezEvent® is excited to announce our new merchandise with custom questions feature! 

Now with ezEvent®’s powerful event management and ticketing software, you can list t-shirts, program books, and any other merchandise you may be selling right alongside your event tickets! Gone are the days of guessing the quantity of each item you need to bring to your event. Custom questions give you the ability to obtain a buyer's shirt size, preferred item color, design choice, and any other information you might require to give the buyer exactly what he or she needs!

This feature can be set up when you create an event. After you define your Ticket Type, Price and Fee, click the Enhanced Options link. The Item Category should be changed to Merchandise. From there you can add in any information you'd like about the item, including a picture and detailed description. Click the +Add Custom Questions button to create questions specific to your item. Answers to these questions can be in the form of a dropdown box or radio buttons.

Go try out the new feature and let us know what you think!

Plan the Perfect Football Event!

Are you ready for some football? Over the next few months many of us will attend a fantasy draft, pre-game tailgate, tournament, or viewing party involving our country's favorite sport. The tips below will help you host an A-list NFL celebration!

Your instinct may be to invite only diehard football fans, but don't neglect those who are simply fans of social events. The most fun parties are those that bring together people you've known your whole life and people you're just meeting. Always mix things up!

After you send your invites, choose the setup of your room and assess the seating situation. If you have a big group, plan for enough seating to make sure no one is left standing. Set up some tall bar stools and tables behind the couch so that even people in the back have a great view. No matter where people are seated they should have a clear view of the television screen. This can be used as a great excuse to get a new, larger TV!

The game should be the focus of your event, but the aesthetics are half the fun. For game-viewing parties, functional decorations work the best. Pick up football-themed plates, napkins, and cups to give guests something to look at during commercials. Set out face paints in your favorite team's colors so guests can get in the spirit. If you decide to get more elaborate with your decorating, make sure nothing you put out blocks the view of the TV!

For some people, viewing parties are all about the food. Foods that are easy to pick up and don't distract from watching the game are the best. Classics like pizza, wings, and chips and dip are easy to put together and are always a hit. Have fun with the presentation of your food! Make a football out of pepperoni on your pizza or buy some white icing and draw laces on chocolate desserts such as brownies and cupcakes. Don't forget about drinks! Beer is always a favorite. Having an assortment of Gatorade in team colors is also a nice on-theme touch. If you end up with a large group of guests, you may wish to offset the cost of refreshments by creating a 'cover charge' and selling tickets in advance.

If you'll have kids around during the event it's important to keep them occupied. Give them their own place to celebrate by painting a faux football field in your backyard and setting up an inflatable goal post so they can play a game on their own! If you have multiple TVs in the house you can also set up a separate viewing area for the kids.
  
With a great group of friends, sensible decorations, delicious food, and distracted children, your event is sure to be a touchdown!

Choosing an Event Theme

A theme is an underlying concept or notion that is easily recognizable. Your theme can be pretty much anything you want it to be, but the main requirement for it to be successful is that is must be recognizable by your guests. For example, you should be able to tell that the photo on the right is of a Hollywood theme from the film canisters, red carpet and director clapboards.

A theme is a valuable for an event planner because it can be used as inspiration for everything from food to decorations, and focuses decisions during the planning process. Whether the theme is very specific, such as Parisian Cafe, or as general as your favorite color palette, having a theme will guide your decisions and keep you from getting overwhelmed.

But how do you choose a theme? It's important that the decision isn't just pulled out of thin air. You need to carefully consider how it's related to your target markets and the purpose of your event. Ask yourself these questions:

• Event Type: Is this a social celebration where people are coming just to mingle, or a high-profile product launch? 
• Mood: Should guests be feeling playful or somber? 
• Guest of Honor: Are you honoring a specific person? What does this person like or what is their industry?
• Guests: Is it a young audience looking for fun, a family event, or a conservative business event? 
• Venue: Is the event space a standard banquet hall, or an exotic location like a beach or castle?

The answers to these questions will help you select a theme that will be appropriate to the situation.

You can find inspiration for themes all around you! If you're planning an event for a holiday, you already have a pretty good set of guidelines about what fits in with the theme. For example, if you're planning an event with a St. Patrick's Day theme, you would be expected to use the color green, and not pink or blue. Seasons can provide great inspiration for your event. The warm summer season, for example, is great for luau and garden events. Another great place to look for theme ideas is what's popular at the moment. When the film The Great Gatsby was released back in May, there was a sudden surge in Roaring 20s events. Party stores always stock merchandise from the latest trendy movies, current events, and other pop culture phenomena, so it's easy to plan for something popular.

Keep in mind that not all events need a theme. Some activities on which your events are based are theme enough, like a picnic or afternoon tea. These activities have have their own special requirements and adding anything extra would not be necessary. If you're planning an awards ceremony for a local hero who rescued someone from a dangerous situation, a theme wouldn't make sense. The purpose of the event is honoring the hero, and that's why the target audience is attending. Any competing themes would be distracting and take away from your event. That's not to say that all awards events don't need a theme though! Sometimes it can be appropriate and helps entertain those who are attending but aren't receiving awards. Use your judgment when deciding whether to theme or not to theme.

Using the 5 Senses to Bring Your Event to Life: Touch

Over the last few weeks we've provided tips on how to utilize the senses of sight, sound, taste, and smell to create a well-rounded event. The final aspect you need to take into consideration to provide a total experience for guests is the sense of touch.

Touch elements can be brought into your event in two ways: 

1. The physical sense of touch 
2. The feelings that you create in your guests.

The first interaction your guests have with your event is touching the invitation (or clicking their mouse if you provide online registration through a site like ezEvent!). Spend time carefully planning the invitations to make sure they're the best possible introduction to your event! 

As guests enter your event space they'll feel the temperature of the room. If it's too hot or too cold, they'll engage in your sense of sound because you're definitely going to hear about it! When guests take their seat they'll feel the chairs and linens, the china and the glassware they handle, the food and beverages that are served, as well as any intriguing decor within reach. These many things could feel wet or dry, clean or dirty, comfortable or uncomfortable, hot or cold. When putting together your event, carefully plan for these things to ensure the feelings will be pleasant.

In terms of the second dimension of touch, guests are going to have feelings created in anticipation of, during, and after your event. It begins when they get your invitation and decide whether or not they feel like attending. When they arrive, they'll decide whether or not they feel welcome at your event. Early on they should feel the energy and excitement of the room. If you've chosen the right music, they should feel like dancing.

What you should hope for at the end of the evening is that guests will feel like it's too soon to go home. Will guests reach out to touch and shake your hand or pull you in for a big hug to show their appreciation for the invite? Will you have touched their hearts? Will they have touched yours? If yes, then you've probably given them a total experience and you can pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

Using the 5 Senses to Bring Your Event to Life: Taste and Smell

Over the last two weeks we've given you tips on how to effectively incorporate sight and sound elements into your event. This week, we're giving you ideas on how to appeal to your guests' senses of taste and smell so you can continue to improve your events!

Taste and smell may be separate senses, but they work together very closely. Think of the last time you smelled something that was just really gross. I bet you didn't think to yourself, "I should go eat that." On the other hand, try to remember the last time you picked up the scent of cookies baking in the kitchen or a steak on the grill. Did it make your mouth water? It probably did! If something smells good it activates your taste buds. Keep this in mind when planning events, as food and beverages are an important element in creating a total experience. Any food you serve should smell and taste great!

A great way to add in a pleasant scent to your event is flowers. People expect flowers to smell good, and you know guests will inevitably sniff them to take in the aroma. Flowers please our sense of sight, but it's our sense of smell that they really take hold of. Just be sure you don't overdo it! Having too many flowers or heavily scented flowers can be overpowering and after a while unappealing. You also don't want them to compete with the smell of the food. Your nose will get confused and then nothing will smell good. Work on keeping all of the scents in the room balanced, or keep them in separate sections of your event space.

Planning for unpleasant scents is also important, as one bad odor could ruin the mood of the event. Picture an outdoor event where the smells from a local cow farm drift over. It may sound silly, but sniff out the event site when you first check it out. Even indoor events can have bad smells. Always be sure someone will be changing the garbage cans frequently and that the bathrooms always smell fresh. Planning ahead can prevent a foul situation!

We've now covered four out of the five senses, so your event should be looking pretty good at this point. Next week we'll show you how adding in elements of touch will round out your event!

Using the 5 Senses to Bring Your Event to Life: Sound

Last week we offered tips on how an event organizer should appeal to guests' sense of sight to ensure that guests have a total experience at your event. While having a visually stunning event is great, you also need to take into consideration sound elements!

• What guests hear as they enter: As you walk into an event, the change in sound from the outdoors to the event space can be dramatic. If you walk in and you hear silence, you may think that no one has arrived yet or that the party is dull. The chatter and laughter of guests indicates that people are interacting and having a good time. Special effect sounds that match up with the event theme can add a playfulness to the event. Spend time planning out the sounds guests will hear at your event and use them to get guests excited!

• Music: Music has a way of luring people in. When used properly, it can set the tone for the event and put your guests in the appropriate mood. All of your music selections should be event appropriate. If you're having a formal gala, it's probably not the right time to play the Chicken Dance. The timing of when music is played is another thing to consider. If you're having a big speech, you want to make sure the music is playing very quietly or not at all so that it doesn't distract guests.

• Audio systems: One of the worst things that can happen at an event is making a speech or announcement that the back half of the room isn't able to hear. Plan out your audio system so that sound will be properly projected in every area where guests will be. Test everything ahead of time to make sure it's working the way it should and sound levels are at an appropriate level. Don't forget to turn the microphones on before your event begins!

• Competing sounds: Even if you've meticulously planned out the sound for your event space, you may not have considered the sounds coming from surrounding areas that may take the attention away from your event. Noises coming from other rooms, such as utensils banging around in a kitchen or cars noises from a nearby road, can ruin the atmosphere you're trying to create for your event. When selecting a venue, always keep this in mind to ensure that you are in control of these competing sounds and that guests are kept far enough away so that it doesn't detract from your event.

With all of these tips, your event should now look and sound perfect! Next week we'll explore the sense of taste.