Event planning/decorating school - 6 weeks recap
October 4th was my first day at school; it was a Wednesday. From that day my week changed; it no longer started on Mondays but on Wednesdays and all other days were "just" leading up to THE day where I could learn new "stuff", show my work and have fun doing it! This class is small - and that's a conscious choice of the teacher!. We're only four students there which is extremely helpful when craft supplies take up a whole lot of space and though the table is "of conference-dimensions", many more would not fit around it comfortably to craft. We do theory and practice in the same session so our restless minds and hands are both satisfied.
Our study material revolves around the basic differences between event decorating and event planning/managing; about all the ways there are to work in the industry and about the services you can offer. For now, the hardest work is building up your vendor list. I have almost 20 years of event planning and decorating behind me but it was always on an intimate level - on a very small scale, for family, friends, co-workers of my hubby etc. I did not need any vendor list cos I was the one planning, budgeting, making, decorating, setting up, tearing down, cooking/baking, waitressing, bar-tending etc.
Our decorating projects started with wreaths that we wrapped with different textured materials, decorated them with handmade flowers made out of fabrics like, burlap, felt, cheese-cloth, satin, organza etc. One of our tasks was to decorate a wreath with ready-made, cheap components, a task that I found puzzling at first because for me the whole custom-made concept lies on hand-made elements. (Now I know that custom-made does not equal hand-made; more on that in a later post.)
Here are my wreaths
Then, we moved on to the art of bonbonniere.
You can choose from so many different shapes and forms, materials and embellishments, themes and colors for bonbonnieres; really, the sky's the limit! We've made them 6 different ways and we're still not done! Because of the wide variety of materials and embellishments, you could decorate for many different clients and not repeat the design.
These were my bonbonnieres
I'm excited to continue learning all the ways I can make someone's event easier by providing solutions that are custom fitted to the clients while the aesthetic of the decorations is in synch with the style and soul of the event.
Thank you for spending your time with me and hope to see you back for my next update.
Your Fairy,
Tünde