About Me

Today is my first day interning at Perfect Productions. My name is Kate, and I am a freshman at Endicott College in Beverly Massachusetts. I am Majoring in Hospitality Management focusing in event planning. So far I have not learned much about event planning specifically, however the next three weeks I am excited to learn all I can. So far my experience has been learning about the company and what I will be doing here. During my three weeks here I will be blogging about things I have learned, done, or researched about in the industry. While I am here I will be able to expand my contact list, talk to venders and venues, and be able to have my first office experience. I am most excited about helping out with events, and being able to market the company. Today is just the first day, so most of my work will be small. I will be sorting a wine list for future clients, going through information from trade shows, and calling magazines to recieve their newest issue to replace our outdated ones, along with other housekeeping issue around the office. I am looking forward to learning and sharing in the next three weeks.

About me

My name is Margie Driscoll and I am a sophomore at Endicott College. Throughout our four years at Endicott we are required to complete two 120 hour internships and one semester long internships. For my second 120 hour internship I am working with Perfect Productions in Farmington Connecticut. It is the first day and I have already learned a lot about how important time management and attention to detail will be as I continue to learn the information needed to become a successful event planner. Today I have been given tasks to do such as a DISC personality training analysis, sorting wine pamphlets for future clients, also I will be working with the other intern to complete tasks given to us throughout the office such as cutting envelopes and calling different magazines to receive their newest additions. I am really looking forward to the next three weeks here at Perfect Productions and I am excited to learn more about the event industry.

Get Your Interns Thinking.

Elissa gave me a exercise to do one day in the office. It was; if I was an event planner and stuck on a deserted island and all I had with me was my tool box, what would I put in it and why.

A few items I have on my list are pens, paper, glue of all types, scissors. and a hammer. Why did I pick these items. A pen so I can write with and draw a floor plan, paper so I can write on. I choose glue types of super glue, Elmers glue and Modge Podge (its amazing) and I choose them so I can make things and hold object together. Scissors to cut things down in size or cut string or rope. A hammer would be in my tool box because you can use to put things together or break things down. Some other items are a tide to-go pen, travelers sewing kit, and band aids. You truly never know when any of these objects will come in hand but it is always a good call to have them at every event.

After making the list of items there were a few questions she wanted me to answer. Why am I completing this exercise, what did I learn from it and How would I apply this exercise into my work as an Event Planner?

My answer to the first question was that I was doing to the excercise to test my knowledge on how to pack for all events and what is necessary to bring incase anything goes wrong, I will be prepared for all situations to my best ability.

The second question of what did I learn, I said that I learned that there are many items that you need to have on your packing list as an event planner,you must think of all situtaions that can go wrong and prepare for them before hand.

And lastly how will I apply this to my work as an Event planner. I said in the future I will use this exercise to help me pack for my events and be ready for any situtaion that may occur. It may seem silly to have a few of the items on me at all time but it is smart to be prepared for anything.

How to Make your Halloween Party a Howl!

Are you throwing a Halloween Party and want to get creative? Well look no further I have some fun and easy Halloween projects for you to decorate with.

Make your punch and finish it off with floating hands. Just fill up rubber gloves ties the ends tight and lay them flat in your freezer over night. When your ready to add them to the punch just remover the glove and let them float away. You can also put your punch in a witches cauldron, elevate it and add dry ice under it. It will look like fog and create a spooky feel.

When it comes to the decor, you can get very creative and make a cemetery scene anywhere in your house or at a venue. Just get green felt, lay it flat like grass and get a small wooden fence, lastly cut tombstones out. Small creative ideas that you can also do is take Halloween spider webbed woman's nylons and use them as slip covers to candle holders. Then add a little orange ribbon and fake spiders crawling up them. More candle ideas are taking small skulls and put them in the bottom of an old jelly jar and add water and floating candles. Add spider webs and fake spiders to candle sticks.

When creating a menu for a Halloween you party you have to get creative. Use simple recipes but give the dishes spooky names. For example fried pus and blood sauce, fried mozzarella sticks and marinara sauce for dipping. Using creepy names gives everyone a conversation topic and add a little spook to the whole party. You can also spice up your menu by adding the Puking Pumpkin. Take a jack-o-lantern and a thick cream cheese or sour cream based dip and have it run out of the pumpkins mouth and onto a plate. Give the guests chips and dip away!

All these ideas used together and you and your guests will have a Halloween to ralk about for years.

Plan a Themed Dinner Party

Your busy schedule has you too busy for your friends. Dinner parties are a time to get all your friends together and catch up. The same old dinner party with drinks and dinner can get a little boring after a while. Add some pizazz and make it themed. Create a theme that everyone will get into. Some ideas I thought of are;

Decade Party, choose your favorite decade and have your guests dress accordingly. For example through a 50's party and have the women wear poodle skirts with hair in pony-tails and the men in varsity letter men sweaters or leather jackets, cuffed jeans and sleeked back hair. The menu should be cheeseburgers and fries, milk-shakes and root beer floats. Decorate with records, checkerboard patterns and old coke bottles.

Another theme could be Casino Night. Make your home into a Las Vegas Casino, turn you dinning room table into a poker table, and get out some poker chips. Play cards, have a few drinks and chat away with friends. Instead of a sit down dinner, make a buffet table. Vegas buffets are all about variety so have a little bit of everything on the menu.

What about a Murder Mystery Party. Have the guest get involved in the game. Create a character for each guest to be then create clues around your house and let the fun begin. While playing the game you can have appetizers and drinks, after the game is done and the murderer is revealed all sit down and chat about them game and other topics over a delightful meal.

Not Sure What a Great Hostess Gift would be?

The Hostess of a party goes to great lengths to make sure everything is perfect for their guests. It takes a lot of time and preparation to make an event happen. Reward them with something nice and thoughtful. As I researched I found that giving food and wine was the most common. I thought it would be better to give something more memorable. Ideas that I found were items such as;

Wine Glass top appetizer plates. They make socializing easier as you walk around.

A great gift to give to someone you are close with are custom picture coasters. You can fill the coasters yourself with pictures of you and your friend or leave that to the hostess.

Those of you out there that always have that friend that is asking for your recipes for your family secrete sauces. Why not make some bottle it up and give it as a gift. Then they can have the sauce without you having to reveal the secretes. Just package it up in a glass jam container and label.

A centerpiece is the central or outstanding point or feature at an event. In the Event Planning Industry the centerpiece is what draws the eye; it is what expresses the theme of the event. When thinking about centerpieces the initials thought is flowers! Today, my mission was to find three unique centerpieces without using flowers. This was one of the coolest projects of mine because it allowed me to explore other aspects of the Event Planning Industry. When I was first assigned the project, I thought well this is going to be difficult; how on earth do you make a centerpiece without flowers? As I researched this is what I found.

The first, was a pirate themed centerpiece; it incorporated the skull head with a sword and a treasure chest, the essentials to a perfect pirate themed party.

The second unique centerpiece I found was a New Years Eve centerpiece. The base of the centerpiece is a black party hat with gold and black bows off to the left side and a gold balloon on top.

And the third, most outrageous, cool, funky centerpiece I found, was a Tiffany themed centerpiece. It looks to be an engagement party centerpiece with the base has an green engagement ring with Tiffany boxes, gold watches and gold braclets around the bottom.

Stay Tuned! As I will be writing again to report back about the work of an intern at Perfect Productions.