What type of events are the hardest to plan and why?

I'm going to approach this question literally - which events are hardest to plan... For me it's the events where your clients/stakeholders are very emotionally attached. The stakes are very high for a wedding - you have a client who may consider this the most important day of her life. Compare this with a corporate event - those have a different kind of high stakes, but a lot less of the heightened emotions surrounding it. So, for me, corporate is the way to go. However, you also have to look at what gives you personal satisfaction. Perhaps working with a bride and her family give YOU the professional satisfaction you desire and a more cut and dried corporate event is less fulfilling for you. When you are just starting out, working at a company or venue that handles both corporate and private events may give you a good feeling of the kind of events that you find personally satisfying. Because the hardest events to plan are often the ones that you, as a planner, don't feel connected to.

I agree with Celeste Cole. Emotional attached events is one of the hardest.

The other situations that I can think of are:

Low budget high expectations. It is a good challenge sometimes, make you think to reuse things or search for things to recycle. Lots of times, in events planning, lots of props simply being used once and because it is buried in the closets and no one bother to spend time to do inventory or to search for it.

Too many bosses in one function.

Communication breakdown. You are the event coordinator, but the owner already have their special caterer, and bartender, and other performances, and they are not communicating with you.

Being said and done; if that is your passion in event organization, don't let this stop you to achieve your dream. Equip yourself will skills to be successful instead. Learn about communication skills, human behaviors, how to manage people. Organization is one of the important skills to have, and maybe why you like events planning, but you may also have the skill to be with people, the special charisma!

Great Questions Bria,

There are several types of events from small group events to large dinner and weddings events. If you have a knack for Event Planning medium size events are perfect and also events where the event planner is in attendance. There is quite a bit of behind the scenes.....The event planner expertise are: Open communication/coordination with the meeting/event planner, Weekly Communication to their staff about up and coming events, ensuring you have the staff to take of your guest, managing your inventory, managing your controllable cost, Then the best part of the event is the day of the event when it all comes together.

Hi Bria,

Deciding on which events are the best ones to plan will depend on you. I would say get into as many planning committees that you can at school or even for your family events so you can see what interests you the most. I have a big family so I did a lot of birthday parties, graduations, etc. so I learned how to coordinate within my control. I then parlayed this into college and in my sorority where I planned more events. It wasn't until I graduated that I knew hospitality and events is what I wanted to continue in my career. The events that I love the most are the most challenging ones. However, I still love to plan birthday parties to hospitality events for the Olympics.