When we enter the office on a Monday morning, you’ll hear many of us say, “Hello party people.”
One thing you won’t miss when you walk in is the music blaring from our offices (and some of us singing along a little too loudly).
We are the team who’s always sharing our favorite new hit in our #general Slack channel. Selecting music is a big part of our jobs. Every speaker needs that perfect walk-up song, and every custom welcome video needs the right theme song to kick off the day. And of course, we set the mood for every event with a curated playlist. With so much love for our fellow event profs, we thought, wouldn’t it make sense for us to have our own?
Life as an event planner can get pretty hectic (an understatement if there ever was one.) In this industry, we take work hard, play hard to an extreme. This is what we love and what we signed up for, but when we are in the throws of chaos it helps sometimes to laugh and just sing along at the top of our lungs to “that song” that speaks to our souls in that exact moment.
As a joke our CEO made a Spotify playlist of the range of emotions that events bring – from start to finish. Our in house music guru didn’t want to miss out on the fun and somehow we started making a playlist to describe the life-cycle of an event planner. We thought we’d share it because we’re sure it will ring true to anyone who lives in the forever up-and-down world of event planning.
1. A HEAD FULL OF DREAMS BY COLDPLAY
And you get a head / A head full of dreams / You can see the change you want to / Be what you want to be.
We all know that feeling – a new event on the docket. A chance to do something new, to fix whatever went wrong on our last event, to show our client what we’re capable of. It’s time to make a new mood board on Pinterest.
2. BIG PLANS BY WHY DON’T WE
Work all day, work all night / Might not get no sleep tonight.
We have crazy ideas and inspo pictures galore – now we have put them into action. This is the time to breakout the ol’ spreadsheet and make a master project plan, and start sourcing vendors for all those dreams in our heads.
3. LOOK WHAT I FOUND BY LADY GAGA
Look what I found / Another piece of my heart / Just layin’ on the ground.
We just realized why that baller never-before-seen event idea we had our heart set on is never-before-seen. (Hint – It costs gangster money.)
4. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY JUSTIN BEIBER
What do you mean? Ooh / When you nod your head yes / But you wanna say no.
Sometimes working with clients means being a mind-reader. It’s knowing the difference between a polite “looks good” and that “I ABSOLUTELY NEED THIS” fire in their eyes.
5. SWEET BUT PSYCHO BY AVA MAX
Oh, she’s sweet but a psycho / A little bit psycho / At night she’s screamin’ / ‘I’m-ma-ma-ma out my mind.’
This is that feeling we get when we’re knee deep in planning. The love / hate relationship phase. So much is going right, so much is going wrong – but we know we’ll finagle something. It’s in our job descriptions.
6. CALL ME MAYBE BY CARLY RAE JEPSEN
Hey, I just met you and this is crazy / But here’s my number, so call me maybe.
At this point, we’ve done absolutely everything we can. We’ve got plans, plans, and backup plans for every possible direction our event could go, but we need answers to questions and approvals before we can move forward with anything. We haven’t done the math on this, but we’re pretty sure that statistically speaking, this will 100% happen at the exact moment when our client decides to disappear without a trace. Call us, maybe?
7. DON’T CHANGE BY WHY DON’T WE
All I’m tryna say is don’t change / Every part of you is just right, don’t change.
Yes, for once, everything is right where we want it to be. But, of course:
8. CHANGES BY BLACKBEAR
And it’s been on my mind, way too often / I can’t understand, where we went wrong / But I’ve been going through changes.
The client finally returned our calls / texts / emails / Bat-Signals. Guess what? We have to change everything.
9. ONE LAST TIME BY ARIANA GRANDE
So one last time / I need to be the one who takes you home / One more time / I promise after that, I’ll let you go.
That event date is looming over our heads. We’re on version 17 of the client presentation. This is (we hope) the last time.
10. NO SLEEP TILL BROOKLYN BY THE BEASTIE BOYS
Waking up / Before I get to sleep / ‘Cause I’ll be rockin’ this party eight days a week! / No sleep till / No sleep till Brooklyn!
Event day is finally here. Sleep? We don’t know her.
11. SLOW DANCING IN A BURNING ROOM BY JOHN MAYER
We’re goin’ down / And you know that we’re doomed / My dear / We’re slow dancing in a burnin’ room.
Any event planner will tell you that Murphy’s Law reigns supreme on event day. Absolutely anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. But, we have a great poker face. We handle all the stress and surprises – our guests never know the wiser.
12. OOH LA LA BY TINASHE
Ooh la la la la la la (la la la la la) / Ooh la la la la la la.
Everything in our imagination (and in your project plan, concept presentations, and run sheets) is actually happening. Finally, we can take a step back and admire all our hard work.
13. BYE BYE BYE BY *NSYNC
I know that I can’t take no more / Ain’t no lie / I want to see you out that door / Baby bye bye bye.
All those months spent planning and agonizing over this event – and in the blink of an eye, it’s all over. Thank. Goodness. Bye Bye Bye.
14. SOMEWHERE ON A BEACH BY DIERKS BENTLEY
I went wheels up on a runway / And that ticket was a long way / I’m somewhere on a beach / Sipping something strong.
The event is passed and we ain’t looking back. Time to relax and celebrate (hopefully somewhere on a beach.)
15. SILENCE BY MARSHMELLO + KHALID
I’ve been quiet for too long / I’ve been quiet for too long / I found peace in your violence / Can’t tell me there’s no point in trying / I’m at one, and I’ve been quiet for too long.
At the end of the day, we’re always going to crave the craziness. When it’s been too long since we’ve had an event, we start to go a little nuts.
16. RINSE & REPEAT BY RITON + KHA-LO
Then we rinse and repeat / And it just goes on.
A new event on the docket. Time to do it all over again.
There you have it. The life-cycle of an event planner. Now you know why we are the way we are. You can listen to the full playlist on Spotify.
Need a team that can handle whatever you throw? This ain’t our first rodeo.