Organising a party is best left to the experts.

Back in August it was my parentâ??s 25th wedding anniversary, and to celebrate the occasion we had a big party at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire. It was a fantastic event, everybody had a great time and most of all my parents were able to relive their wedding day some 25 years ago. However, the story began almost a year ago when sitting round the dinner table on a Sunday evening, munching on our roast. The issue arose when my brother, 3 years my senior, asked how long Mum and Dad had been married for, and although he should have known this, my parents didnâ??t care. When it was realised that next year would the their 25th year of marriage, I knew and dreaded that I would be the one to help organise the darn thing. My nightmare came true and Mother asked if I could be the one to oversee its administration, since I work for an events services organisation. Of course I said I would be happy to even though in my head a little voice was saying why canâ??t one of my siblings do it? So I went ahead with the venue finding process, which went relatively smoothly thanks to the aid of a venue finding company called Venue Reservations (http://www.venuereservations.co.uk). By January we had the Old Palace Garden booked for the event, including catering, which included a three course meal and beverages. We were allowed the option of hiring a marquee for the occasion, which would be situated in the garden, since it was the Summer. So we used a company called Piggotts (http://www.piggotts.co.uk/marquee-index.htm) , who were very helpful in meeting our requirements. This was the point at which we had problems, where we had used an organisation called Spaceworks, to help us with our equipment needs, for example, tables and chairs. Now everything was going swimmingly up until the week before the event, when I rang up Spaceworks just to make sure they were ready, only to hear a response of â??Sorry, Sir we donâ??t have any recollection of your requests.â? So at this point I was screwed, I had to desperately find a company that would be able to fulfil our needs, and right at the last minute, but last minute in this industry is a month before the event! Nevertheless, I managed to find a supplier of catering and event equipment called The Event Hire Company (http://www.eventhireonline.co.uk), whom are based in Essex, so I thought it was a long shot. I rang them and explained my problem to them, expecting an abrupt â??NO!â?, only to be pleasantly surprised to hear that they would be happy to help me out, and at no extra cost. Naturally I was delighted, because it was my life at stake, so I will be eternally grateful to The Event Hire team for somehow managing to help me out. They turned out to be a lot cheaper than Spaceworks, plus had a very friendly onsite team, whom we were happy to invite round for drinks once the main party was over. In the end I could have hired a person to do all the organising for me, which would have saved a lot of stress, headaches, and the sick feeling that comes with thinking youâ??re going to die! So I think the lesson learnt here is leave it to the experts, hence why they are experts, and thatâ??s why people like me shouldnâ??t be doing it. Andrew Cahill Related Articles - Event furniture hire, catering equipment hire, event hire, party hire,