Airlines implemented “change fees” many years ago to force travelers to really think about their travel plans and to ensure their dates, times, location, etc. were all correct before booking.     Similarly, more and more vendors are starting to implement a change fee after the 2nd, 3rd or 4th revision of a video edit, flower order, menu change, timeline modification, etc.

Why are they suddently charging for revisions?   The reason why these fees are starting to be implemented is due to an overwhelming increase in clients who constantly send changes” little by little” versus carefully reviewing all details and giving vendors one consolidated list of changes.

“Time is money” so the intention of this new practice is so that clients slow down and take the time to really think about what they want and thoroughly review all details.    The alternative to charging revision fees would be for vendors to increase their pricing to compensate for all of the extra hours they are putting in which in turn would penalize those that are considerate of their time.

So how do you keep your life in balance when you have so much going on?     As a professional event planner, small business owner, mother, wife, daughter, friend and mentor, these are some of tips I would like to share with you.

1)   Make time to plan out your week’s schedule.    Think about how many errands that you may run in a week (ie: bank, groceries, gas station, farmer’s market, etc.) and then think about how much travel time you waste when you do these errands individually and/or during peak traffic or busy times.      We designate two days a week and map out our errands so that we are traveling from point A to B to C to D, etc. and then back home.   By doing this, we are taking the shortest route, combining errands with other appointments, saving time, gas, etc.

2)  Focus on your three MITs (Most Important Tasks).  All of us have deadlines that have to be met, and some of those are in conjunction with someone else helping us gather information or providing a quote.    Take  20 minutes a day to map out your next day’s schedule to ensure that your three most important tasks are taken care of first, then  proceed on with the rest of your list.

3)  Shop Online.  Do you really have to drive 35 minutes to an office supply store?      That 35 minute drive is actually 70 minutes roundtrip (without traffic) plus the cost of gas.   Considering the value of your time and the cost of gas, shopping on-line often can save you money.

4)  Rather than picking up dinner on the way home, create your menu for the week.    By looking at on-line ads, you may determine what items will be on sale and plan your meals around it.   Many grocery stores even have it set-up where you can just click on your item and it will create your shopping list for you, all you have to do is print it out.     On Oahu, Safeway actually has a “deal match” program where you sign up and will get the best price available so you don’t have to go three different grocery stores to try and save money.

5)  Just say “no thank you.”    How many times have you been invited to an event that you really didn’t want to go to but did because you didn’t want to offend someone?   Think about a Saturday night potluck party with your friends.   First, this was the day you planned to catch up on some of your sleep and “to do list” and now, instead of catching up, you not only lost the time you will be away for the potluck, but you’ve also lost the time to worry about what you’re going to make, the time to shop for the item, the prep time for the item and if you enjoyed too much wine that evening, may even sacrifice the next morning with a hangover.

6)  Create a pie chart and split out your projects.   Many get overwhelmed with wedding planning becauses they are looking at all of the things that needs to be done between now and the wedding day.  What we do is take the big pie and break it down into pieces, identifying what you need to do first, and then tackle each section a little at a time.   You’ll find that if you continually do a little at a time, you will feel more in control.

7)  Remember that life happens…….sometimes we get sick, have technical difficulties with our computers, have a new work or school project that is taking more time than we thought, etc.      Just do your best and communicate with others that it may affect, get through the challenging period and then start back at #1 and #2.

8)  Make time for gratitude daily…..be thankful for your blessings and remember that challenges always makes us stronger.

No matter what you do in life, you should be respectful of another person’s time.      I had the opportunity to hang out after our National Association of Catering Executives (NACE) meeting the other evening with some event professionals and one of the topics of  our discussion was how much time was wasted due to clients’ arriving late or worse yet, not at all.

Many don’t realize that in addition to 60 minute meeting time that we are allocating for you, we also have travel time to get to the location (which in my case ranges from 30-45 minutes) and as we arrive early to ensure we are on time, that’s easily another 15 minutes, plus the drive back.     So a one hour meeting time, in truth is taking between 2 hours and 15 minutes to 2 hours and 45 minutes of time out of our day.  Many clients associate delayed responses with “island time”  but our ability to get back to you in a timely manner (other than when we have events of course) is adversely impacted by each meeting that starts late.

I’ve also had a few clients that were purposely going to start their ceremony late.     There are several reasons why you should always start your ceremony on time.  First of all, you should respect the time of those guests that did arrive on time to attend your special day.    Secondly, often times ministers do have another wedding to attend to and they schedule their time based on your ceremony start time.    As a coordinator, i know from experience that starting on time sets the pace for the entire day, if you start on time, the day is relaxed, it is when things are running late that the stress factor sets in.