Elke Reva Sudin is the founder and CEO of Drawing Booth, an international live event digital sketch company.
Holiday parties are the chance to wow your employees or clients and often result in over-the-top decked-out events. The showier, the more exciting, the more memorable, right? If you want to stand out for the right reasons, I suggest taking a page from the “quiet luxury” fashion trend with a less-is-more approach (where the less is of fantastic quality).
Here are six ways you can create an air of luxury on a budget.
1. Keep it quiet.
In the U.K., the Health and Safety Executive gives guidance on noise levels, and shockingly enough, there are no regulations on excessive noise at events. Volume is used to fawn excitement and help stir the crowd into the mood of the room.
If you want your guests to engage with each other in conversation, there are other ways to break those awkward silences. Choose a more relaxed and classy room atmosphere with acoustic musicians or live jazz set to reasonable volumes, and your attendees’ ears will thank you for it.
If you must give in to the loud DJ everyone has been waiting for, consider giving out earplugs. Look for options that save your ears while letting in frequencies suitable for conversation.
2. Use lighting that mimics candlelight.
While many venues won’t allow candles anymore for fire safety reasons, more and more LED options will give the warm glow of candlelight on a budget. Floating lights can also help introduce not just glowing light but reflections in the water for moodier centerpieces or large structural installations.
Ask your A/V team about faking natural lighting. They can use their existing systems to set the right hue and fades to help create the effect on a larger scale.
3. Craft a narrative.
Costume parties are exciting because you put yourself in the shoes of someone else and don’t have to perform as yourself for the night. Even without requiring your guests to dress up in a theme, they can still arrive and be taken on a journey through an unusual land where the rules aren’t the same as regular life.
4. Get theatrical.
Before smartphones and movies, entertainment came largely from the theater. Take a note from blackbox theater, where minimalist stages with props, entertainers and lighting can transform a space into another world.
Event venues can also range from larger-scale restaurants to industrial spaces. They need to be ready for a lot of wear and tear. While it may be hard to completely transform a space, covering patches with astroturf, sequins and artisan-made carpet art (which can be donated following the event) can create a cozy, ethereal atmosphere.
5. Bring the goodies to the guests.
If you invest in something, let it be your wait staff. Having the drinks/food/gifts/entertainers come to the guests will give guests the feeling of being cared for and dolled over, something that the very elite enjoy. While the closest thing to this that many people experience is a delivery app, the feeling of someone looking out for your needs before you even knew you had them will make your guests feel like royalty.
6. Give a gift that lasts.
A custom gift that represents the best of your guest or a higher quality item of use (I’ve found you can never go wrong with gifting a high-quality umbrella) will do wonders more than any branded cheap office swag that you don’t want your guests to associate you with.
A great event will move you. The connections you make, those magical moments of stopping and experiencing something truly unique, have long-term benefits and can bring up your company’s morale. Set up at least three unexpected touchpoints so that when your guests are retelling the event, they can point to these special features as being truly unique.
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