The questions people ask us on the first call, answered in full. Read them before you speak to anyone, ours or otherwise, so you know what a fair quote looks like and what to expect on the day.
Most people plan two or three big events in a lifetime, so the same questions come up every time and nobody should feel awkward asking them. This page answers them plainly, with no sales language in between. Where the honest answer is that it depends, we say what it depends on.
The answers come from planning and running events since 2013: 500+ of them, for 100+ brands and companies, in 30+ cities. That is enough repetition to know which questions actually decide how an event turns out, and which ones only sound important. How early you book decides a great deal. The colour of the welcome gate decides very little.
Use these answers on any company you speak to, including us. Ask for the quote itemised, line by line. Ask who will be standing at your venue on the day and whether that person has read the plan. Ask what the rain arrangement is, in words, and what changing to it would cost. A company that answers those three clearly and in writing is usually the one that turns up at six in the morning to build.
Every enquiry gets the same six things, whether you book us or not.
A planner calls to understand the occasion, the guests and the feeling you want, before anything is designed or priced.
The look, the layout and the running order on paper, so you are reacting to something real instead of a description.
Every element listed on its own line, so you can see what each part costs and remove what you do not want.
We see the venue, the access time, the power supply and the guest route before the plan is finalised.
The same planner from the first call to the wrap-up, so you never have to explain your event twice.
A timed sheet naming who does what and when, shared with you and with everyone working on the day.
Every photo here is from an event our team planned and ran.
These are the questions we are asked most often on a first call. Each answer starts with the short version, then adds what it depends on, so you can read only the ones you need.
Book three to six months ahead for a wedding or a large corporate event, and four to six weeks for a small party or an in-office function. Peak wedding dates and the year-end corporate season fill first, so a popular Saturday can go almost a year out. Short notice is still workable, and we take it regularly; what shrinks is the choice of venue and the time available to rehearse. If your date is fixed, tell us before the brief is ready, because holding a date early costs nothing and losing it costs a lot.
A venue team runs the venue; a planner runs your event. The banquet staff give you the hall, the tables, the food and often a house sound system, and most do that part well, but their responsibility stops at the walls of the room. A planner designs the look, builds the stage, writes the running order, coordinates every supplier to one timeline, rehearses the anchor and stands on the floor while it happens. The two are not competitors, and the clearest way to see the split is side by side.
| On the day | Venue's own team | Event company |
|---|---|---|
| Space and furniture | Hall, chairs, tables, linen, house lighting | Layout, seating plan, sightlines and guest flow |
| Food | Menu, kitchen and service staff | Counter placement, queue direction, service timed against the programme |
| Look and décor | Whatever standard setup the venue keeps | Theme, stage, backdrop, florals, entry décor and branding |
| Sound and stage | House system for speeches | Stage build, truss, LED wall, show sound and lighting design |
| Programme | Not their job | Running order, cue sheet, anchor, rehearsal and show calling |
| Suppliers | Their own panel only | Every supplier worked to a single schedule |
| When something breaks | Fixes venue issues | Holds the whole event together and reworks the plan live |
An event quote should be a list of lines you can add to or delete from, never a single number. Expect separate lines for venue, food per head, décor, stage and production, lighting, branding and print, entertainment, hospitality, transport, crew on site, and a contingency. Taxes belong on the face of the quote, not buried in a total. Anything charged per day, per head or per hour should say so, because that is where a quote quietly grows when the guest count moves. Our corporate event budget and wedding planner cost pages break those lines down further.
We arrange them, and you sign whatever has to be in your name. Most hotels and banquet halls hold their own licences for events inside the property, but an open ground, a society lawn, a road-facing activation or a late-running sound system usually needs more: written intimation to the local police station, a music licence for recorded or live music, and clearance from the society or ground authority. Sound cut-off timing is the rule people discover too late, so we confirm it before the running order is written rather than after.
Every outdoor event we plan has a written wet-weather plan agreed before the date, not decided on the morning. That plan names the covered fallback, the time the decision is taken, who takes it, and what the switch costs. On the ground it means a tent or covered structure that can be brought in, cabling raised or taped, weights on every upright, covers for the sound desk and screen, and flooring for wet grass. A monsoon date in or around Pune is perfectly workable. An unplanned monsoon date is not.
Most event work runs on an advance to confirm the date, a second payment before setup begins, and the balance at or just after the event. The advance is what lets us commit to suppliers, since each of them needs their own confirmation to hold your date. How the amounts are split varies with the size of the event and how many outside suppliers are involved, and the whole schedule is written into the agreement before you pay anything. Ask what happens to the advance if the date moves rather than cancels.
It depends on the build, not on the guest count. A small home function may need four or five people through setup and two who stay for the event itself. A wedding with a mandap, a reception stage and a lighting plan, or a corporate day with a screen and a live programme, needs a setup team from early morning and a show team in the evening: a planner on the floor, a show caller at the console, sound and light operators, décor hands for touch-ups, and marshals at the entry. You are told who is coming before the day, with one name given as your contact.
Changes are normal, so the plan is written with room for them. Guests arrive late, a speaker swaps a slot, a chief guest gets stuck in traffic, rain moves a segment indoors. The run of show carries buffers in the places that can absorb them, usually around food service and between programme blocks, so one delay does not push everything behind it. On site, one person holds the timeline and makes the call, which is why a single point of contact matters more than the size of the team. You are told what changed and what it means, then you get back to hosting.
Give both the identical brief and ask for the quote in the same line structure, or you are not comparing anything. Send the same date, guest count, venue and budget range to each, then look past the total: who came to see the site, who asked about access time and sound cut-off, who put the rain plan in writing, and who told you something you did not want to hear. Ask each one for photographs of their own work across more than one kind of event, and ask who will actually be at your venue on the day.
Yes, small events are normal work and always have been. A haldi on a terrace, a first birthday in a society hall, an office farewell, a single function of a wedding, or just stage and sound for something you are organising yourself are all quotable. Small events are seen from close range, so finish matters more than scale, and they get the same site visit and the same run sheet as a big one. The full list sits on our event services page.
Pune is our base, and we have travelled to 30+ cities for clients. Most out-of-town work stays within Maharashtra, including Mumbai, Nashik, Kolhapur and Satara, along with the hill and coastal properties around Lonavala, Mahabaleshwar and Alibaug, and we travel further when a client's event calls for it. Travel, stay, moving material and the extra setup day are shown as their own lines in the quote rather than folded into a bundled figure. Send us the city and the date and we will tell you what changes.
Can't find yours? Call or WhatsApp — a planner answers.
Yes, for weddings, conferences and any event with a build. A planner checks the access time, the power supply, the ceiling height for stage and truss, the entry and exit routes, and where guests will queue. That visit is what turns a rough quote into an accurate one, and it usually removes one or two assumptions that would have cost you later.
Yes. Tell us what is already booked and we quote only for the rest, then work everyone to one timeline. Plenty of families have a caterer they have used for years, and plenty of venues include food in the package. It makes no difference to how the day runs, as long as everybody is working to the same schedule.
Yes. Terrace haldis, society hall birthdays, house-warming poojas and anniversary dinners are ordinary work for us. A home needs a different plan from a banquet hall: floor and wall protection, a power check before anything is plugged in, lift and staircase access for material, parking that does not annoy neighbours, and a clean-up that leaves the place as it was.
Yes. The planner who takes your brief is on the floor on the day, and you are told in advance who else is on site and what each of them handles. You will not be passed from a sales person to a stranger at the venue. One named person holds the timeline and makes the calls when something moves.
Yes, and they are often easier to plan well. A weekday morning usually means better venue availability, calmer traffic for material vehicles and a longer setup window, because the venue is not turning around from the previous night's function. Company town halls, conferences, school programmes and pooja functions mostly run at these times anyway.
Yes. You get a run of show: a timed sheet listing every segment, who is responsible for it, and when setup, rehearsal, doors, food service and teardown happen. It goes to you and to everyone working on the day, so nobody is working from a conversation they half remember. Changes are made on the sheet, then re-shared.
Yes. Tell us the guest count, the area, the date and what the event has to do, and we will shortlist venue types that fit and visit them with you. What we check is rarely what a brochure shows: setup access time, ceiling height, power supply, noise cut-off, parking, and whether outside suppliers are allowed in.
Yes, and it happens more often than people expect. Send whatever exists already, including the quote, the layout, the supplier list and anything paid for, and we will tell you honestly what to keep and what to redo. The earlier the handover happens, the more of the money you have already spent stays useful.
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Pune · PCMCStill have a question?
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