The Main Event by Memory Makers Event Planning, LLC

You contacted the caterer, the florist, the photographer; the invitations are ordered. You are proud of yourself for staying within your budget, but are you sure you are within budget?  Most events include numerous "hidden" costs that can add another 20% to 25% to the budget if you aren't careful. Here are some of the most common costs you may encounter. Catering: Though the per-person cost may seem reasonable, you will also pay a service fee (this offsets labor costs), gratuity, and sales tax if your state collects it. In Idaho, plan to add 24% to the per-person cost (this assumes 6% sales tax and 18% service fee/gratuity). Be certain to check your invoice to find out if a gratuity was included (usually) or if you need to add it in addition to the service charge and sales tax. Cake cutting fee: Many caterers charge a cake cutting fee for the use of their plates and their servers' time to cut and serve your cake if the caterer did not provide it. This can sometime...

This is the season for trade shows - business expos, health fairs, wedding shows, technology expos, home and remodeling shows, home and garden shows and more. Some shows occur only one day while others occur several days, often over a weekend. Business owners pay big bucks for a booth space, hoping to attract new customers and raise awareness of their products or services. The strategy can backfire, however, if the people working in the booth do not represent the business well.

Each shelf contains over 1,300 roses I have just returned from Pasadena, California where I had the opportunity to help decorate floats for the 125th annual Rose Parade and attend the parade. Seventeen of us worked with Petal Pushers, an organization that recruits over 5,000 volunteers each year to work on nearly a dozen floats. My job was helping prep several thousand roses that were used on eight floats. We stripped leaves, cut stems, and placed the roses in vials of water that were then inserted on the floats. Some in our group cut the individual blossoms from dried flowers then processed the blossoms in a blender to create "paint" to be glued to large "flowers" and used for stained glass windows. Others glued rice crushed in a blender to signs, pillars, columns and any surface needing to look as if it had a smooth white finish. Yet others worked on their stomachs on scaffolding over 10 feet in the air to finish attaching coconut bark to a football. Vol...