There is still time – these words pass through minds very quickly when you have to plan an event. Sadly, repeating them doesn’t do away with the reality that what you thought was wrong. Faster than anticipated the day of the event is on the head, and you haven’t done any planning. For situations like this, instead of pulling hair and cursing the high hells, utilise these two simple tricks to organising.

• It has been said many times, and yet it bears repeating: know your budget. Before even a single decision is made, define the amount that can be spent on the entire event. Then start breaking down the event to smaller decisions and assign a portion of the budget to each one of them. Remember no one is made of money and everyone has limited funds. The trick is to get the most out of a buck and to do so you need boundaries.

• Everyone says that as planning moves forward, new additions are made which blow the budget out of proportion. The trick to bypassing this burdensome goal is to start wide. Imagine the most lavish event possible, the one always dreamt of and then brought it down to reality. How can that be done? Pick a red pen and start looking for things that can be removed, i.e., that are not essential to the event. Slash through all of them.

Now recreate a second draft that includes only those elements that were not cut out by the red pen. This draft would be a more real blueprint of the event. If need be, cut out some more things.

Now with the budget and outline of an event in hand, start organising everything! Believe it will take lesser time than you ever thought.