10 Ways to Ensure Your Event Furniture Set Up is a Success

Your event furniture set up is crucial to the success of the entire affair. It is during the set up that you get a hint of the general atmosphere you will have for the party. During the set up, you will be able to notice positive details as a result of planning. Similarly, it is also during the set up that you will be able to identify weak aspects. To avoid the undesirable elements that can arise from your event setup, consider the below points:

1. Know your suppliers

Finding the right event furniture rental supplier in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or the UAE could be quite challenging. This is a burden even to seasoned event professionals. Remember, quality and quantity of event furniture rentals vary from one event supplier to another. You will find suppliers who promise what you ask at attractive prices but with disappointing results. This is where the event supplier fails to deliver what they promised. This results will send event managers into panic. It could have them looking for some items at the last minute.

To prevent possible set backs, the event manager should visit the supplier’s warehouse. It is of great help to check on the actual quality of the items. Similarly, it will be good to verify quantities during the visit. Should the visit get you to see damages, ask the supplier how they go about maintenance. Once satisfied, the event manager can collect the event furniture rental catalog with product details. This must include quantities, sizes and dimensions, prices and photos. This practice enables the event manager to have an idea of what should be offered on their future projects.

2. Make sure your client knows what they want.

Many event clients who are seeking to furnish their events are unsure of what they would like to see. Providing them with the accurate information about their event furniture rental in Dubai or Abu Dhabi will avoid going back and forth. It is best to present your client with the most efficient items for their selection. These after you have verified supplier quality and availability. For instance, if it is a big wedding for 800 people with luxury dining tables and fancy wedding chairs, make sure you offer the ones available in the market. Do not suggest wedding furniture you saw somewhere on the internet. Those may or may not exist within your local market.

I personally faced many last minute ‘’panic’’ requests of such incidents. Every time, we had to go the extra mile to make sure we provide the closest thing to the client. But all of that started with the client looking at some furniture rental photos on the net. Mistakenly, his event manager assured them it would happen. So my advice here is to always be realistic with your clients. Don’t give promises you cant fulfill. If you think it is hard to achieve then give the alternative options that are realistic. That way, once they decide what they really want, your job becomes easier.

3. Floor plan / furniture layout

After deciding where the event is going to take place, the next thing to do is to start your layout. Draw your furniture set up. Please don’t wait until the day to decide where things will go. If you do, surely there will be either some excess or shortage of items to be placed. Servicing over 1000 events per year proves that most event managers without floor plans end up paying more. They go over the budget simply because they did not prepare a layout before the event. There are points you need to be consider before hiring your event furniture and décor. Details like the dimensions of all your selected event rental furniture. Walking spaces, safety exits, distances between coffee tables and sofas should also be accounted. Lastly, the distance between your stage and the first row should be set.

In addition to safeguarding your budget, it will also be much easier to simply handout the floor plan printout to our delivery team. Have them set it up for you exactly how you drew it. This will save you time, effort and eventually extra money.

4. Physical visits to the supplier warehouse

This is by far the part that will allow you to sleep well at night. Spend at least an hour on physical inspection of your event furniture rental in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or even anywhere in the UAE. This will save you hours of panic and last minute running around to find alternatives at a higher cost. Even if you already visited your supplier previously, the items may have been damaged hence. In the event furniture rental industry and especially in Dubai, items move very quickly and very often. Damages do happen during transportation, weather conditions or during the event itself. Some event furniture suppliers keep broken items in queue for repair when the need arises. Some other event furniture suppliers repair right away and some just don’t repair at all.

I would check all the quantities, piece by piece. This to make sure my pieces will be worth my client’s money. Take photos of the rental items you ordered for references. Ask for your items to be cleaned and properly packaged before they leave to your venue. A suggested timing for this visit is at least one week prior to the delivery. However, it depends on the furniture rental quantity. If the quantity is small then a couple of days should do. That you give enough time to the event furniture rental supplier to fix the damages, if any.

5. Delivery timing

We all know that it is always possible to have delays in delivery. It can happen either because of traffic, accidents, access to the loading bay. In some instances, it could simply be because your event furniture rental supplier took off late. If you are renting event furniture from Dubai to deliver in Abu Dhabi, it will usually take two hours for a 3-ton truck to arrive to your site. If your event venue is at a hotel then add another 30 minutes to one hour for security clearance and offloading at the bay. This is provided that there is no other event supplier is using the loading bay.

If you renting small items such as dining chairs, folding tables and barstools, then the delivery offloading will happen quicker. Except maybe, for bulkier items like Mashrabiya dining tables with glass that requires 4 people to carry per item. Point being is, it is always wise to calculate the accumulation of all these little event elements. Consider them before providing the delivery timing to your event furniture set up supplier. Then, ask them to come 30 minutes earlier. This so to make sure they can arrive on time.

6. Health and safety

Believe me when I say, you do NOT want to have an accident on your site. It is not even the last thing you want to have at your event. This part is extremely important to keep an eye on. Knowing your supplier well means you have checked their safety procedures. You would know that the people who will be sent for your event delivery will be professionals and follow health and safety rules. But, if you are organizing an event in the UAE during the hot season, it is always wise to remember that the heat here can be very damaging to people. So my advice here is to keep your event suppliers hydrated. Serve them with drinks and food if necessary to make sure no one is collapsing.

If the event is indoor under the AC then you must look out for the walking spaces. Ensure that the event furniture rental delivery team has at least 2.5 meters walkway. That way, they don’t have any friction or bumps against your glass doors or AV equipment on the path. Every company has its own health safety policy and procedure. It is quite important to always align and adapt it to the environment your in at the time.

7. Team briefings

As mentioned, if you do not have a proper and clear layout plan, you will find yourself micro managing many people. You will run here and there to instruct how and where to set things up. You will also find yourself being followed by a swarm of helping hands. Walk them through the venue to explain your vision to them.

So again, if you hadn’t drawn a floor plan by now, then it is a good time to do so now. When you do have it in hand and the event furniture rental team arrives, ask for the team leader in charge. Have him step forward along with his event delivery assistant. Now you brief them on the dos and don’ts. Make sure they understand you very well. Make sure you give them briefings in parts if you have a big set up. This way they can come back to you every time the portion you have briefed them with is finished. This practice allows you to have free time to supervise other event suppliers and event activities with ease.

8. Other suppliers

Every big event usually requires a lot of coordination between suppliers. Many of the event furniture set up suppliers will have to work at the same place at the same time. So usually there will be a lot of scheduling and a lot of revisions of the event set up schedule. One thing to keep in mind here is that the event furniture set up team will be the ones leave before last. Start with temporary structures, you’re Audio visual set up, carpet layout stage and all its elements. Lastly, you can start placing your furniture as per the layout.

You must brief your event suppliers before hand that they must give way to your event furniture rental set up team to do their jobs. Once the furniture is laid down, other event suppliers must not use your event furniture to keep their tools and things on it. They also must not use them rest and take breaks on your sofas as they may cause some damages that you cannot replace in time. So a briefing full of warnings and reminders is due here.

9. Carpets and plastics

Please bear in mind that once your event furniture set up team lays down the rental furniture per layout, you must not remove the covers and start aligning yet. There is still carpet to be touched up and suppliers to be removed from the site. You still have carpet plastics to be removed from underneath the furniture. You need less workers walking around so that they don’t stain your event carpet. Once all of those are cleared then you can ask the event furniture hire team to start removing the packaging.

One tip to mention here, if you are using a brand new carpet on the ground with dark or light colors, it would be a great idea to buy your workers plastic socks. This way, they don’t leave foot marks all over it. Also try to minimize movement once the plastic is off the carpet. Now that all the rental event furniture is set up and packaging removed, it is time for aligning your furniture. Your dining chairs, your leather sofas and coffee tables so that you can enjoy a beautiful symmetric photo. After whic, flower arrangement supplier may to start doing their business.

10. Final touch up

Please remember to check all the event furniture rental items. Check to see if they without any damage and are in 100 percent perfect condition. Further, make sure that all the covers are removed from the furniture. Ensure that these are aligned accordingly too. Then make sure that all the furniture items are clean and tidy and are not in an unstable condition. Should you find scratches or damages, you should ask your event rental supplier to touch it up with a matching paint.

Once event furniture set up is all touched up, you may then do your final check for the alignment. Make sure all is symmetrical. If you are having a wedding set up and hired large dining tables and classy dining chairs, ensure that there is no left over from supplier on your pieces. Then look at the furniture alignment so that you don’t do a double work. Now that everything looks exactly how you have drawn it in your floor plan or 3D design. You can give the go ahead, sign the delivery note and send your event furniture rental supplier back to their headquarters. From this moment onwards, the venue must be limited to ‘’walk in ONLY if needed.’’ This is to ensure that there is no messing around with your set up.

Following the above steps to the letter could be quite challenging to some event professionals. This, given the fact there is always many things happening at the same time during large event setups. These steps should maintained and checked every time you are running an event. So as to ensure the final result is a perfect picture to drive conversations about your effort after the event. Should you need any further assistance with your event rentals, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. Our contact details are below. Our event furniture rental professionals will be more than delighted to provide you with the best service and consultancy. All these are aimed at ensuring that your event will go smoother than expected.