From chaos to celebration: How an event planner transformed a busy mum's 30th birthday in Sydney

Life as a busy mum is a whirlwind of responsibilities, juggling work, parenting, and countless daily tasks. It often feels like there's no time left for themselves, let alone planning a memorable milestone celebration. That was the reality for Maria, a devoted mother of two, who works in her husband’s legal firm and is an entrepreneur with her own business. With so much on her plate, she found herself stressing with even the thought of wanting to do something special for her 30th birthday. 

Maria got married at a young age (with a small simple wedding), and her life built quickly from there. Now that she’s about to turn 30, she felt it was time that she deserved to celebrate with style and grandeur. However, even though she is an organised person, with the demands of her family, work and daily life left Maria wondering how she was ever going to find time to pull this all off well. 

And that's when she decided to make a game-changing decision: she hired an event planner.


When we had our very first call, I knew I was the right person to plan her 30th birthday. All she had was the date for her birthday party, budget, and theme. At the end of our first (discovery) call, she knew too that we would have an amazing journey of putting on her amazing birthday party, and I could feel the sense of ease and relief from her that she would be in good hands.

Shortly after booking with me, we had our second consultation together. With her Pinterest board ready to go, we went through her inspiration and thoughts and brainstormed ideas around the Gatsby theme. From there, while she was focussing on her work, business and family, I:

  • Visited 5 venue inspections in Sydney

  • Created mockups for the decorations (including backdrop and guest tables)

  • Retrieved quotes from several event suppliers (while keeping an eye on the budget)

  • Put selected quotes, mockups of final decorations with budget breakdown in a proposal to present to Maria at our next consultation.

After our next consultation where Maria approved all of the suppliers and plans, that is when I arranged bookings, invoices and contracts between our event suppliers and Maria herself, along with booking confirmation and details for the day, including bump in/out times and loading dock/areas. With weekly recap emails and email communication throughout the week, Maria was aware that our planning journey is ongoing.

 
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While Maria was getting ready on the day of her birthday party, I was on-call and in contact with our suppliers of what had arrived, delivered and any last-minute questions. On the day logistics included:

  • Last-minute changes and tweaks of table arrangements

  • Making sure the guest table seating matched the floorplan

  • Ensuring the cake settled without melting and falling

  • Getting the chairs indoors ready for the musicians for smooth transition from outdoors to indoors later in the party

Maria and her family arrived on time and were able to mingle with their extended family members and friends without needing to worry about the setup the whole night. No event suppliers approached Maria themselves to ask for last-minute questions, so that Maria was able to breathe and be at ease. Maria was at ease and enjoyed herself, especially when she made a speech, her guests singing happy birthday to her, and had lots of fun at the photobooth with all of her guests (at separate times, of course)!

Gatsby-tablescape-party-inspiration
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Here are Maria’s final words of how she felt after having me as her event planner for her milestone birthday:

“The whole process from start to finish was absolutely easy and perfect in every way.

The amount of work that Tracey put in behind the scenes was impressive. There were so many things I had not even considered, and Tracey understood exactly what I needed and just made it all happen painlessly! 

If you are having any sort of event, do yourself a favour and get some help from Tracey! 

She will transform your vision into the perfect reality and you won’t even lift a finger!”

I believe in my clients genuinely having a great time without having endless phone calls and getting intercepted by event suppliers while mingling with their guests. Milestones don’t happen often - and all my guests deserve to enjoy their milestones. If you are ready to make your next event in Sydney fun and relaxing, contact me and we can book our first call together!

Event professionals involved in this event:

Event Coordination, Event Planning, Events and PartiesTracey Chanevent planning, birthday, birthday venues, birthday party