Business, General Tips, Your Event Career
3 Solid Event Portfolio Examples to Look Up To
As an event planner, it’s important that you have the proper materials to be able to show any future clients what services you’re capable of providing. This is best done in the form of your professional event portfolio. An event portfolio reflects not just your event and/or wedding planning business, but who you are as a person.
In this day and age, things are done online, so the best place for your event portfolio to be is right on your business’s website. A potential client is going to have a lot of questions when in the process of choosing her event planner. After all, she’s going to be trusting you with a very big day in her life. The most important question on her mind will be, “What is this person able to offer me, and how well does the event come together under their watch?”
The purpose of a strong event portfolio is to not only answer all of those questions and more, but show her, so she can see for herself. In the beginning, this can seem a bit overwhelming. If you don’t know how to create, or even build upon, your event portfolio, knowing what’s good versus what isn’t can be challenging.
Not to worry, though! Let’s refresh on what exactly is recommended in a solid event portfolio, and then look at 3 different professional examples that reflect some – or all – of these fundamentals.
What’s needed in a good event portfolio?
In the past, we’ve delved into the 7 key elements that every event portfolio should have. These must-haves are:
- Client testimonials
- Client references
- Agreement and contract templates
- Timeline and budget templates
- The list of your event planning services
- Event designs (the actual photographs of your event planning work to date)
- Business contact information
For those who are still breaking into the event planning professional world, and don’t necessarily have enough experience under your belt to fulfill all of the above recommendations, it’s okay! Even though we call them ‘must-haves’, you can see them more as the 7 things to work towards. It’s completely understandable that no event planner will be able to provide all of the above at the very beginning. Some of those elements (like the client testimonials, references, and your photo gallery) will come and expand with time.
When you’re just getting started, it’s okay to present what you currently have. You can fill in the blanks and add what’s missing as your work history grows larger.
3 event portfolios we personally recommend
1. Alyssa Emilia Events
QC Event School graduate, Alyssa Lebreton, created her business’s website back in 2018 – but looking at it, you would never guess that! This is a strong example of an event portfolio to look up to because everything comes together exactly as it should: her site has a distinct aesthetic, it’s easy to navigate and find what you’re looking for, and a lot of the 7 must-haves for her event portfolio are there.
For example, the About section provides an easy-to-read (but informative) blurb about Alyssa Emilia Events, with a photo to go with it. This helps us put a face to Alyssa, and feel more comfortable with her. Right from the menu, she also has:
- All of the possible wedding planning services she offers
- A separate section detailing the various other private events she can organize
- A photo gallery of her professional work, grouped together based on the type of event it is (this makes it easier to find what you’re looking for!)
- A section entirely devoted to her client testimonials
As a fun added bonus, Alyssa also has a section of her event portfolio that lists any and all items you can rent from her for your event. This includes a 6-foot high flower wall, a gold-framed chalkboard, a maple wood cake stand, and more!
Pro tip: Potential clients are looking for someone who stands out from the crowd and can provide them with something unique, not offered by your competition. Anything you can add to your services that goes above and beyond will only make you look even better, so don’t hesitate to show that off!
2. Brooker Events
This event portfolio is an excellent example of how to utilize referrals, and make your qualifications, educations, and certifications known to your potential client. Also a successful QC graduate, Brooke Nauta, put a lot of time, love, and effort into her business’s website and event portfolio, and it shows! One thing we absolutely love is how, on her Contact page, she not only throws in the fact that she’s happy to travel for her wedding planning services (which expands her potential client base), but also links directly to the graduate feature blog article we at QC Event School wrote about her.
In fact, she subtly links this in one several pages throughout her website. This is a fantastic move, because it’s such a convenient and direct way for any potential client to see not only how credible Brooker Events is, but that she’s got the right training under her belt that many other wedding planners might not.
Since Brooker Events specializes specifically in wedding planning, the entire site has a natural, cohesive vibe. All possible wedding packages, as well as a la carte services like décor set up, are offered on a single page. It’s like a one-stop-shop for potential clients! (Always remember: the easier you can possibly make things for your client, the better.)
Brooke even goes above and beyond to provide not only the different services, but also:
- Starting rates for the different packages
- Flat rates for the individual, additional services
- The length of time typically involved for the service or package
That last one is a particularly smart decision on Brooke’s part, because it very clearly outlines how much of her time is correlated to what the client is being charged. That way, should more be asked of Brooke with regard to those services, she can easily justify raising the rate for that service, in a way that’s straightforward and easy for the client to understand. It seems like a small, insignificant detail to include in your event portfolio, but it actually helps cover both you and your client in more ways than one!
3. Bassett Events
Straying away from the world of private events and wedding planning, Bassett Events is a leading expert in corporate event planning and event management. They are renowned for their work with the Canadian Opera Company, the Special Olympics, WWF, and the SickKids Foundation – just to name a few! From the layout of the homepage to the color schemes used, the moment you get to this website, there is a corporate kind of feel. From the get-go, this is a good start. Their branding is on point, down to the smallest details.
This is the only example in the list where all the components of their event portfolio can be found in one place (although they can also be found in their own designated areas on the website, too). Just by clicking on the Team option from the menu at the top of the page, you’re shown on a single page, in descending order:
- The CEO, Vice President, Social Media Manager, and Event Manager (with the option to read specifically on each individual, if desired)
- An overview and more detailed breakdown of the types of event management services offered
- Links to view the company’s different event photos
- Videos of featured events the company has organized
- A list of both the various companies and celebrities that have worked with Bassett Events
- Contact info and a direct link to both email and social media
- Client testimonials
- A general photo gallery from more of the company’s organized events
You can absolutely break up your event portfolio to its own specific spots on the website, so long as every part is easy to find, and displays the information in a way that’s easy to comprehend. That being said, your event portfolio is your resume to any potential client. It’s easiest to look over a resume when everything is kept neatly together. If you can display the entire event portfolio in one location (and still keep it all refined and aesthetically pleasing), we recommend it.
The downside to Bassett Events’ portfolio is that even though there’s a general list of the different services they can provide, actual information on each service isn’t available. Neither are any price lists, set fees, etc. While a potential client would easily be able to tell by the rest of the event portfolio that this is a very reputable corporate event planning business, with plenty of experience and success to its name, it would be impossible for her to get an idea of how much it would cost her. No matter how big the business, that can still be a deterrent for any prospective customer.
At the end of the day, there’s no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to your portfolio. The beauty of all 3 of the above event portfolio examples is that each one is unique. Each one showcases their business and provides the essential information in a way that works for them. As long as you do your best to incorporate all of the must-have info you know your clients will want to see from your event portfolio, you’re going to rock it. So just trust your instincts, and show the world what you can do!
