Planning guide

The Event Planning Timeline

Every event runs on the same clock: announce, book, finalize one week out, party, return. Here is that clock with the real deadlines marked — including the one that costs money to miss.

By the Party Connection team · Memphis, TN · Since 1987

Weddings, banquets, retirement parties, quinceañeras — different parties, same clock. After outfitting Memphis events since 1987, we can tell you the hosts who enjoy their own party are not the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones who worked the deadlines in the right order. Here is the order.

The whole clock on one screen

The rest of this page walks that table, step by step.

Step 1: Lock the date and the room

Everything else waits on these two. Until you know the date and the space, you cannot know table counts, linen sizes, or delivery logistics. In Memphis that makes the venue hunt step zero — fellowship halls and reception rooms keep their own calendars, and your rental order inherits whatever load-in rules the room enforces. Ask the venue two questions the day you book it: when can deliveries arrive, and where does the truck park. You will need both answers for step 5. Once date and room are set, move to step 2 quickly.

Step 2: Book your rentals — earlier than feels necessary

Reservations should be made in advance to ensure availability — that is not sales talk, it is inventory math. Chiavari chairs, specialty linens in a specific color, the dance floor: quantities are finite, and popular dates go to whoever books first. A 50% non-refundable deposit holds your order, and you can build the quote list online before you ever pick up the phone.

The order of operations inside the order: book first the big finite pieces — tables, chairs, the linens in your exact color, the dance floor, the frozen drink machine. Add later the deep-stock, small-ticket pieces — napkins, $0.65 glassware, a few extra chairs — any time you like, as long as you are ahead of the one-week deadline below. And a word on seasons, honestly: spring weddings, April-and-May proms, and December office parties all crowd the same calendar, and the popular Saturdays go first. In those months, "earlier than feels necessary" means the day the venue signs.

Not sure what you need yet? Start with the two questions every order answers — how many people, and seated or standing — or pull a pre-counted starter package and resize it. Our seating calculator and linen size chart turn a headcount into an order.

A worked example: 100 guests through the clock

Say you are seating 100 for a fall reception. The math at booking: 100 divided by 8 is 12.5, so call it thirteen 60″ rounds at $10 ($130), 100 white folding chairs at $1.95 ($195), thirteen floor-length 120″ linens at $13.50 ($175.50), and 100 napkins at $0.65 ($65). That is $565.50 on the 2026 price list, confirmed on your quote — and the 50% deposit that holds all of it is $282.75.

Now run the clock forward. Eight days out, your RSVPs settle at 88. You call, drop one round and twelve chairs, and the order re-totals — no penalty, because you are ahead of the deadline. Had you waited until three days out, the full 100-guest order is what you would pay, and the unused table would not be credited. That one phone call, made on the right day, is the entire lesson of this page.

Step 3: Visit the showroom — this is the planning superpower

Here is the shortcut most people miss. Our Midtown showroom at 174 Collins Street, Suite 104 is open Monday through Friday, 9am to 4pm, and no appointment is ever needed — walk in. In one visit you can lay a real place setting on a real linen: china, charger, flatware, glassware, napkin, all in your actual colors under real light. Photos lie about color; fabric does not. Bring your planner, your mom, your maid of honor, or the committee. Twenty minutes at a sample table settles what group texts cannot settle in three weeks. One tip while you are there: if a color is close but not certain, ask to see it in both polyester and a specialty fabric — the same color name can read differently across lines, and the shelf answers in seconds.

Step 4: One week out — the deadline that matters

Mark this one in red. Any changes or cancellations must be made at least one week before your scheduled delivery or pickup date. Miss that window and the full order is charged — and unused items are not credited after the fact. So the week-before mark is when RSVPs become a final count, the final count becomes final table and chair numbers, and you call in any last adds or drops.

A practical trick: put two dates on your own calendar — "chase RSVPs" at eight or nine days out, and "call Party Connection with finals" the day before the deadline. The gap between them is where stragglers get phone calls instead of grace.

What does not have to be decided early

Plenty, which is the good news. The napkin fold, the exact napkin color, whether the head table gets an overlay, punch cups versus champagne flutes — all of it can move until one week out. The reservation is a living list: the deposit holds the date and the big pieces, and the small pieces flex with your plans. What cannot move after the one-week mark is anything at all — so treat that date as the end of deciding, and the last week as nothing but confirming.

Step 5: Delivery or pickup

Delivery runs Monday through Friday 9am to 4pm and Saturday 9am to noon; standard delivery covers first-floor, no-stairs drops within 50 feet of the truck, and anything trickier is quoted up front — the full picture is in our delivery day guide. Picking up instead? Rental rates cover one day or weekend use: collect on the business day nearest your event, return the next business day. Either way, count and check everything when you receive it, and call (901) 309-9664 immediately if anything is off.

Step 6: The day after

Fold the tables and chairs and leave them under cover, rinse dishes and glassware free of food and crate them, and either meet the truck or make the return run. Then you are done — and if the party went the way we think it did, you are already penciling in the next one. One more price-sheet term worth knowing here: equipment returned after the contract dates is assessed a late fee, so build the next-business-day return into the weekend plan before the party. Monday morning arrives faster than it should.

The short version

book when the date is firm, touch everything in the showroom, finalize one week out, rinse and fold when it is over. Four moves. We have got you covered for all of them.

Date locked? Start your quote cart now and finalize the counts one week out — we will hold your date with the deposit.