Event Planning Proposal Template
A proposal is not a price list with a cover page. It is the document that proves you listened. The proposals that win start by describing the event back to the client more clearly than they described it to you, and only then say what it costs.
See the coursesEverything on this page is yours to copy and adapt. The courses cover the decisions behind it: what to charge, what to promise, and what to put in writing.
What yours needs to cover
- ✓ Their brief in your words, at the top, before anything about you
- ✓ Your approach to this specific event, not a paragraph about your philosophy
- ✓ What is included, stated as deliverables rather than as adjectives
- ✓ What is not included, which prevents the awkward conversation later
- ✓ The fee, the payment schedule, and what happens if the scope changes
- ✓ One clear next step with a date on it, because a proposal with no deadline gets read and put down
How to use it
- Write the brief section first, and use their words where you can.
- Cut every sentence about how passionate you are. It is the most common paragraph in this industry and it persuades nobody.
- Put the fee where it can be found rather than buried, and show what it covers next to it.
- Send it within two days of the conversation, while they can still remember what they told you.
What the client is deciding as they read
A client reading your proposal is usually comparing it with one or two others. By this stage they have met or spoken to each planner, and on price the options are often closer than people expect. What decides it is whether the client feels understood. A proposal that could have been sent to anybody tells them you were not listening. One that describes their event back to them tells them you were.
Opening with their brief, not your story
The first section should restate the brief in plain language: the occasion, the date, the number of guests, the feel they described, the constraints and the two or three things that matter most. Use their own words where you can. If a client said "I don't want it to feel like a conference," that sentence belongs in your proposal almost exactly as they said it.
Keep your biography for the end, and keep it short. A client choosing a planner needs to know you have understood the event more than they need to know how you started.
The approach, the deliverables and the fee
The approach section explains how you would run this event in three or four sentences. For a corporate offsite that might be a venue shortlist inside a set travel time and an agenda built with the client's facilitator. For a wedding it might be the order in which you would secure venue, caterer and photographer given the date.
Follow it with numbered deliverables, then the fee next to them. Put optional extras in their own list with their own prices, so the client can add them without the core fee changing. State whether supplier costs are billed at cost, marked up or paid by the client directly.
Closing with a decision and a date
End with one next step and a date, such as signing the agreement and paying the deposit by a named day to hold a venue's provisional booking. Provisional holds expire, and saying so is a fact about the market rather than a sales tactic. A proposal with no next step gets read, admired and left in an inbox.
A filled-in example
| Your brief | Two days away from the office for 35 senior managers, within 90 minutes of the city, built around strategy sessions rather than entertainment |
|---|---|
| Our approach | Shortlist three residential venues with a main room for 40 and two breakout rooms, and build the agenda with your facilitator |
| Included | Venue sourcing and contract review, an accommodation block, catering, AV, transport, and a planner on site both days |
| Not included | Facilitator fees, team-building activities and gifts |
| Fee | $6,500 flat, with supplier costs billed at cost and no markup |
| Next step | Approve by 15 February to hold the preferred venue's provisional dates |
Mistakes to avoid
- Leading with your biography. The first page is the most read page. Spend it on the client's event, and move your background to a short closing paragraph.
- Sending the same package brochure to everybody. A generic document signals a generic service. Even if your packages are fixed, the brief and approach sections should be written for this client.
- Hiding the fee. A fee on the last page, or missing altogether, makes the reader hunt and makes the number look like something you are nervous about. Put it beside what it buys.
- Leaving the decision open-ended. Without a date, a proposal competes with everything else in the client's week. Give one next step and the reason it has a deadline.
Event Planning Proposal Template FAQs
How long should an event proposal be?
Short enough to read in one sitting. Two or three pages is usually plenty. Length reads as effort to the person writing it and as work to the person receiving it.
Should I put my price in the proposal?
Yes. A proposal that makes somebody ask for the price has added a step to a decision they were ready to make, and it reads as though the number is something to be nervous about.
What if they ask for changes?
Price them. That is what the change-of-scope clause is for, and it is the difference between a client who adds two things and a client who adds twenty. Unit 5 covers the wording that keeps this friendly.
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