Every event has a budget. But are you spending in the right places?
May Yeo Silvers pulls back the curtain on event budgeting, tackling the common misconception that adjusting your budget automatically changes how many people you can host. Instead of letting numbers dictate your event, she urges planners to start with the bigger picture: What’s the real purpose of this event? What kind of experience do you want attendees to have?
May lays out a smart, structured approach to budgeting: separating must-haves from nice-to-haves, understanding both financial and emotional ROI, and making intentional choices about venue, timing, and costs. From peak season pricing to the trade-offs between food, decor, and AV production, May shares insights to help planners maximize their budget without compromising impact.
With examples (including lessons from her own wedding), she makes the case for spending wisely, not just more. Whether you’re planning a corporate event, a retreat, or a celebration, this episode will change the way you think about budgeting and help you create an experience that truly delivers.
Quotes
• “Every time you spend money for an event, on all the different elements of the event, you have to ask yourself: What am I going to get out of this? What are my attendees going to get out of this?” (21:24 | May Yeo Silvers)
• “What is the most important thing that you want people to take away from your event? What is the goal of having this event? Who do I need to invite to this event in order to achieve the goal of me hosting this event?” (23:46 | May Yeo Silvers)
• “You’re dealing with a client who wants everything but they do not have the money to pay for everything. So you need to manage expectations, you need to manage numbers, you need to negotiate. You need to negotiate with your vendors so that you can get the most for your buck.” (25:22 | May Yeo Silvers)
• “In order to be an excellent event planner, an event planner who’s able to deliver as much as possible for your client’s events vision, you need to understand the numbers, you need to understand what you can negotiate, not to negotiate, you need to understand the questions to ask your client to find out what they really want from the event in order to determine what are the things that you need to spend money on and advise your client to spend money on this because these are the things that are going to create the experience that align with the end goal of why they want to host the event.” (25:45 | May Yeo Silvers)
Links
Want to add more tips and tricks into your event planning tool kit? Follow me on these various platforms:
Want to learn something new that’s 30 mins or less while you are on the move? Subscribe to my Unstoppable Eventrepreneur Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/the-unstoppable-eventrepreneur/id1591114236
Prefer to watch?
Subscribe to my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mayyeosilvers
Love to be on social media? Connect with me here:
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/mayyeosilvers
IG:
https://www.instagram.com/mayyeosilvers
TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@mayyeosilversofficial
Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mayyeosilvers
You are a reader? I got you covered? Grab my book, the Unstoppable Eventrepreneur here
https://www.amazon.com/Unstoppable-EVENTrepreneur-TM-Profitable-Business/dp/1961347105/
Connect with May at: [email protected]
Website: www.mayyeosilvers.com
FB private group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/events4anyone
