The memory of a celebration often rests in the way people were treated during it.

Details fade quickly. Within a year almost nobody can describe the food, the flowers, or what anything cost, and what remains is whether they were introduced to someone, whether the seating left them stranded, whether the host noticed they had arrived. A day designed to look good and a day designed to feel good are different projects, and the second is much cheaper.

If you are planning something, spend your attention on how people will be received rather than on how the room will photograph. Assign someone to watch for whoever is standing alone.