Event Planning · May 19, 2026 · Nikita Khandheria
I have this theory that wealthy families are starting to treat experiences the same way they treat everything else valuable in their lives:
with specialists.
No one is casually doing their own legal work anymore.
No one is pretending to be their own wealth advisor.
No one is sitting there booking their own complex international travel thinking, “Yes, this is the best use of my time.”
But for some reason, people still think they are supposed to personally coordinate every birthday, holiday, dinner party, anniversary, trip, and family gathering themselves.
Which is honestly insane when you think about how much work it actually is.
Because the best experiences do not happen magically.
Someone is texting the florist.
Someone is fixing the seating chart.
Someone is remembering your mother in law hates orchids.
Someone is making sure the car arrives five minutes early because your husband is always late.
Someone is figuring out where to move dinner because the weather changed.
And increasingly, our clients are realizing:
they do not want that someone to be them anymore.
For years at ERIA, families would hire us one event at a time.
A baby shower.
A birthday.
An anniversary dinner.
A trip.
But lately, we are seeing a completely different shift.
Clients are coming to us saying:
“Can we just do this for the year?”
Not in a glamorous dramatic way either.
In a very practical, ultra modern luxury kind of way.
Like:
Here is our annual budget.
These are the birthdays.
These are the trips.
We want a few dinners this summer.
Something for the holidays.
Please make it beautiful.
Please make it easy.
Please remind us of things before we even think of them.
Basically… becoming the in house planner for the family.
And honestly? It is our favorite way to work.
Because once you really know a family, everything gets better.
You know which restaurants feel too trendy for them.
Which guests need extra attention.
Which daughter likes intimate birthdays and which one wants a full production.
You know they will absolutely want late night espresso martinis.
You know the husband will forget the anniversary gift until 48 hours before.
The planning becomes less transactional and much more personal.
Which I think is where luxury is heading in general.
People used to spend money being seen.
Now they spend money trying to feel something.
A beautiful dinner at home with the right people.
A birthday where nobody in the family is stressed.
A trip where everything just flows.
An experience where the host actually gets to be present instead of secretly running operations from their phone all night.
That is the new flex.
Not more.
Better.
And honestly, I think “outsourcing experiences” is going to become a massive category over the next few years.
Not because people are lazy.
Because time is expensive.
Attention is expensive.
And being fully present with the people you love is becoming one of the rarest luxuries there is.
