Peach's Guide to a Perfect Party

Okay let's get one thing out of the way: Nothing ever goes off perfectly. The key thing is to be able to roll with whatever flaws do happen. Sometimes you gotta think on your feet other times you have to be able to laugh something off. Above anything just DON'T STRESS!

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I read once in a book that the key to a great party was not to stress over little details and over-plan. Now for me that doesn't work. I'm not saying I over-load myself last minute (okay sometimes I do) and plan huge elaborate parties, but big parties on small budgets are my thing.

For me half the fun of a party is the planning and design stage. Regardless of whether I'm planning our annual interactive murder mystery, secret Santa, birthday party or just a fun get-together I always get an outline of what the party is going to look like. This generally includes a preliminary guest list, color scheme, theme, dress code, and what food, if any, I'm serving. After going through and deciding those things I start focusing on other things like activities obviously our clue parties are one giant activity but we also do photo shoots there and all sorts of little details. I'm going to skip over those things because I have whole blog posts dedicated to those parties.  For  now I'm going to guide you through the other aspects and details of parties and I'm going to assume you can coordinate color schemes and activities.

Invitations and Thank You Notes: I have decided that these are pretty similar. They are the only thing outside of your actual party that relate to it. Your invitations are the first thing your guests see. They are the first impression for to the overall atmosphere of your party. For example if you send out dollar store "You're Invited" invitations with confetti on theme and the basic writing inside with blanks for your own information, you're guests see that you are throwing a laid-back birthday party. If you send out layered cards with fancy writing that's all typed nicely and is designed to say what it says your guests see that its more of a formal affair and would gather they need to dress nicer. Now if it's a clue party we also include a little note on a separate card with some additional information like dress code, official theme name and whatnot. Basically your invitations and thank you notes should also match the theme. They should hint at what the party is going to be like. For example if you were throwing a child's birthday party and it was Frozen themed the invitations might have snow flakes, ice and Olaf on them. They may also be blue and say frozen. The same applies to thank you notes. The key difference is wording invites will generally be generic words that are the same for everyone. Thank yous on the other hand should be personal. People want to know you care and were paying attention. If you received gifts at the party have someone sit down and write who gave the present and what it was so later you can refer to this and send the right thank yous to people (something I picked up from my mom).

Decorating and Theme: It's not like the theme just stops with the invitations and your guests are expected to imagine that the location alone totally fits the theme. Even if it's a dinner party and you don't have an elaborate theme you still may want to set out nice vases and napkins and a good table-cloth. Once I threw a girls lunch and it was all just very rustic. I had a burlap table runner and some purple printed cloth napkins in mason jars with straws and silver wear. It was nice because it fit the look I was going for. If your theme is more of an experience go with things you may find there. We had a cop -themed murder mystery once and we set up our space to look like a crime scene- just not super gory. Again with the frozen party you may have streamers in coordinating colors and things with Anna and Elsa hanging around the space. It doesn't necessarily need to be expensive.

Your Table Set Up: This is one of those things that I feel like deserve it's own section. Simply because it ties into decoration but it also has it's own practical element to it. Big fancy parties with hundreds of people would be better off renting everything from the tables and chairs themselves to the plates, linens, and eating utensils. For that kids party we've been talking about you might buy paper plates and cups that are frozen themed and get plastic silver wear in a coordinating color. For a smaller dinner party you may have nice dishes in your cupboard already that you can use. But it also depends on clean up preferences. If you don't mind doing dishes use the real stuff. If you just want to toss it get nice-looking paper plates. We sometimes get square paper ones to look like real plates but not have worry about clean up. If you're throwing nicer parties more often or have a nice annual party you may want to consider buying a set of plastic dishes that look fancy that you can wash and reuse. We found a set at a local grocery store. It's $10 per set and we're thinking of getting two sets. So for $20 we'll have plates and silverware for  several parties and if one of our friends does drop it it wont be as likely to break. Plus if it does break it's not the end of the word because it was plastic. If you don't want to deal with that there are plenty of disposable ideas at the dollar stores and party supply stores. As for chairs and tables, if you rent a space you may be able to use there tables and chairs for no additional cost, If you need more they may have some for rent at with a fee. If you are using your own space you probably have a table and chairs if not maybe look into investing in a folding ones? The other thing that goes along with that is table cloths and runners. Those just use your best judgment on, keep clean up in mind as if  you are using your own table cloth you will have to wash it later.

Guest List and Seating: I've always felt like these two things were kind of the same problem. You have to figure out who you want to be invited THEN if you have a fancy-er party you have to figure out how to seat everyone in a way that avoids conflict. I have a small file on our Clue parties and a whole section is dedicated to who has conflicts with who and what people I can and can't sit next to each other. It's actually gotten that complicated (that's just our friend group though). The thing is you have to know which of your guests, if any, don't like each other. For example I have these two friends who used to be close but now can't even tolerate each other. It's actually bad enough to where I have to seat them on opposite sides of the room. But I HAVE to know that or else we could have a repeat of our senior skip-day trip- trust me that was a disaster. If you don't know there is a conflict between guests and you find out mid party handle it calmly and try to maneuver seats if at all possible. If they cause a scene just remember it isn't wrong for you to ask them to leave-it's your party. Most likely they'll just calm down and suck it up.

Party Favors and Prizes: To me this is the fun stuff. For kids parties favors can just be things that make noise and candy plus maybe some cute toys from the dollar store in a little cellophane bag. But what about for adults? Well let's be honest here, candy is still totally an option just make sure, like with children, you take allergies into consideration. But cute little toys? Generally no. Some fun things we have done/ would do are: shot or other drink glasses, plaques or certificates, or $5-10 gift cards to itunes for winners. For party favors this year we are doing personalized flashlights, but we've also done key chains, and fun photos.

Food and Drinks: Are you serving a meal? What about just doing nibbles? Are you even planning on feeding your guests? In my experience food is a great way to get people to mingle. Just check with your guests ahead of time about dietary restrictions. If you have lots of guests you may want to consider labels for all your food and drinks so people know if they need to stay away from certain things. What about drinks? Not gonna lie we have totally just stuck with two-liters for more casual affairs but we've also made fun mocktails for our guests at parties too. An idea we came up with this year was to have an "open bar" it was really more for laughs because we're having a 20's themed party of sorts and we're all underage. We'll be serving pre-mixed mocktails to our guests with fun names. As for our food we usually do a full blown meal but this year we are opting for a soup and to have little nibble-y things laying around for guests to eat. Food is something that will eat up a budget fast- pun completely intended. So if you are planning on a lot of guests and you have a smaller budget you may consider opting for munchies laying around the room or if you are insistent on a meal go for something like vegetarian pasta dish that can feed a lot of people easily. Chicken is also pretty cheap so if you want meat it's a great option. I think last year I chose my moms pasta salad and  pigs in blankets since it was more casual and a really cheap fun meal.

So that just about sums it up. I know it's a lot of information but that's what I think is important. For me the key is in the details. I appreciate when someone pays attention to the little things. Just don't stress yourself out over things. The party isn't going to be any fun if the host can't relax and enjoy it too. That goes for kids parties relax and keep an eye on the kids. It's all going to be awesome...as long as everyone is having fun.

until next time,
Courtney and John