Quick Party Planning Checklist

Make yourself a gorgeous party planning journal with a scrapbook or plastic three-ring binder that has a space to insert an inspirational picture. Keep cutouts from magazines of ideas you love about decorating, themes, menus, and recipes. Keep notes about your party afterwards so you remember what worked well and what to do differently next time. Your personal party scrapbook will be an invaluable assistant to help you avoid party stress.

Here's a quick party planning checklist:

<b>Party Invitations</b>

-- Create dramatic invitations. Your friends pay more attention to a written invitation than a phone call.

-- Send your invitations early and request an RSVP.

-- Tell your guests what to wear so they feel comfortable. Causal fun or dressy elegant.

-- Tell your guests what to bring so they don't have to think about it. If you say something like "We're collecting unwrapped toys for our local ...," your guests won't feel like they need to go shopping for you, too. List a specific dish type if you plan a pot luck.

<b>Food</b>

-- Check catering prices. You might be pleasantly surprised to find that you can have your feast delivered for about the same price as purchasing all the ingredients. Get your order in writing or faxed to you.

-- Make a list of all ingredients you need and shop early.

-- Prepare some of your dishes a few days before your party.

-- Plan for vegetarians and special needs diets.

<b>Flowers and Decorations</b>

Think about your home's color scheme when choosing flowers. A large poinsettia makes a big impact and costs less than florist bouquets. Add tree branch cuttings from your garden to extend grocery bouquets. Use curling ribbon as filler. Tie candy canes around a can and use for a floral arrangement.

<b>Candles</b>

Make sure that candles won't damage your surfaces. Larger candles burn longer and you don't have to worry about watching them during a long party. Keep candles high and out of the way from children and your guest's hair.

Enjoy yourself and relax. Everything doesn't have to be perfect. Your guests will have fun in a home decorated for a special event. Friends appreciate a good time and will remember your gracious efforts to ensure a good time.

Copyright © Jeanette J. Fisher

How To Throw A Grandmother Party For Your Daughter

"I'm tired of always being the youngest in the family," sputtered the rebellious Linda one day. Her mother laughed at her crossness and then had an idea.

"How would you like to be a grandmother for a day?" she asked.

Linda forgot her crossness and brightened up, "How?" "How could I?"

"We could plan a Grandmother's party and invite your friends in for an afternoon tea like Grandmother used to enjoy when she was young."

And this was the start of Linda's "Grandmother's" party. To give her invitations an old-fashioned touch Linda pasted colored rickrack braid around the edges of small white cards. On the cards she printed "Come to Linda's for Grandmother's Day."

When her excited guests arrived they were directed to the back bedroom where they found two large boxes - one filled with old long dresses (one for each little guest), the other filled with hats, gloves, beads, and other fancies.

Around the room Linda had pinned a few old-fashioned pictures which the girls studied to get ideas about hair styles. Also they were not familiar with the black court-plaster beauty spots until they saw an old photograph.

After considerable hilarity over "dressing-up" and a proper time devoted to primping, Linda announced a style show to discover the prettiest costume, the funniest, and the cleverest. Winners would be judged by the applause of the guests and awarded prizes.

After all this excitement the girls went to the living room for a "Quilting Bee" - so popular when Grandmother was a girl. Each girl was given a small square of tarlatan and enough tiny squares of gay cotton material to cover it plus a tube of glue. Each girl then glued her cotton squares to the tarlatan back to make a doll-sized quilt. The girl with the nicest looking quilt was awarded a prize.

Because even interested girls do not like to sit still too long, the next game was an active one. Linda put a work basket in the center of the floor and around it circles of various colored tissue paper which represented balls of Grandmother's yarn.

Each girl was then given a cardboard fan (file folders make good fans). Then each girl tried for one minute to fan as many balls of yarn as possible into the work basket. Linda's mother timed each contestant and awarded a small prize to the most successful. This game is very tricky because the thin paper blows out of the basket as easily as it blows in.

In Grandmother's childhood homemade feather beds and pillows were common in every home, so Linda planned a feather relay. Her guests were divided into two groups. The first player of each group was given a feather. Each girl keeps her feather in the air by blowing on it while she crosses the room and returns. She then hands her feather to the next in line. The side finishing first wins the relay.

The next game was "Grandma." Linda was the first Grandma and stood with her face to the wall. The other players stood in a line across the room. The idea of the game is for the players to creep up on Grandma without being seen.

Grandma could turn at any time to look over her left shoulder or her right shoulder, but she could not at any time turn all the way around. If Grandma caught sight of a player moving she sent her back to the starting point. The player who first was able to creep up on Grandma and touch her took Linda's place and became the next Grandma.

Teatime came all too quickly. It consisted of thin nut-bread sandwiches cut with fancy cookie cutters, and cocoa. Old-fashioned snowballs and plenty of ice cream satisfied the sweet tooth. Snowballs, so popular in Grandmother's day, are squares of white cake frosted on all sides with white coconut frosting.

Linda and her guests all decided that having a "Grandmother's" party was lots of fun.

Graduation Party Planning

Do you want to have the most exciting graduation party in town? It can be done, but it requires a lot of careful planning. The following should help you create a party that would honor that special graduate! Most importantly, decide on your budget. Don’t worry if you have a small budget. Small budget forces you to be more creative, and it doesn’t mean you have to compromise on the quality. Your budget is going to have a big impact on the size of your guest list. You can only invite as many people as you can afford to feed. When preparing your guest list, you need to consider the size of the place of the party. There should be only as many people as your home can accommodate. The most common location for graduation parties is private homes. If your home is too small for a large party, you can ask to see if the party could be held at a friend’s house. If your party is going to be held in an apartment consider noise, parking, and space issues. The type of food your serve has a lot to do with your budget and your audience. If your budget only allows for pizza, you can still have a great time. If you can afford catering, your guest will be sure remember it for a long time. Don’t serve alcohol if you expect children at the party. To save money, you can purchase preprinted invitations, and print or hand-write them. Hand written invitations are more personal, and often more appreciated. Depending on your guests, you can send e-mail invites. Purchase supplies for decorations. Make sure there is film in the camera, or there is enough memory in the digital camera. Try to order a cake with a graduation theme. You could choose a theme for the party depending on what school the person graduates from. For example, you could have a hospital theme for your nursing school graduate. Order personalized party favors with the name and school of the graduate. Personalized chocolate makes for a great graduation party favor. You can even get personalized m&m's now!

Catering For Your Party

Dealing with catering service providers is part of planning a successful party. A caterer normally provides food and beverages and they have an important role in your party. If you have experience with caterers, you are in luck. But if you have never hired a caterer before, don’t worry.

If the party venue offers this service, it is also possible that you don’t need to worry about hiring a third party caterer. Even if catering is not provided by the party location, they may be able to recommend some to you. If your party site manager, recommends a caterer you should still do your homework. Just like any other vendor, a caterer should be able to provide you with several references. You should always contact the references.

You should ask about reliability, trustworthiness, quality, and related issues. Never assume that a caterer recommended by someone if surely the best possible solution for your event. One caterer may work great for one event, but be insufficient for others. A caterer may be experienced in smaller parties, but not experienced with parties with two hundred invited guests.

There are two different styles of catering:
Seated Dinner - Seated dinner setting will normally require more staff than a buffet. Serving the food requires more severs. With a seated dinner, you will need more tables and chairs because most of the guests will eat at the same time. A seated dinner offers less flexibility for your guests, because they usually have a couple of options to choose from. To simplify the process, menu options should be included with the party invitations so your guests can choose which selection they prefer. The pre-selection process enables you to work with your caterer on the final count.

Buffet – You may be able to get away with less chairs and tables with a buffet dinner. Buffet gives your party guests more flexibility, and they don’t all have to eat at the same time. A buffet dinner also gives your party guests more options to customize their food selection. The buffet requires fewer servers and less staff. Guests can pick and choose what they like. In addition to the obvious advantage of a more flexible dinner, your guest can go back for seconds. Because buffet dinners require minimal service staff, you may even be able to save money with this option.

Alcohol Free Party

Parties are fun but planning them is work. The more carefully you plan your next party the more likely you succeed. Better planning means better party. A successful party can help you entertain friends, family or coworkers. It can help you maintain or start long lasting friendships. If you play your cards right, a successful party can help you get promoted more quickly.

How much money you spend on the party is one of the most important aspects of party planning. You have to know how much money you can afford to spend per guest. The budget determines what kind of food and drinks you can serve. A large budget doesn’t guarantee a successful party and a tight budget doesn’t guarantee a disappointing party.

You can save a lot of money by serving soft drinks, and avoiding alcoholic beverages all together. If your party is during the day, you can more easily get away with no alcoholic beverages. Most people don’t drink during the day. An alcohol free evening party may be a stretch.

If it is a party with children present, you can easily explain an alcohol free party. An alcohol free party yields a more peaceful environment, and fights are much less likely. It is much more easier to control sober guests than a bunch of drunks. Baby showers provide a great opportunity for a sober party as a form of solidarity for the pregnant mother.

If you decide to serve alcohol avoid salty thirst triggering foods. Serve food before you serve alcohol. It's better to eat while drinking than to drink on an empty stomach. Designate a friend or family member to be the bartender for the evening rather than allowing people to serve themselves. Be prepared to take away car keys, and know your designated drivers.

Not only that you save money because non-alcoholic drinks cost less, at the end of the party there are no arguments about who's going to drive home!