Does party planning and organizing seem difficult? Do you dread having to come up with ideas for birthday or holiday parties? Or worse, have you planned a party that turned out to be much less than you’d hoped for? Party planning really isn’t as difficult as you might think as long as you plan ahead.
The first thing you need to do is determine an approximate cost of the party. Is your budget $30 or $300? This alone can determine how many you should invite. Will you have them at your house, or will you need to rent a space? Often, local parks have picnic tables under pavilions that you can reserve for the asking, or a minimal fee, where everyone can gather and be more comfortable if the group wouldn’t easily fit into your home or yard. If there is a cost associated with the party’s location, include that in your budget so you don’t overspend.
Don’t forget the basics! Certain parties give people certain expectations. Birthday parties, for instance, have birthday cakes while Halloween parties need ghoulish snacks or activities like apple bobbing. Christmas parties can be made unique by going beyond the usual games and using activities like letting the kids make and decorate dough ornaments they can take home. If you need some ideas for these traditional types of parties, the library or the Internet can provide you with long lists of ideas to choose from.
Sometimes you can decorate your party space, if much decoration is needed at all, in non-traditional ways that are much cheaper than standard decorations. While you can purchase pre-packaged or pre-made decorations for a seaside or Hawaiian-themed party or luau, for instance, you can purchase some items inexpensively that aren’t intended to be decorations. Dollar stores often have bags of seashells in a craft section—scattered on tables or in bowls these make a neat “sea-side” decoration. Use your imagination when shopping dollar and discount stores and you’ll find things that fit your theme for less money than you’d spend in a specialty party store.
Food is important at parties, and a good way to have fun with your theme without spending a lot of money on decorations. A luau-themed party can offer up pineapple chunks on toothpicks as a snack, with one whole pineapple or two decorating the food tables, doubling as decoration. Halloween parties can be made more spooky by cookies shaped like fingers, or blood-red punch. Again, use your imagination and resources like the Internet to find great theme-food ideas and recipes. If the food, which is usually the most expensive part of the party, can double as a decoration, you’ll spend less money and probably enjoy the experience more.
