Over 40 years ago now if you'd have told me I'd go into the theme party planning business I would have laughed and said your cheese had slid right off your cracker. Yet that's precisely what I quite inadvertently stumbled into! I don't regret it in that I learned a whole lot by trial and error in organizing and throwing those parties for my clients.
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I'm going to share the tips and tricks I learned so that you too can throw over-the-top parties that will be a hit with your guests:
Develop your skills
The more DIY skills you have the more money you'll save in planning your party.
I have a BA in Art which certainly didn't hurt, I've worked on theater stage construction, I do woodworking, scrapbooking, sewing, painting, photography, refurbishing. I've worked in advertising, marketing, commercial offset printing. I never set out learning these skills with the idea of going into the party planning business, they were simply part of my life experience but became invaluable in party planning.
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Take inventory of your skill set that will lend itself to party planning.
Go for the wow factor
I go for what I call the WOW factor right out of the gate and it starts with the party invitation. People will decide within seconds of receiving your invitation whether or not they'll make time in their schedule to attend your party. The very first impression they get of your party is the invitation they receive.
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While it might be easy to send them a cell phone invitation, such an invitation tells me that party host hasn't put a lot of effort into the party they're inviting you to...so I'd turn the invitation down. A tech invitation wouldn't capture my interest in attending that party.
For one pirate party I threw, hubby and I made party invitations in corked wine bottles, dressed up like pirates and hand delivered the message in a bottle invitation to each party guest.
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Think it captured the attention of invited guests when they answered their doorbell to find two pirates standing at their door?
It must have because every invited guest attended that party!
We didn't have a single no show.
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Several guests later told us "If you went to those lengths just with the invitations we were curious as to what you'd come up for the party itself."
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In other words, we'd "hooked" them with the invitations and that WOW factor.
I'd continue with that WOW factor in the party itself. For example, for one of my Titanic parties, I enlisted my musician friend Colanna and her string quartet to pose as the Titanic band.
The first thing guests saw and heard when they entered my house was Colanna and company, dressed in formal Edwardian attire and Titanic life jackets, playing tunes like Nearer My God to Thee.
Hit your guests with the unexpected and you have that WOW factor. Don't be afraid to add a touch of whimsy to that WOW factor as I did with the band wearing Titanic life jackets. It's what guests remember.
pay attention to the smallest details
You may think your party guests won't notice little details but they do! In fact, once my guests learned what to expect with my parties, they began LOOKING for those little details in my staging. It became almost a game with them! (Especially the comical details that weren't obvious at first glance)
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Authenticity goes hand-in-hand with these details. One of the measures of a successful party is to be able to use your guests own imaginations to transport them to a different place and time - as with the Titanic party, for example. I wanted them to feel as though they were actually boarding Titanic, so I issued boarding passes and staged the entrance to my house to look like the boarding entrance of the Titanic - complete with a gangplank, freight sitting around that gangplank and a costumed crew member collecting their boarding passes. I worked off an actual Titanic photograph in staging that entrance so that it looked as authentic as possible.
Photo credit: alyeo..co.uk
allow yourself plenty of planning time
I'd require my clients to give me a minimum of 6 months to plan a party for them and more often, a year.
I'd do this for several reasons:
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I wasn't stressed out with last minute planning and/or projects
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It gave me time to shop for their party supplies at the lowest cost possible by taking advantage of annual sales, etc. so as to come in on or under their budget
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It allowed me time to complete any DIY staging elements I had to do for their party
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They came to understand this allowed me to save them money and plan the best party I possibly could for them.
know something about your guests personalities
Nothing will kill a party faster than guests who are incompatible with one another. For this reason, I'd question my clients about their party guests personalities beforehand. It's normal to have some guests who are naturally more outgoing than the wallflower type who will grab a drink and plant themselves in a chair next to a wall. But I wanted to know which guests were the wallflower type and which were the outgoing types that I could use to help pull the wallflower types into the action.
Similarly, if Uncle Billy Bob and Aunt Daisy Mae have been feuding with each other for decades over the secret family moonshine recipe, you obviously don't want to throw them together at a party! Unless you want the cops banging on your door when the two of them get into it with one another - which they inevitably will at some point during your party.
You don't want a Hatfields & McCoys situation cropping up in the middle of your party. Unless you're throwing a Hatfields & McCoys theme party. In which case, use them as entertainment and let your guests believe the entire feud was staged. (Part of being a successful party planner is learning to think quick on your feet in crisis situations)
buy used and save the difference
With the exception of things like disposable dinnerware I seldom bought anything new, paying retail price for it. I always shopped used but in like new condition.
We live in a disposable, throw away society so finding used items in like new condition wasn't all that difficult.
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In the case of clients, I'd return these savings to them. If buying for one of my own parties, I'd put the money over buying new/retail saved in a special party savings account.
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Shop estate sales, rummage sales, flea markets, secondhand and thrift shops for like new party items. Annual clearance sales are a good way to pick up needed items at often substantially reduced prices when having to buy new.
keep an ideas binder
When I found a party idea or staging I'd print out of picture of it and put it an ideas binder for future reference. I discovered my clients liked being able to look through it too for ideas for the party they wanted me to throw. It comes in handy in those moments ideas aren't coming to you.
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Pinterest is a great source of ideas as well, although I've found it to be pretty repetitive. In those cases, I'll try to come up with my own twist to put on the repetitive.
Party foods/menu
I'll NEVER EVER throw a party where I'm stuck in the kitchen cooking during the actual party. Your job is to be the host, not the cook - unless you plan to serve all make ahead foods!
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Have your party catered, have a potluck where everyone brings a dish...just don't cook yourself the day of the party!
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For my Titanic parties, I'd have my friend who is a master chef from Germany do the cooking, for example. For my Christmas Around the World party I had each guest bring a dish from their country of ancestry.
There are plenty of ways to avoid being stuck in the kitchen on the day of the party.
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If you're throwing a kids party it's been my experience that kids usually won't eat that much at a party. They're too hyped up over the activities. Easy to serve foods and snacks usually suffice at a kids party.