I love entertaining and planning parties but these festivities can get pretty costly and could take up a lot of your time.
Some feel that have no time to plan and claim to have little or no creativity and would rather hire a party planner to handle it.
I can admit that after planning for food, cake, decorations, gifts, table settings and entertainment, you could easily spend a pretty penny and get overwhelmed.
But as an event planner myself I plan to teach you how to use your own resources to plan, with few or minimal purchases to decorate, and entertain your next occasion with ease.
You may wonder why I would take such a risk when this could easily have been an article selling myself and my services.
Well I believe we all learn from each other and I did not wake up and decide to be in the event planning business, it came to me after seeing how easy it is to plan these events with a little time and patience.
When planning for your next event the first thing you should always do is a sketch.
Even if you are not an artist you can doddle some items on a page to get an idea rolling.
I find sketches to be useful for current events and can also be saved for future events and just think, If you forget a detail you will always have a blue print of your original idea to refer back to.
Next of course should be your budget.
How much do you have to spend on your ideas.
Separating each into categories, such as decorations with sub categories listing items like balloons, table cloths, centerpieces, etc.
Or Food with menu selections and sub categories listing utensils and other items needed to keep things rolling smoothly.
Now to the fun stuff, Once you have your idea in place and you know how much you plan to spend you can begin putting things together.
I try to plan for events a month or more in advance.
Leaving time to shop around for discounts and clip and use coupons.
By now you should have your color scheme and decorations sort out, leaving room for corrections if you under or over estimated some where.
If you are not a baker, then I would say to begin shopping around for a baker or bakery for your cake, cupcakes or other dessert choices.
This should be about a couple of weeks to a month before your event depending on the availability of your cake decorator.
Hopefully this and maybe the food will be the bulk of your purchase.
Plan wisely keeping in mind flavors and prices per serving.
Some bakers charge by size of the cake and some may charge per serving and always express what you have available to spend.
There is nothing worse than falling in love with an idea that you can't afford.
Utilize your computer for tutorials and other free information on websites like You Tube and search engines as Google.
The ideas and creativity are endless on the World Wide Web.
Many pros often refer back to ideas found online, books or even in blogs.
It is a good way to keep up with current trends and tips.
If you are planning to ask friends and family members for help.
Always make sure it is something they can do without your help.
For instance if your cousin wants to help but is known to procrastinate.
Give them something that is not time sensitive or short tasks that can be completed before they get distracted.
In other words find and utilize their strengths.
Now that you have checked off some items as done or have designated task to get done, you can begin planning for your favors and gifts.
Items that are perishable should obviously be prepared as close to the date of your event as possible again leaving room for under estimating because we will always run into some sort of mishap if we don't plan for it.
If you still have a few weeks left for your event and most of these items have been completed already, then it's safe to say you have taken important steps to planning your first event.
Now the rest of the details, like food, drinks, music and entertainment should be designed to coordinate with your event.
If you are planning a kids party, your choices should be age appropriate.
If you are planning an anniversary dinner maybe you can use items that are sentimental to the couple you are celebrating.
I believe once you have planned your first successful event, these items will begin to come to you with ease, and you will develop confidence and experience and begin to have fun with planning events.
Hopefully these tips were helpful in assisting you with planning your next event, we will discuss favors, and other popular party items and where to find them or how to make them.
Together we can accomplish the biggest task there is, planning and organizing a successful party.