Basic Party Principles

I am posting this because I have attended so many showers and parties, where it's unorganized and the guests feel like no one ever even noticed they were there.  Usually the guest of honor is also feeling like no one ever paid attention to them either.

Because of that, I am going to share with you how we throw our parties!!  I have had soooo many people come up to  me the next day after one of our parties, or sometimes even months later, (even as in this last weekend) and tell me how much fun they had at our party and how welcome they felt!  Those are the words EVERY Hostess wants to hear!! 

I am only going into the

THE BASIC ORDER A PARTY SHOULD GO IN

1.  Start EVERY party with a

GAME/ICEBREAKER

This is REALLY a key element to every party.  ESPECIALLY baby showers and bridal showers!!  At kids birthdays, while they love games, if they are under the age of seven or so just let them play for a while. 

There are THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of cute party game ideas all over the internet.  Most of them are basically free and you can use things you already have at home.  Some take a little creativity and maybe a small investment of your money and time...but if you want your party to be the one that everyone enjoys....invest that hour into planning your games and get

CREATIVE

I have been to SO MANY showers that skip this, and they just go straight to the food, and then open gifts, most of the guests never mingle with anyone else, no one is paying attention while the bride or mom to be is opening her presents, and it just drives me

CRAZY!! 

What I think the "game playing" does is it draws the guests in where they feel connected, connected to the other guests and to the guest of honor!!  If it's a game that makes them laugh,  it's all the better!!

2.  EAT NEXT

The food at a party is something everyone remembers as well.  The key here too is to REMEMBER who your guests are and keep it simple and geared towards what their tastes are. 

Kids parties don't need ten thousand choices, it's tempting I know, but they won't eat 1/2 of it, and if it's too unusual or hard to manipulate they will leave it alone.

At showers it is usually best to keep the dishes "finger foods"

I love fancy foods just as much (actually probably more) than the next person, but really, people like to just feel "at home". 

At my daughter's Bridal Shower we had Cheeseburger Sliders with all the condiments, Pigs in Blankets (both were in chafing dishes) Fruit, Veggie, and Cheese Trays, and Gourmet Cookies

It was simple and everyone loved it...and the sliders were enough of being out of the "ordinary" that it made a great impression on the guests.

3.  CAKE CUTTING/PRESENT OPENING

We always save this for LAST....that way everyone can eat their cake while watching the guest open his/her presents!! 

Assign a person to sit by the Guest of Honor to write down in a notebook what the presents are and who they are from!!  It makes it so much easier to send thank you notes later!!

THIS IS MY NO FAIL ORDER OF PARTY EVENTS :)

I will start writing blogs on the basics of party planning, or how "we do it" in the next couple of weeks!! 

Don't let throwing a spectacular party intimidate you....they aren't as hard as you think, and I want you to have a party that your guests

TALK ABOUT FOR THE WHOLE NEXT YEAR!!

HAPPY PARTY PLANNING!!

Tiffany Bridal Shower

 

My youngest daughter was recently married this last November.  Her wonderful friends (who also let me help)  put together a truly fabulous bridal shower.  I absolutely LOVE to plan parties!!

I thought I would post the pics and ideas in case it feeds some inspiration for anyone else!

This was her beautiful cake!  It was a fondant top and ribbon.  It was a four layer amazingly enough, the two fillings were chocolate fudge and raspberry.  The cake itself was vanilla.  It was soooo yummy!!

My beautiful daughter Jackie!

We rented the napkins, glasses, and silverware and assorted serving trays and chafers from a party rental store.  It is most definitely worth looking into, as the cost is either the same or maybe a little more than purchasing them, and they bring an extra look of elegance to your table.  The tablecloths were purchased at the party store.  We had her shower at the church, and come to find out only afterwards, they had white cloth tablecloths we could have used!!  The boxes are super easy to do!  We bought them at Hobby Lobby, they are made out of some sort of fiberboard and cost about $3.99 a piece!  We bought two colors of paint and blended them together to get as close as we could to the Tiffany color.  We went to the ribbon department and found some large width white see through ribbon to use for the ribbon.  The other centerpieces were also purchased at Hobby Lobby.  The vases are easily found there, and the little white floral picks were in the floral department. 

The food that was served consisted of:  Cheeseburger Sliders, Pigs in a Blanket, A Fruit Tray, A Cheese Tray, and some Gourmet Cookies!!

We had a "non alcohol" shower since we were in a church setting!  One of the glasses had white grape juice, and the other had lemonade!  Everyone really enjoyed both drinks!

Jackie's good friend Taylor found these rings at the party supply store as well!  They make great napkin rings for any bridal shower!!  It's really easy to roll these napkins up and insert them into the rings!

Both of my daughters!  Jessica and Jackie!!  Jessica was of course her Maid of Honor!

The Bridesmaids!  One was not able to be there!

The younger ladies who attended the shower!  Us "older ladies" did not get in the pics :)

Her bridesmaids decided to surprise her with a bracelet from Tiffany's. They each chipped in about $20/person so it was a feasable thing to do.   It was Taylor's idea, and she ended up calling the Tiffany store in the Dallas Galleria, and they shipped it to her, without even charging shipping charges!!  She wrapped it in about six boxes, large to small!!  It was hilarious watching her open all of them!

Something else her Maid of Honor did while the Bride To Be was opening gifts was write down everything the Bride to Be said.  When she was done, it was read back to her as "What she would say on her wedding night".  This has got to be one of the funniest things to do EVER!!  Everyone young to old thought it was sooo funny!  The Bride will almost always say things like "ohh that's so cute", or "what do you do with this"...so to change the context into what she would say it just a hoot!!



One of the funny games we played was called "Toss the Bouquet".  One of her bridesmaids purchased a cheap bouquet from Wal Mart.  You will also need a CD player of some sort.  We were lucky that we had a whole sound system because we were at a church!  We played Big and Rich's "Lost In This Moment". 
Have your guests pull their chairs into a circle.  The bride starts out holding the bouquet, and someone starts the music playing.  The bride tosses the bouquet to the person seated next to her on the right.  The bouquet keeps being tossed to the next person until the music is randomly stopped.  (Much like musical chairs).  The person holding the bouquet when the music stops is OUT!!  It was hysterical and everyone young and old enjoyed it!  (It is great if you have  good friend who will volunteer to do the music and not play the game)  Let me tell you, these ladies get really competitive and start just "chunking" the bouquet at each other as hard and fast as they can...it is so funny to watch!!



Jessica and Sarah manned the music....they did a great job!

The last two!!  Elaine on the right ended up being the winner!!  She is the mom of one of the bridesmaids :)



Some have heard of this game, and some haven't.  It's called....Make a wedding dress out of toilet paper.  You break your guests into teams and have them choose who they want to be their model!  We chose two teams and two models.  This requires a jumbo pkg of rolls of toilet paper!  The guests get pretty creative while trying to make "stunning" wedding gowns!!  The Bride to Be then has to choose a winner!  That is probably the most difficult part!!

Lots of fun was had by all! 

Here is the link to the blog I posted with her wedding pics!!  She used brown, fuschia and avocado green for her colors!! 

http://flamingtacoshells.blogspot.com/2011/01/jackies-wedding.html