The Guide to Ridiculously Easy Entertaining - Tips from Marfreless
The initial planning should include understanding what you might need to do for each facet, or significant step, of the party. Expanding upon the list shown in the Introduction, below are the questions that you should ask yourself when you begin to plan any social event. Answering these, which will follow every major step of the event (which becomes the Party Plan) will help you to move well on the way to planning a successful party. This information is greatly expanded and elaborated upon in subsequent chapters of this section.
1) Initial Planning – The first things, first.
2) Determining Whether or Not You Need to Hire Help, and hiring it – Caterer, bartender, valets, entertainment, etc.?
3) Invitations
4) Purchasing (and Renting) Supplies and Accessories
5) Setup – Cleanup, decorations, drinks, food, music
6) Hosting – Do you need help in hosting your event – Friend, co-worker?
7) After the Event
These are the just the very basics to consider when beginning the event planning process. These aspects are expounded upon in greater detail in subsequent chapters.
1) Initial Planning – The first things, first.
- How much effort do you want to make? If you want to plan a particularly large or involved event, you might want to try to get one or more co-hosts.
- What type of event? A particular, or special, theme?
- How many guests?
- When to hold your event – Date? Time? Are there any significant conflicts with that date and time?
- Where to hold the event, at home or elsewhere?
- What duration? Two hours, four hours, etc.?
- What do you hope your budget to be?
2) Determining Whether or Not You Need to Hire Help, and hiring it – Caterer, bartender, valets, entertainment, etc.?
- Do you need help? In which capacities?
- Where to find the necessary help?
- How much will the service(s) cost?
- What questions do you need to ask prospective help?
3) Invitations
- Whom to invite?
- What information do you need to communicate to your invitees?
- How will you communicate the event – E-mail, Evite, Facebook, or even printed invitations, etc.?
- When to send the invitations? – If you believe that the event is formal or special enough to warrant printed invitations, you will have to start the planning process some time earlier in order to get the invitations printed, mailed, and to allow for a proper amount of time for the guests to respond. Don’t forget to factor in the costs of printing, envelopes and postage into your budget, as these costs are easily overlooked, and often not insignificant.
4) Purchasing (and Renting) Supplies and Accessories
- What supplies and accessories will you need for your event?
- What accessories should you always have on hand? And do you?
- What types and amounts of drinks – What in the way of wine, beer and spirits will you need?
- What type and amount of food?
- Other, non-food, non-drink supplies?
5) Setup – Cleanup, decorations, drinks, food, music
- How should you schedule your efforts for setup?
- Do you need or want to decorate?
- Do you need to setup the drinks and food?
- Will you be responsible for cleaning?
- What type of music should you play?
6) Hosting – Do you need help in hosting your event – Friend, co-worker?
7) After the Event
- Will you be responsible for cleaning the venue, afterwards?
- Assessing the success of the event – What can you learn for the future?
These are the just the very basics to consider when beginning the event planning process. These aspects are expounded upon in greater detail in subsequent chapters.
