Epic parties aren’t defined by the number of guests or the budget – they’re defined by exceeding the expectations of your guests. Above all, parties are an opportunity to celebrate life with friends and family.
This is the fourth and final part of a series of posts to help you throw an epic party. Check out parts one, two, and three if you missed it.
The Four Ps
In my first post, I covered the pre-party planning process where you answered the Who, What, When, Where, and Why of your party. The answers to these questions form the foundation of your party. My next post went over finalizing your theme (that includes picking a place) and sending out your invites. Post three was all about personalizing your party and adding your own flavor or pizzazz.
In this final post, we come back full circle to planning. As we get closer to throwing an epic party, we need to have an agenda to ensure everything goes off without a hitch. Think of your party as a movie; you’re the director, and you need to follow the script.
What’s on the Agenda?
At this point, you’ve already done the majority of the hard work: you’ve come up with your guest list, your theme, your budget, accounted for all the party essentials you’ll need, come up with a food and drink menu and even came up with a soundtrack for your party. Now it’s time to put your party in writing… literally.
Contact List
One of the first steps for an organized, stress-free party is to make a list of all your party contacts. You should categorize each of these contacts based on their relation to the party. For example:
- Guest of Honor – If you have one. If the party is for a little one, include contact information for his/her parents.
- Party Planning Help – this might be friends, family, or any hired help that have agreed to assist you with planning your party.
- Vendors – This should include any third party companies you’ve signed contracts with that will be providing services at/for your party.
For each of these contacts, you should include the following information:
- Company Name (for vendors)
- Contact Name
- Cell phone#
- Alternate phone #
- Email address
- Description of person/vendor in relation to your party (e.g. Caterer, Linen Rental, Photobooth, Guest of Honor, etc.)
- Arrival Time
- Commitment Time (this is particularly for vendors; list the amount of time (in hours) that the vendor will be at the party)
- Address (optional)
Having this type of document created in advance makes it much easier to reference and contact those individuals that are vital to making sure your party runs without a hitch. You can save this as a Word doc and make it available via Dropbox so you can access it whenever you need it. If you’re a Google type of guy or gal, you can create your doc using Google Docs and make it available via Google Drive. Another option is to use Evernote – create a new folder for your party, then create a note with all of your contacts in it.
Party Timeline
The next essential for a stress-free party is the creation of a party timeline or agenda. Here you’ll take a look at getting your party logistics squared away, starting with the time you start setting things up to party clean-up and everything in between. It’s critical to be as detailed as possible to ensure that every detail has been covered.
One way to start this process is by listing all the things that need to happen on or before the party along with approximately how long each will take (this includes set-up/prep, party games, menu timelines, etc.). Once you’ve listed everything, it makes it much easier to start plugging these to-dos into a timeline. If you’re using a vendor, you should note the time that they’re committed to getting to your location.
You can Google a party planning timeline template or create your own document in Excel. The ultimate goal is to have a document that sequentially lays out all of your party logistics. If you want to create your own document, start with the following headers for your table:
- Date
- Start Time
- End Time
- Who
- Contact Info: This is particularly helpful when you’re working with vendors.
- What
- Where: Depending on whom else you’re distributing this to, it may be helpful to include addresses here.
Next, plug in all of your to-dos into your timeline and fill in the above details. Again, it’s critical that you be as specific and detailed as possible so you don’t forget anything Going through this exercise may be tedious but you’ll seriously thank yourself later when all you’ll have to do is follow your own instructions.
At a minimum, you should have to-dos related to:
- Following-up with non-responding RSVPs
- Getting your party essentials ready (this may involve purchasing supplies, creating your DIY materials, purchasing, setting up, or receiving your party décor, etc.)
- Food and Beverage (either preparing, picking up, or receiving from a caterer)
- Party timeline and activities (what’s going on during party-time)
Follow-Up
Again, this depends on the size and formality of your party. For large-scale parties that involve rentals and/or catering, you should start following up 3 weeks in advance, after all, food and beverage and logistics planning relies on your guest count.
One strategy is to shoot a reminder email a month in advance of your party to those who have yet to respond. You may get a few extra responses with this tactic, but every response counts, since that’s one less person you’ll have to follow-up with. The week after you’ve sent your reminder email, you should start calling or texting stragglers to get a response.
For something less formal, plan on following up at least a week before your party, preferably by phone or text, as these are the fastest response channels at your disposal. This should give you enough time to finalize your party details with the most accurate numbers as possible.
Don’t assume that everyone who hasn’t responded has seen your invitation or checked their calendars. Life gets in the way, and that’s okay. Rather than assuming that non-responders won’t be coming, do your best to check-in with them beforehand. Whether you’re party is large or small, formal or extra casual, you should always follow-up with non-responders. Period.
Game Time
If you’ve followed all the steps above, by the time you reach party day, you’ll pretty much be set. Follow the timeline you created for yourself and get ready to have an epic party. Let the fun begin!
Give Gratitude
Whether it be a goodie bag, a thank you note, or both, it’s always a nice touch to say thank you to your guests. This is the final impression of your party experience that guests will leave with, so definitely don’t take this lightly. Leave your guests oohing and ahhing at your fabulous hosting skills by giving them something that they can remember you by.
At a minimum, this should be in keeping with your theme. Ideally, it’s something DIY (I’m that kind of gal). For example, at my wedding, my mom and I created our wedding favors: hand painted mini peg dolls for each guest along with my favorite candy. Each favor was addressed to each guest, making it more personal and (hopefully) endearing. Yes, it was time consuming and a lot of work but to me, it was worth it.
And there you have it. Now the only thing left for you to do is throw that epic party. Good luck!