Party Planning 101

As I have mentioned before, we are soon hosting a dinner party for 36+ people to celebrate my leap into the "30s" (or perhaps more so to commiserate the end of my 20s?? lol) .

While I am someone who loves to organise parties, be them big or small, in order to keep my stress level down and I am a huge planner.

Did you miss my other planning tips?

I have learned over time that catering for other people (be it 5 or 50) is never an easy thing to do. And, even if I have lot of friends and family willing to help, sometimes this comes with its own downfalls too. Perhaps it relates to the 'too many cooks in the kitchen' phenomenon?!

A few months ago, my sister in law and I managed to stay relatively stress-free when planning the "Day at the Races" party for my parents-in-laws' joint 70th birthday party. We had to cater for over 110 people, which was also no easy feat.

And so today, with another upcoming party to plan and prepare for, it got me thinking about what worked during the planning process for that, much bigger, party....

1. Meetings

My sister in law and I had quite a few face to face "meetings" when planning the party for her parents. Not only were they an opportunity to catch up for dinner (and a couple glasses of wine...), we were able to jointly finalise numbers, invitations and the food menu. These meetings, in conjunction with email, helped us stay on track and not double up or miss anything.

2. Utilise the skills of others

We found out that a guest at the party was a keen BBQ-er, and he offered to not only man the BBQ for us,  but also to select and buy the meat. All we had to do was tell him how many people were coming (oh and pay for the meat of course!).

3. Learn to love online resources

Given that my sister in law and I both work full time, it was not always possible to get away from work to hit the shops during business hours. We did, however, embrace the magic of the internet and purchased the invitations, the edible photo topper and various other balloons / decorations from online sources.

Not only did it make the ordering process simple, and often saved us money, all the items were delivered directly to our door!

4. Know your numbers

About a week before the party, we sat down to plan the final menu. Given it was a lunchtime party, we decided on a BBQ / salad combination. And, once the guest numbers had been finalised, we were able to decide just how many dishes to offer. While not having enough food is bad, I think having too much food and it going to waste is worse!!

5. Know your crowd

We discovered that we had no vegetarians coming to the party, although we did have guests with both wheat and dairy allergies.

Knowing this information upfront made it all the more easier to ensure that everyone's dietary needs would be catered for.

5. Divide and conquer

With our menu plan in mind, we then divided up the salads and appetisers - with each taking 4 specific salads and 2 dips.

This meant that we were both able to contribute, without being overwhelmed. Also, by sitting down and allocating specific dishes, were made sure there would be no double ups.

6. Get together to create together

Although we had allocated dishes between us, we wanted to work on the star of the show, aka the birthday cakes, together. So, the night before the party, we rallied at the BBB household and baked, tempered and shaped chocolate to our heart's delight.

Not only did it lighten the load in the kitchen, it was definitely a fun gals night in!

7. Create a timeline and stick to it

Being a lunchtime party, we did not have the benefit of a full day in which to prepare food. This was complicated by the fact we could not get into the venue to set up until 1 hour before the party started. So, working backwards, we arranged an early morning get together to finalise the food preparation, then made our way to the venue together. Having completed all the food preparation before we arrived, all we had to do was decorate and we were set to party!

I think it was a combination of the above that made the whole process run smoothly, without creating too much work / stress for either of us. While my 30th party is quite different in style (dinner party v casual lunch), I know that I will be implementing many of the above strategies to keep my sanity!

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Day 16 - MOVE it, TONE it, DRINK it

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What about you? What is your number 1 tip when it comes to party planning?

Happy Baking :)