Having worked in the party/event planning and styling industry for a number of years which was part of my drive to set up Little big Co store and as a party planner and event stylist I thought I would share some ideas with you re doing your own party table and organising your own party – at LBC we get alot of emails and I thought I would share some tips- and I would love to read about your ideas too! After Alphabet Street asked me to write some party tips thought I would share some with our blog readers.
Stay tuned for a party we are doing on a tight budget, we have been set a task to do a party within a small budget and we are going to share that with you very soon.. We will be doing a Super Hero 30+ party – I love getting bargains and finding and creating things to make a party super fun. So looking forward to sharing this with you and sharing how we did it.
We absolutely LOVE receiving your parties, so keep those coming through to info@littlebigcompany.com.au
Most of these suggestions are common sense but I thought I would share a party checklist for you to be able to do your own party and have some planning tips for the day.
- Pick a theme, some theme ideas…
1. Pick a Theme – I have some theme ideas here on my PINBOARD, it’s always a good idea to work out where you are going to place your table and if at different venue check out the space where you are going to have it, book your cake and sweets maker asap as they get booked in very quickly.
2. Gather your party props- printables, backdrops, balloons etc
We bought this plastic Fence from The Reject Shop to use for a party table, it was $10 we added it with things from our store here
3. work on desserts for the table, work on how many desserts you need for the amount of people, say you are allocating 3 desserts each to a person. Work on the symmetry of the table, balance, height… how many jars you will need, cake stands etc – I like to do a mock up in my notebook..plan your backdrop some printable designers do great backdrops like Style Me Gorgeous, Green Beansie Ink, Ham and Pea Paperie, Lajari, Little Soiree and many more all found on the web.
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| All Jars, cake stands, beverage dispenser from The Little Big Company, Our work with Just Call Me Martha, The Inspired Occasion and Love JK printables |
4. Work out how much candy you need for the jars. Colour coordinate the candy, we have Rock Candy Swizzle Sticks here and lollipops here at Little big Company, it’s a great idea to have different size jars and also remembering how much candy you require for the jars.
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| Jars from The Little Big Company photography by Lee Bird Photography |
5. Spotlight is a great place to buy things for your party table, like ribbon for the jars, fiskars cutters for the printables (for the cupcake toppers- tag toppers) Spotlight is also great for the foam risers, or bunnings is a great place for small crates to put your cake or Jars on…
6 The Reject Shop is great for affordable props, like a wagon wheel (for a cowboy party) or a boat for a nautical party, or an eiffel tower for a paris party. Or search your local op shop for affordable party props. IKEA is great for tall wooden candleholders for plates…
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| This IKEA frame for $1.99 is perfect for Candy or Dessert Buffet Welcome Signs |
Some quick tips– we have a theme, then we work on a backdrop intitially, if we get a printed backdrop which we work with a printable designer with, which we usually get printed off at Officeworks on a 2 metre by 1 metre paper backdrop, a backdrop that you get a printable designer to do via etsy.com (search party printables and some of the designers do them) and get your lolly jar tags at the same time, which you get when you search “party printables” on the etsy site and you are responsible for printing those off at a printer, or DIY at home or Officeworks or you can also buy premade ones off various party printable companies.
BACKDROP IDEAS FOR YOUR DESSERT OR CANDY BUFFET/PARTY TABLE
Using a Wall Decal like this Love Mae Decal, which is a tea party theme you can buy here
Some other ideas for placing behind your party table..
Sharnel Dollar Designs has a great tutorial on how to make a beautifully decorated foam risers with paper, see her photo below.
If you go to her blog which full of party ideas and her gorgeous parties you will see the tip
We used foam risers with ribbon on them below wrapped around them for this party below, printables from Love JK Cake and sweet treats by Just Call Me Martha joint styling with The Inspired Occasion, Little Big Company and Just Call Me Martha
All jars, vessels, cakes stand, mini milk bottles from THE LITTLE BIG COMPANY
- Gather up your Shopping List and work on a budget, it’s important to work on a budget and try and stick to it.
Shopping List:
Cake
Printables
Printing of Printables
Party Food
Beverages
Glass Apothecary Jars
Ribbon
Bunting
Balloons
Party Favours
Table Cloth
Cutlery
Paper Napkins
Lollies
Drinking cups: Paper/Plastic or Hire of glasses
Some great ideas for Party food are fruit in cupcake wrappers
Like this great idea from The Sugar Therapist where she used fruit to place in these paper cupcake wrappers.
- Invitations
The Beverage Dispenser which we have in different sizes, see the one Gallon one which we used for our nautical party buy here at Little Big company which is great for parties.
Our Mini Milk Glass Bottles from The Little Big Company at $1.95 each and Retro Straws available at The Little Big Company online store are a great way to serve up drinks, juice or colour coordinated cordial!
Depending on the type of party and how much activity planned e.g. dancing, musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey/pg etc.
TIMELINE
8 – 12 weeks before the party – organize the cake with cake maker or if you are doing it, plan what cake you are going to do in terms of design. Some cake makers are booked months in advance.
- Set up your party table/Dessert Table/Candy buffet the night before, iron the tablecloth, place jars and the coordinated candy
- Prepare all the party favour bags or boxes a couple of days before, some ideas for party favour bags are lollipops, stickers, fruit, pencils, notepads, plastic jewellery, samll plastic balls, make sure all the decorations are ready, make sure all the prizes for the party are ready and wrapped
- Make sure you have planned all the party games and activities and set out an allocated area for the party games. Sometimes you have to be flexible because it depends on the childrens ages, pass the parcel, circus tricks, pin the tail on the donkey, egg races, find the feather hunt, treasure hunt, make crafts as an activity sometimes one feature on the day is enough, like make a craft activity and other quick and easy games for the kids
- Have a timeline/schedule on a piece of paper how the party is going to run (this doesn’t necessarily work on the day – but it’s a great piece of paper to refer back to, ie pass the parcel first, make a craft second, eat cake…etc)
- Check out your local paper or weather website for the weather report, checking parking is available, if at another venue – confirm venue, confirm insurance if you are having it at another venue, confirm with the cake maker that you are going to pick up the cake the day before or some cake makers deliver the cake/cupcakes to you – sometimes it’s great also having a party at a park..but always check the weather report the week prior
- It’s important to involve your child with preparing all the decorations and let him/her know how the day is going to run. Make it fun preparing for the party, also some great tips for making decorations on the web and great party sites to refer too. Again I love http://www.pinterest.com
- Allocate a friend, family member or someone else to take your photos on the day because you are going to be busy on the day you won’t have time to take some pics, we also take some before guests arrive.
- Make sure all the music is prepared/The party room – space is free from dangerous things and is kid safe, all cleaning products are put up high and make sure the front door is closed when all the guests have arrived, you don’t want the door left open because of safety and in particular if you have toddlers running around.
– Getting your Favour Bags done the night before is a great idea.
- Make sure you have matches, lighter ready for the cake – put somewhere safe, near the cake table
- Have your kids outfits ready the night before.
- Set out your party table with tablecloth, jars with ribbon, printable labels for the party buffet, decorate your party space, remove any potential dangerous things from the party space. ie electrical cords, TVs on cabinets – that little children can pull down, breakable house decorations, cleaning products are put up high etc
- Make sure you have easy accessibility for prams etc. A baby change area – the bathroom is stocked up with requirements, dangerous things are put away.
- Pets – any pets are put away some safe, make sure your party games are ready and set up.
- Have a pencil and pad ready to note down all what presents were given so you can send out thank you notes.
- Set up a main pretty cake table or dessert/candy buffet and have a separate table set up with paper plates, paper cups and napkins for the children to sit down at.
- Have all the prizes ready near where you are going to have the games.
- Place your sign out for the party with balloons or just balloons.
- Make sure a table or chairs is set up if any parents are going to stay at the event.
- Ask for help from a friend to help you out on the day it’s always helpful to have another set of hands. Also if you have younger children, ie toddler or baby make sure you allocate someone to look after their safety on the day, because you are going to be busy with running the party.
The Little Big Company Event Team, always have in their “tool box” 3M adhesive hooks, double sided tape, fiskars round cutter from spotlight for the cupcake toppers,blu-tak, scissors, sticky tape, wet wipes for sticky hands, cloths for any spills, a first aid kit with bandaids etc in it, glue gun and a multitude of other things, so a “party tool box” is always great to have stored near by. Do thank yous after the event, thank you for coming and thanks for the lovely present.
Wow! Amazing post-excellent styling/party tips!
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