After each party or photo shoot, I try to review what I’ve learned and can improve on next time. Some of these party lessons are purely practical and others are more attitudinal. I hope these will be helpful to you and I’d love to know your party lessons, too!
1 – Test New Ideas in Advance
In about a week and a half (yikes!) we’ll be hosting our Wizard of Oz party. I fell in love with this rainbow cake last year, because it reminds me of the movie changing from black and white to color … just like you cut into a plain white cake and get this wonderful rainbow surprise. However, I also knew the recipe had a lot of steps and I needed to be sure I could pull it off. Now my recipe is annotated and I know how much time to allot for this on the day before the party. It won’t look perfect, but I think that’s also in keeping with the movie and I’m fine with that.
2 – Improvise
I started putting together my incredible invitations from Loralee Lewis and thought, “Hmm. Wish I’d thought to order envelope wraps.” So I noodled, and Googled and cruised Pinterest, and found the answer in my scrapbooking paper scraps. Sometimes desperation breads creativity and leads you to think about what you have with new eyes.
3 – Give Yourself a Break
I’m a planner-aheader. This lets me take advantage of free shipping and sales as they happen. It also lets me spread out my party costs. But, sometimes it backfires. I ordered my Zazzle stamps for the Wizard of Oz party, and then rates increased. So off I ran to the Post Office for one cent stamps. (Hooray! Another errand to squeeze in!) Came home, started working on my envelopes and couldn’t find my specialty stamps. I turned all my party stash spots upside down. Couldn’t find them. For three days. Finally gave up, got over myself and emailed “save the dates,” planning to use plain old Forever stamps on the invitations. And then found my stamps. Sigh. But the invites are now in the mail and that is all that matters.
4 – Know Your Limits
I love a DIY craft. But with two parties in two weeks and an unexpected (though very welcome) weekend house guest and Girl Scout cookie booth sales, I knew I couldn’t do it all. “Uncle!” I didn’t have time and didn’t want to teach myself how to make tulle poms or felt barrettes. So call in the team! It was worth every penny to find experts — Debra from TiTi’s TuTus and Stephanie of Little Boo Creations — to help out with these last projects.
5 – Find Ways to Involve Your Children
Meg and Grace are crafty and they love to help. Sometimes, it’s easier to complete a project — especially one that needs to look “perfect” for a photo — without their help. But oh how I love that they want to hang out with me and that we share the same interests! So to heck with perfection. I’ve figured out ways to involve them that really engage them in their party and make them feel so proud of their contribution.
- The girls can do first coats of paint and I can neaten things up after they go to bed.
- They can be “list writer” before we shop and “list reader” when we shop. (The girls really love having job titles.)
- They can fetch ingredients from the fridge and stir.
Now, of course they can’t play with the hot glue gun and so some projects they just have to watch. But they love that, too, because they are getting excited about the event.
The best moment of my business so far was the day Meg said, “Mommy, I love your party business. We get to do crafts and have play dates with our friends.” It is my daily prayer that this business will be a blessing to my family, and in moments like that, I know I have succeeded.
Love this post! I hope to one day get my daughter involved in crafts too. Thanks for sharing!
Great way to show the “real” side of party-planning! The imperfections are what make it perfectly wonderful, actually! 🙂
This was so nice to read and everyday I hope that I am doing the right thing trying to juggle my business and two babes under 3.5 all while smiling and somehow getting it done.
Thank you, Jennifer, for sharing your experience. Being a professional planner myself I could do nothing but nod, agree and admire your choices. Even when planning for others, sometimes you just have to improvise, you get to think that you could have done something better and you have to lean on others to make everything work out its best.
Kudo’s to you for this post!
Great article! I love the ideas on involving your kids. I’m always trying to think of ways to involve my 4 year old. Yesterday she was just excited to get out her scissors open the packages that we had just bought. I also have her hunt for certain colors of items in the store, to see if they will work for our party theme. She loves to be involved!
Such a great post! I love that you point out that everything doesn’t always go perfectly and fun ways to involve the kids. My litlle boys love to help me with my party stuff. 🙂
Jennifer, thanks so much for this post. It’s all that and so much more. Last year when I threw my daughter the picnic party, I wanted to make layered jello with whip cream in between the layers ~ have seen it done, but wasn’t sure how to do it. So I practiced & practiced. I finally got it right & the kids and adults loved the little goodies. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in everything. I do love when my kids tell me they love the party and it was exactly what they had dreamed about ~ it makes it all worth it!! Have a great day!!
love all of your tips … especially getting your kids involved:) So fun!!!
Jennifer, this is all sooo true!! Thanks for bringing light to the fact that not everything always goes perfectly, but it’s the thought that really counts!
What a marvelous thing to share. I especially loved Meg and Grace’s reactions .
Mom
Hi Jennifer~ So, so true! Seems like there is always something that causes a glitch. Thanks for sharing:)
Great post and so true! Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you Jennifer for showing the other side of party planning. There is always a glitch or two behind a party and yet the end product is an amazing event that no one ever had knowledge of the little lessons learned. Thank you for sharing!
What a great post, Jennifer! I think the whole lead up and all the little glitches that you have to think outside the box to solve are just as fun as the party itself…especially when you involve kids in the process! The trick is to not get too bothered when things don’t pan out the way you pictured. Easier said than done sometimes!!! Thanks for sharing.
Just excellent! I hear from so many nervous first-time party planners and I know your insights will help them out. Just hearing somebody else say “know your limits” takes SO much pressure off, I think. Awesome post! : )
I kind of wantto be yourBFF. So true on your thoughts…I always remember, in the end, it is a party not a funeral– the point is to have fun!!
such a great post Jennifer! i absolutely couldnt agree more. ive also learned that its so important to test and do mock ups to make sure everything is how you want it. for some reason ive noticed ideas looking super great in my head but then needing tweaking when it put it into practice. xo!