Sounds like a plan

Having a party plan is an important step to ensuring your party runs smoothly. Even a rough plan is better than nothing.

Think about  what guests will do on arrival, will someone great them at the door, are there arrows, signage or balloons directing them where you want to go?

How long will it take to play each game or to do each activity?  Work out if you have enough entertainment/games. Note: it's always good to have a few extra things ready in cases you need something extra. What's the fall back plan if the weather or some other issue means you need to alter your plans?

What do you do if people bring gifts? Do you have a place to out them, will you open them during the party or after?

If you are serving food you need to know when you need to start heating things up or when to clear a place for people to sit. Make sure you have someone to help you need it too.

Are there speeches, or happy birthday messages to give?  Work out when and who will give these? Do they have any necessary equipment? Who's in charge?

What happens at the end of the party, are there party bags to give out, who will see guests leave and thank them for coming?

Thinking through some of these things before the event will help you plan, prepare and enjoy!

Music - Creating the party atmosphere

I was at a BBQ yesterday with friends.  I always enjoy being at these peoples house.  There's always a good vibe.  I was thinking about it afterwards and realised there's always music.  When I'm coming down the stairs to the party it feels like entering a party.  I noticed that during the BBQ the music kept tempo with the mood of the party...or was it the other way around?

I think well chosen music goes a long way to set the right atmosphere for any event. When I was studying video editing we used to grab 'atmos' to fill in background noise.  'Atmos' was the seemingly dead, soundless gaps between spoken sections of video.  You would drop these little sound bites into the background of something recorded in a studio and it suddenly came to life.  No longer was the studio voice that dull, stale voice that sounds fake and staged.  Instead dropping this little bit of 'atmos' in gave it depth, a sort of invisible richness.  It's the same with music at events and due thought should go into what is played and how loud.  Sometimes the best music is just a quiet suggestion in the background, other times you need boost up the volume and 'get the party going'.

Here are a few tips to help you plan your music:

Chosing the music:

• Is there a theme to your event that you should match the music to
• What is the age of the people attending event the party -  what music tastes do they have
• Do people need to talk at different times during the event where the music needs to be quieter
• Will people be dancing - if so, do you want fast, active music or slow dancing music
• Consider the appropriateness of the words in songs.  I was shocked listening to a bunch of young kids singing the most inappropriate words only to realise these were songs we played all the time.  It was only when they sang the words that I actually realised what I was playing! Ooops!
• Ensure you have enough music and some back up so you don't end up playing repeats

Once you've chosen your music, you need to prepare your playlists:

• However you are taking your music to your event, ensure you have the right equipment at the venue to play it and that you know how to use it.
• Creating several play lists for the different 'vides' of your event saves you having to put someone on DJ duty as there is less switching around.
• If you are burning your music to a CD you may want to burn different playlists to different CD's so you can switch easily.  The sames goes for loading music to USB sticks, you may want different styles of music on different USB sticks
• iPods, iPads and smart phones are all really handy these days to transport music on
• iTunes allow you to create playlists and organise your songs really easily.  If you don't know how to do this, check out the tutorial on the apple website.  There are also lots of video tutorials on YouTube if you prefer

For more party planning tips visit the My Little Party Planner website

Magic Garden Party Venue

Manly is blessed with lots of great venues for hire. Manly Scout Hall is just one. Nestled in Ivanhoe Park Botanic Gardens between Sydney Road and Raglan Street it's a great space. The Sout Hall boasts a large wooden hall perfect for disco dancing and plenty of room for indoor games.

The back door leads out to ... more info & photos

more info & photos

Hi everyone!

I look forward to sharing party theme ideas, cake ideas and anything party realted with you.   It shouldn't matter where you live in the world or how old you are, I hope you'll find something helpful or inspiring in these posts.

Be in touch soon.

My little party planner