Welcome to the Ultimate Party Planning Guide! It includes money and time-saving tricks. Also, there is a Free Party Planner Printable to help keep you organized as you prepare.
I host several parties each year; birthdays, baby showers, client parties, anniversary parties, you name it! So I wanted to share a
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Step 1: Party Planning Inspriation
The first step I always take is to head to Pinterest for inspiration, a theme, and food ideas.
My Party Planner helps me to brainstorm and stay on task with planning the party.
The Party Planner
The Party Planner includes space for:
- Brainstorming ideas
- Chosen Theme
- Date of Party
- Timeline – 6 weeks out to an hourly timeline for the day of the party
- Gifts/Game Prizes to purchase
- Food to make and when it needs to be made
- Groceries to buy
- Guests invited and
a ✔ if they have RSVP’d - Decorations to make
- Decorations that need to be purchased
FREE Printable Planner is available here!
Party Planning Guide: Choose Your Theme
When you’re planning a party, there are a lot of details to work out and a lot of options to sort through. Deciding the party theme and colors is an important next step.
Maybe it’s just me, but deciding the colors/theme along with the type of party it will be (baby shower, client party, birthday, etc.) helps me determine what my menu will look like.
Having the food match the color scheme in some sort of way is an awesome way to make the whole party flow and have a consistent theme.
For example, if the colors are rose gold and white, serving pink champagne would be super cute. Something to think about with any menu item is whether or not the guest of honor will be able to enjoy all elements of the menu. Are they expecting? Then no champagne! Do they have food allergies? Do some of your guests? Etc.
Needing the perfect gift for him? Check out 10 Unique Gifts for Him!
If you find some super cute decor ideas on Pinterest but it isn’t even remotely close to matching your theme, try to think of ways to transform that same idea so it will fit into your theme. The Party Planner Printable has a brainstorm section, so you can jot down all your possibilities and figure out what I have time to accomplish/what’s practical.
Party Planning Guide: Tips & Tricks
In this party planning guide, I wanted to share tips that will save you time and money. There will be general party planning tips as well, so you can throw the ultimate party without the headache!
It’s important to have your party planning favorites readily available so that if you have time to work on decorations quick your craft supplies are handy.
The way I do this is by having a supply caddy with all of my party planning essentials near my kitchen. (I basically live in our kitchen, making meals and snacks, as I am sure you do too!) This way whenever your kids are playing or napping, you can just grab your cute party caddy and get a few things accomplished.
So what should be in your handy-dandy caddy?
- Hot Glue Gun
- Favorite String (something that will match wall color or white, etc)
- Scissors
- Pen
- Pencil
- Single hole puncher
- Ruler
- Squewers
- Measuring tape for sewing
Party Planning Guide: Essentials
As far as plates, napkins, drinkware, and silverware go, there are a few ways to do things… Even though themed or colorful plates are nice to have, I suggest buying clear cups, plates, silver plastic silverware,
Reason being, then you can wash the clear plates and cups and reuse them and they are good to go for any party of any theme! I usually buy these white, square paper napkins here, simple, classic.
As far as silverware, you could go both ways. For example, I have two sets of silverware, so I don’t mind giving guests real silverware and just throwing it in the dishwasher when the party is over.
However, if you’re trying to save time, more than watching your party budget, I would suggest buying these silver plastic silverware sets. They look
Serveware
Buying plain white platters is a huge money saving tip. They are classic and will match any party theme. Also, they’re great at making your food stand out! If you choose to buy all themed plates for every occasion, you will end up spending quite a bit of money over time and have a lot of random plates left over. Trust me, lesson learned.
However, if you are looking for themed plates so you can do less decorating, Oriental Trading Co. is a great place to look! They have tons of party favors, themed items, napkins, games etc.
Another set of
Check for these at garages sales,
Party Planning Guide: Decorations
So this isn’t a time saver, but a money saver if you enjoy creating digitally. I make my own invitations for each party. A great design computer, Microsoft Surface Pro, can make creating your own invitations and thank-you cards pretty fun!
If you are not interested in making your own invitations, Etsy.com has a good
For printing invitations/thank you cards, I like to print them off at Walmart.com!
Paper Decor
Paper… such a simple thing that you can change into so many things! I decorate primarily with paper because it is inexpensive and you can make it look like anything with Cricuts and a good colored printer.
You can find my 21 Hacks for Hosting a Party with Paper here and see tons of tricks to beautifully decorating a party without spending a pretty penny.
Years ago, my parents bought me a Cricut and it is such a time saver! I made my wedding thank you cards with that bad boy and a million party decorations since then.
Party Planning Guide Tip: I always like to have white and black cardstock on hand for parties. The Cricut cutting pad is 12×12 (also comes in 12×24), so I always like to make sure I have 12×12. Find cardstock at Hobby Lobby when it is half off!
This machine is pretty mind-blowing. It allows you to take an image off the internet and make it a cut file with just a couple clicks. Viola! You have a cut out of what you found on the internet! Find a Cricut here.
Food Tags
Food tags are a cute way to inform your guests of what the menu items are.
Party Planning Guide Tip: This is great if you have guests with food allergies, to be able to label gluten-free, nut-free, etc.
Signs
For each party, I like to have a sign for favors (a gift for guests) and then also a welcome sign of some sort.
An easy way to do this is to make up an 8×10 printed sign and then put each sign in a frame. The majority of my style is rustic, so these signs sometimes match or are mismatched. It really doesn’t matter since I usually don’t have the signs in the same area or even the same room for the parties.
I love Hobby Lobby for a lot of reasons, but frames always being 50% off is one of those reasons. You can easily grab two frames you like there. They have a nice selection.
Another time-saving idea is to buy chalkboard items so that you can label your food items which can also double as your
Speaking of chalkboards… Did you know that you can use chalkboard paint on your Crock-Pot?! One of my favorite craft activities was painting my Crock-Pots with chalkboard paint. Now I can easily label what is in my Crock-Pot. So, guests know what they’re being served.
You can find my chalkboard paint here!
Party Planning Guide Tip: This next decoration is great for baby showers. My best friend threw me a baseball-themed baby shower a couple of years ago and bought these cute gift bags at Target. (See picture below)
She added red and blue tissue paper to them and spelled out the words: “Baby Shower” on them – They are so cute! So I saved them and now I can reuse them for my next baby shower.
The best part is, you can just switch out the colors of the tissue paper to match your theme! So neat, thanks Ab! 🙂
Food Stands
In my opinion, having a cake stand and a cupcake stand
Party Planning Guide Tip: Focus on what looks interesting visually. Set your decor and food items at different heights, add different colors and textures. For example, consider having different stands for your food.
Add 3-D decor to the table and around food…
Another way to layer decor without spending very much is helium balloons. Or hanging items from the ceiling. The sky’s the limit… get it?
Affordable Decor
The best decor are items you can find around your house that fit your theme! As I mentioned, I really enjoy vintage items, so most of my themes have a vintage flair. A lot of the normal decor I have around my house fit the theme in some way. Below you can see I reused my fall pumpkins for my daughter’s Cinderella-themed first birthday and a birdcage from our wedding decorations for birthday cards.
So look around, you never know what hidden treasures you’ll find!
Party Planning Guide: Entertainment
Every mom enjoys taking photos of their kids’ parties so they can look
I rarely buy a backdrop for a photo booth. Usually, I figure out some way to make one out of paper. Paper is another secret to keeping parties affordable!
However, I did “splurge” on this black and white striped backdrop (which is actually a tablecloth). So, I made the most of it by using it differently at two parties. Above you see it as a Kate Spade inspired Karaoke birthday party. Below you see it in my son’s Mr. ONEderful first birthday party theme.
I made the backdrop below with three different kinds of glitter ribbons and tied them on a curtain rod as a photo backdrop for my daughter’s first birthday. <3 So, I guess that’s proof that
DIY Photobooth Props
Several years ago, I made photo booth props for a baby shower and then have been adding to the collection ever since. For my latest party, you can see I had Vintage Aviation themed photo booth props, which was fun! Something new… You can see more of that little boy’s Vintage Aviation Party here!
Once you find some free printable photobooth props online, you can print them off and cut them out. Then, simply add a kabob skewer to the back of the prop with your hot glue gun. Done!
Activities
Having your guests interact with the guest of honor is fun. You can have them write down advice that the guest of honor can read later, give encouragement or say something funny. A chance to be creative!
This was my parents’ 35 wedding anniversary and my husband and I threw a surprise party for them. This was one of my first parties. Here they were playing the “Not So Newlywed Game”.
Funny or fun games are great, especially when not all of the guests know each other. Games,
Party Planning Guide: Menu
I’m a sucker for punny food labels. 🙂
Use your food as decor! This tip is both money and time saving!
Menu Timeline
Think of what foods you’d like to do and then consider about how long it will take you the day of or the day before to make those items.
For example, fruit has to be cut up the day
My children’s birthdays land two weeks apart so I’m planning two parties back to back. So, it is good to know how long I can freeze my cakes, etc. I like to have cakes frosted and completely ready the day before the party, so I am not scrambling the morning of with cake decorating.
Do you want to buy all of the food to save time, or do you want to make the food to save money?
I really like to do a mixture of both. I like to bake, so I like to make the cakes or cupcakes or chocolate covered pretzels, etc. However, if you don’t like baking, it’s easy to grab bakery cupcakes. If you like to cook, you can make up dips versus buying them!
The muffins pictured above are actually store-bought muffins that everyone really loved and thought I made myself – the best kind of purchase!! They are even Gluten & Dairy-Free Muffins.
My Party Planning Guide Must Haves
- Peaches & Prayer Party Planner
- Cricut – Find what I use here.
- Paper Cutter – You can find mine here.
- Computer
- Classic Serveware – Ideas here, here and cake stand, cupcake stand
- Classic plastic plates, cups, silverware, and napkins
- Beverage Tub – You can find mine here. Love it and so cheap!
- 3 – 8×10 Picture Frames
- Cardstock 8.5×11 and 12×12 – Black and White and a variety of colors
- Colored Printer – find mine here.
- Crock-Pot
- Photo Booth Props
- Invitations
- Your Caddy
- Food Tags Template
- Thank You Cards
You can see all my parties & more tips here!
Hopefully my Ultimate Party Planning Guide gave you some great ideas for saving time and money for your next party!
What are some of your party planning secrets? Party on! 🙂
What’s the perfect present for him? Find my list of 10 Unique Gifts for Him here!
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