Party Planning 101: Your Personal Party Checklist

Organizing a party can be overwhelming. Let us give you a hand.

Whether you’re having a small get together to watch a sporting event, a dinner party with friends and family, or a huge party at a banquet hall, you’re going to need to be organized. If you’re planning it all on your own, then the chances of you forgetting something are high.

That’s why you need a personal party checklist. In this post, we’re going to help with your party planning. We’ll tell you what you need to do and get to make sure that your party is one to remember. Let’s get started.

Party Planning 101: Your Personal Checklist

Different kinds of parties are going to require different things. Instead of focusing our attention on specifics, we’re going to use a broad scope to make sure that your party goes off without a hitch. Here’s what you need to do. 

Pick a Theme & Date

First thing’s first, what’s the party for anyway? If you’re planning this far in advance, there must be a special reason for it. Figure out what you’re celebrating and what your theme might be, then choose a date.

Obviously, weekends are preferable because most folks won’t have to work, but you know your guests better than we do, so just choose a time that’ll work for everyone.

Make an Invite List & Send Invitations

The next thing you’ll want to do is formulate an invite list. How big is your venue? Shoot for a number that’ll be comfortable for everyone and try not to leave anyone important out. Not everyone will be able to come, so have an ideal number of guests in mind and invite a few more than that.

Then, send out your invitations. We’re suckers for custom invites and there are some really great free invitation templates from Adobe Spark that you should definitely check out. The beauty of these ones is that you can either get them printed and send them out or just send them to your guests via email.

Plan a Menu & Enlist Helpers

Once you’ve got some RSVP’s, you should start planning a menu. Even if it’s not a dinner party, you should have some snacks ready to go for when people get a little peckish. You can enlist some close friends to give you a hand prepping the meal.

If you’re confident in your invitees, you could even make the party a potluck, that way you know you’ll have enough food and it’ll be less work for you.

Make a Playlist (& Take Suggestions)

To really make your party pop off, you’ve got to have good tunes. Start making your Spotify or Apple Music playlist early on and make sure that you’ve got enough songs on it to fill the whole night. You don’t want any repeat songs.

The best thing to do to make everyone happy will be to take song requests. People love hearing “their” song and it’ll make filling your playlist a bit easier. You can always ignore the bad suggestions and tell the person that their song is coming later on.

Prep Your Venue

Lastly, on the night before or day of the party, you’ve got to prep your venue. If it’s a dinner party, get some extra seating and a bigger table to fit everyone. Open up your living space by moving furniture around to accommodate the extra people. Oh, and get the booze.

If you’re holding your party in a venue other than your home, head to space a few hours beforehand with some friends to decorate, set up seating arrangements, lighting, and sound. After this, you’ll be ready to party.

Party Time

Now that you’ve gone through the checklist and covered everything, it’s time to let loose and enjoy your own party. Getting all of the party planning work out of the way ahead of time is a good idea.

When the drinking starts, you’ll have your sober self to thank for all of the preparation. Don’t forget to save the cleanup for tomorrow!