Apr.
26
2013
This party is just trash!

Trash party by Sophie's World

At the risk of “trashing” my reputation as a party planner, I need to share one of my favorite parties. I will never, until my dying day, forget the conversation I had with my client as we discussed her son’s upcoming festivities. It went something like this…

Me: So tell me, what is your son into?
Client: (In a slightly mortified whisper) My son is into garbage…
Me: You mean the band?
Client: (Pause followed by a small cough) No… I mean the substance. He loves trash. All sorts of trash. He likes recycling things, composting food scraps, sorting paper from plastic… And he’s obsessed with garbage trucks…
Me: Oh… what fun! We can invite people to come over to your house and “get trashed!”
(The silence on the other end of the phone told me she didn’t quite grasp my sense of humor.)

In any event, the party we planned was a blast! The kids had an amazing time! I think their favorite game was the Oscar the Grouch game, where kids actually had the chance to hang out in a metal garbage can, batting away wads of newspaper.

Here’s a breakdown of what we did.

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Apr.
23
2013
What's up with the 'stache?

Stache header

Is it just me, or have fake mustaches taken over the world? I’ve been using fake mustaches at parties for years; I love the fuzzy, sticky-backed little things. I’ve had mustache bars at spy-themed parties forever! And seriously, who could ever resist the mustache-on-a-stick prop that comes with most photobooths?

How to

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Apr.
16
2013
Thinking outside the (seating) card

If you are doing a big event, you are going to need to seat people. But why settle for an ordinary tent card, when you can have something fabulous and fun? If it’s possible why not match your seating cards to your theme? Here’s a couple suggestions for you to ponder -- hopefully they will get your creative juices flowing...!

Table card football

Football theme
This was super cute, and we had a fun time doing it. My team and I made a miniature football field on which we hung little squares of astroturf. Each name card was attached to the astroturf and had the image of a team football helmet. The football helmet corresponded to their table, as each table bore the insignia of a different team.

Table card baseball

Baseball
This was a fun idea: the Bar Mitzvah boy was a huge baseball fan, and so, in the style of the theme above, each table had a different team pennant. To seat the guests we created a ticket kiosk, where each person received their own ticket. The thing I liked best about the tickets was that each one bore the image of the Bar Mitzvah boy in different baseball pose, since he was actually a serious player.

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Apr.
11
2013
An amazing race through Golden Gate Park!

Amazing Race header

Recently I was contacted by the mom of 16-year-old twins. She wanted to do something special for her girls, who were really into the show “The Amazing Race.” For those of you unfamiliar with the show, 11 teams (consisting of two people each) are given clues to destinations around the world. At each destination they are given a challenge. The teams literally cross the world in their quest to be the first team to reach the final destination. When discussing our options, the mom and I decided that we wanted to keep the event contained, and also keep the girls out of cars (even though some of them did have licenses). We came up with Golden Gate Park as our “world” -- and although we would have liked to have done 16 challenges (one for each year), we limited ourselves to a 3-hour race and 13 challenges.

The basic premise of the race/party was to break the girls into five teams and then send them out into the park via pedi-cabs (those four-seater bikes that look like little surreys). They would be given various clues that would lead them through the park and through a series of challenges, culminating at the Golden Gate Bandstand where they would have to perform.

To make the race work smoothly I brought along four of my team members. Each would take a location for their own, then leapfrog to another destination once they were done. In this manner we were able to get to the locations, set up the challenges, and man the station when the girls arrived. There were some true life “Amazing Race moments,” like the team that lost their bag of supplies, the team that got lost, and the surly boat dock manager, all of which only added to the fun of the adventure, and leveled the playing field for everyone.

Here’s a breakdown of how the race ran...

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Apr.
9
2013
Is someone upstairs trying to tell me something...?

Someone upstairs header

Every now and then I get a gut instinct that hits with such intensity that it spills into every moment of my day. I just had one of those days.

I should start by explaining that although I do over 250 events every year, I am not the right party planner for everyone. I know this, I’ve always known this, and over the years I’ve finally begun to voice this with my clients. Case in point a new Bat Mitzvah client whom I met with a few days ago. They were a lovely family, but I had this weird feeling that I wasn’t quite right for them. I’m one of those kid-centric planners that’s more about finding fun, cool stuff that will engage the kids, than I am about micromanaged budgets. Numbers are not my thing. Writing proposals is an agonizing ordeal. I love creating the events... I don’t like pricing them out!

The mom wanted to start looking at venues, and although we hadn’t signed any contracts yet, I could tell she was nervous about losing one of the spaces she was interested in, so I made an exception. Again, in the back of my head something was telling me I wasn’t right for this person...

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