Event planning 101

cleanomic

Jan 9, 20173 min read

Congratulations momxdad, your baby is turning one! Don’t lose your mind throwing the perfect first birthday party, just pick a theme and keep it simple.

Here are some approaches we love :

1. Who

First thing first we roughly made a list of people we wanted to invite. We made a count of 3-4 pax per family. We really count them one by one because some of our friends have toddlers who aren’t share food with the parent anymore, and also count their baby sitter or assistant. If it is possible, use free downloadable template for “save the date” card with rsvp and blast it out to the guests once you settle with the when below.

2. When

Choose a several dates (not necessarily have to be the exact birthday date) and time to hold the party. This may affect the choices of venue. My trick, I always choose the time after lunch but before early dinner. Why? Treating people for lunch or dinner might cost you more than treating them munchies. Ta da, yes or yes? So, wisely choose the time where your guest already had their lunch but still have room for snack or dessert but not near dinner time where they are hungry.

3. Where

Choosing a venue might be tiring, but if your house can accommodate a party, let’s then do it in a house. Or if not, try to explore some coffee or tea places instead a fancy restaurant and public park instead of indoor playground.

4. Theme

If you are a pinterest person, you might want a themed birthday party. So, decide one! On our first daughter birthday we chose picnic party as picnic food was considered not too heavy. And for our second daughter birthday we decided to have the same ‘not-to-heavy’ meal concept which was Alice in Onederland, tea party. We really like that Onederland thing, instead of wonderland, you know one for the first birthday? Hahaha..

5. Menu

Following the number 2 & 3 rules, when listing the meal plan, choose a light bite but filling enough menu like sandwiches, toast bread, French toast or noodles. Plus, a dessert table which consist of all the sweet goodness like cupcakes, candies, cinnamon rolls etc. It’s a must!

6. Get workin’

It’s easier to hire an event planner or decorator to do all of these. However, if you’re on a tight budget we can always do all the DIY things for the decorations. There are many (so many) online shop and blog that will help you with it. Roam through your house for any unused old goods that can be look dazzling for your decorations. One tip that would help is to choose a venue that already has good decoration so you dont need much work on this department. Try google instagramable venue/cafe/restaurant in ____ and see for yourself.

7. Options

Set up a playground with rental toys. It is compulsory for keeping the kids happy and busy, after all this is their party not yours, and the perk is you dont have to create a schedule which is most likely never works if you deal with kids. So let’s just entertain the little guests with food, toys, happy birthday song, applause, blow candle and food again, there might be diaper changing, cranky time and napping in between. But overall, happy? Absolutely!

We will share you this first birthday party idea we hosted with budget around 5-6 million and more or less 75 guests.