Making it Go with a Swing!
Parties should ‘go with a swing’. This means that there’s a buzz
about the place and everyone is engaged in the party. That
doesn’t mean organising a party out of existence! You might want
to organise a party that is completely freewheeling and
unstructured. For many occasions this will be fine and probably
what your guests want. However, for some special occasions it
may be that you want to include various elements into the
function. These may include:
- An icebreaker, for people to get to know each other. A
good one is to give everyone a famous name pinned on their
back and guests have to find their partner – Ginger Rogers
and Fred Astaire, for example.
 Games. You need to think carefully if your guests are
the kind of people who like games and, if so, what sort. For
some ideas, go to
www.bluepineapple.com/partygames and
www.eventwise.co.uk. You need to be sure that people will
prefer having games organised for them rather than doing
their own thing before you start organising them. They can
be a lot of fun but be careful.- Speeches. You may well have a very good reason for
wanting one or two speeches. You may want to formally thank
your guests for coming, for example. If it’s an anniversary,
you may want to say something about your partner as you may
if it’s your partner’s birthday. Speeches are ideally made
just after people have finished eating, but make sure that
everyone has something with which to drink a toast. If you
want some ideas visit
the following websites:
http://www.presentationhelper.co.uk/speeches.htm or you
can buy one at
http://www.speech-writers.com.
http://speeches.com/ will
even generate a speech for you.
- Presents. You may be organising your party for someone
else – it could even be a surprise party. If that’s the
case, it may well be that you wish to ask them to bring a
present for the person/people for whom you are organising
it. On the other hand, you may want to make a point of
telling people not to bring a present. This may be
particularly appropriate if you are organising a party for
your own Anniversary, say, and you don’t want people to feel
they have to bring a gift for you. You may have seen this
before, but saying, ‘No presents, please, just your
presence’, is a nice way to put it.
If you want some present ideas from Personalised Champagne
to Experience Days visit the
Laterlife Department Store or our
Laterlife
Anniversary Gifts and
Laterlife Birthdays pages.
If you want any or all of these elements or some form of
entertainment, which is covered below, you need to think about
when you will have them and for how long they should last. You
need a good balance to the party so that no one element
dominates.
Entertainment
The basic question is whether to have entertainment at all. Many
celebrations are a great success without it and people are quite
happy just to chat. However, if you wish to have some
entertainment you could consider the following:
- Disco
- Karaoke
- Jazz band
- 'Pop' band
- Table magician
- Barn dance
- Casino
Any of these can work well but, as with so much concerning
the organisation of a celebration, you must consider your guests
first. What are they likely to want? Only after you have
answered that question can you consider what sort of
entertainment to organise.
Extras
There are a whole host of extras that might help your
celebration go with a swing. You might want to decorate the
venue to make it look more festive, you might like party poppers
or you might feel that candles will give it more atmosphere.
Have a look at
www.partybox.co.uk or
www.partydelights.co.uk to get some ideas. You can order
your extras from them, too, if you wish.
Fireworks always add that something extra. A short display
after people have eaten always goes down well. Visit our Things
to do and Venues page (link) again to find a company that will
do fireworks for you.
The other thing that can really add to the atmosphere if you
have some trees in the garden, are a couple of Halogen
spotlights pointing up into the trees. You can get them at
around £20 each. Of course you need a reel outdoor extension
cable too. There is a great selection of contemporary lighting
for gardens to be found these days. This sort of thing
interspersed with some insect repellent candles on stakes
(available from most good DIY stores these days), creates a
really great atmosphere.
Theme
If you think that having a theme will enhance things, you can
decorate your venue appropriately. It also means fancy dress, of
course, so don’t forget to tell your guests the theme on the
invitation.
Again, think about your guests before you do this. Not everyone
likes fancy dress, so if you think that a number of your guests
would be uncomfortable with it, then perhaps you should steer
clear of it. On the other hand, it’s great fun! Choose a theme,
if you have one, that’s reasonably simple to dress up to. For
example, ‘What You Were Wearing When the Ship Went Down’ gives
people plenty of scope. People enjoy dressing up as they were in
the 60s or how about ‘Kings and Queens’? The latter gives scope
for the obvious but also Elvis (King of Rock and Roll), Freddy
Mercury (Queen), Queen Bees, Kingfishers, Lions (King of the
jungle) and so on.
If the party is for someone (it might be a special birthday
party or a retirement party) you could choose a theme that
reflects one of their hobbies or interests. So if they're a
football fan, make that the theme and do the decorations in the
colours of their favourite team.
You might get some other ideas from one of the web sites that sells
fancy dress costumes.
www.fancydress.com or
www.partydomain.co.uk
are good ones.
For further information on organising that special party, click on the links below:
Guide to Organising that Special Party
Venue, Guests and Invitations
Food and Drink
Something Completely Different
This month why not visit our
New Retirement Courses site
|
