An Event Planner’s Pregame

Posted on September 14th, 2015

There’s a place in the world for casual parties.  You create a Facebook event, invite 500 friends, and cram as many girls in body con dresses and guys in gingham shirts into your apartment as possible between the hours of 10pm and 2am.  Ambiance is created through the Hip Hop Monsters Spotify playlist and 80% of the lights off; the menu consists of beer, vodka, mixers, and a few bags of Tostitos Scoops.

We’ve all been there.  But I don’t necessarily want to go back.

I discovered my junior year of college that what I really love is long wine-fueled evenings with my friends.  In Philadelphia, this often meant dinner at an Italian BYO restaurant downtown, but sometimes it meant dinner parties thrown together in my dorm room kitchen.  I served a lot of chili, homemade applesauce, and cookies.  Simple, but well-received.  Spoils from a low-key dorm room Super Bowl party pictured below:

Since then, I’ve refined my hostessing craft, but I recognize that the decision to host a gathering takes a lot of effort.  I’m sure you can use Pinterest or your preferred social platform for inspiration on the event itself, and I’m not so unusually creative that I would be qualified to give you much in the way of design instruction.  Where I flourish is in getting you from that moment where you decide to have a party to the minute the guests are walking through the door.  I’m going to assume you’re not looking to throw a black tie gala, so for purposes of this post we’ll use the event I hosted over the weekend– a brunch to kickoff football season– as an illustrative example.

Step One: the Google Doc
 
My job is literally data and information.  If I could distill my life into a spreadsheet, I probably would.  BUT I promise this is actually a good tactic for party planning, too.  You’ll need three tabs:

1. Guest list, with status of who has been invited and what their RSVP is
2. Food and drink plan– links to recipes, a grocery list, etc.
3. Timeline– more on this below, but it’s where you’ll track exactly when you need to do every single task that will get your party off the ground

Step Two: the Invitation
 
To set the tone, send your guests actual invitations of some kind.  Despite my intense love of snail mail, I tend to stick with email for these kinds of events– I don’t want my guests to think we’re being too formal.  Paperless Post offers a huge array of designs, including special collections from some of my favorite brands (J. Crew, Kate Spade, Sugar Paper, Serena and Lily… even Disney!).  The interface is incredibly easy to navigate, so you can customize a few options before settling on a winner.  We opted for this for our football party:

Just sub in “Helen & Ian” for “Tami & Eric,” and “Seattle” for “Dillon,” and you get the idea.  Screenshot your creation, insert it into an email, BCC your guests, and you’re set!

Step Three: the Menu

There are few things to keep in mind, but if your goal is stress-free success, one factor reigns supreme: plan a menu with as many things you can prepare ahead of time as possible.  Casseroles you can prepare the night before and pop in the oven an hour before guests arrive, low-maintenance soups or meatballs that can sit on the stove, icebox cakes that only taste more delicious as you let them sit in the fridge… These are my power alley.

This is also not the time to make a fussy favorite, or to try that new chicken recipe from Southern Living.  Stick to what you know.  Not only will you know how to prepare it and how long it takes, but you’ll know your guests will be getting something that tastes good, too!  I make food I want to eat, but not just for selfish reasons.  I enjoy balanced meals– a balance of indulgence and health,  and a variety of dishes and food groups.  Give the people options!  You’ll need to plan your oven space carefully– we’re really lucky that we have two ovens in our apartment now, but I’ve planned many meals with the criteria of “must cook at 375 degrees”

Pretty food with bright colors a plus!

Step Four: the Schedule

About a week before the party, it’s time to set your schedule.  Give yourself plenty of time, and don’t leave it all until the day of.  When I’m setting my schedule, I usually forget to get one thing ready: me!  I’ve tried to get better about this, but there have been quite a few times when my guests have showed up to a perfectly tidy apartment with the food just cooling on the stove yet I’m standing in the kitchen sweating in my work clothes with crazy hair.  Minus a few revisions, my schedule for this week looked like this:

I write it all out, and check things off as I go.  Never fails!  And if it did, I would have built in plenty of cushion time to fix it

One more quick note on getting yourself ready: wear something loose, comfortable, and breathable.  Party guests look perfect in white jeans and silk tops… hostesses do better with cotton shifts.

Step Five: the Day Before

Cleaning.  Supplies.  Flowers are a complete must-have, and we’re lucky that we live near a famous market here in Seattle– I stopped by to pick up a group of dahlias on Saturday afternoon that looked beautiful scattered around the apartment.

Want to get your flowers to last longer?  Add a splash of vodka and a dash of sugar to your water!  Replace the water mixture and trim the stems often.

Step Six: In the Moment Management

The food is ready.  Your playlist is queued up.  The guests will be there any minute!  Light some candles for a finishing touch that will make your guests feel welcome the second they come through the door.  Obviously, don’t introduce competing smells, but I usually have one scented one going in the living room, tapers on the dining room table, and a scented one going in the bathroom to, you know… mellow it out in there?

During the party you’ll have your hands full, but there are two things that you really don’t want to let slip through the cracks.  Nothing feels so inhospitable as a cold house, but you don’t want your guests to wonder if they’re attending a hot yoga class.  Remind yourself to check up on the room’s temperature from time to time.  Your second periodic touchpoint should be the powder room… for obvious reasons!

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If this sounds like a lot of work to you, that’s 100% okay.  Organize a group to meet for dinner and drinks, and save yourself the headache (and money!).  But if the idea of people creating warm memories in your home is appealing to you, go for it!  A little upfront planning and attention to logistics goes a long way.

And if all else fails…  Wine.