Planning a Children’s Birthday Party

It takes a village to raise a child and it should not take a village to plan a birthday party. It can get a bit overwhelming to organize a party, given that you have a limited budget and you want to stretch your dollar as much as possible to have a wonderful day for your child. There are venues that take care of the party for you, but it can get pricy.

Here is a step by step guide of how to organize your child’s party:

1. Come up with a couple of dates (preferably weekends) for the party: Look at the calendar and look for holidays that could interfere with the party. A lot of parents take trips during the long weekends. Also remember, the party does not have to be on the same weekend as your child’s birthday week.
2. Once you have a couple of tentative dates down, now put pen and paper together and depending on the age of your child, get a sense of what they want for a party. That will give you a sense of the theme, what kind of cake, decorations and possibly the venue.
3. I always struggle with the venue. I complain and rightfully so, the venue’s for parties and events are sooooo expensive. If you have a huge house where you can host then you are all set, if not then make a couple of calls and do a compare of the prices, what you are getting. I would recommend calling farms or stores like Michaels to host.
4. Once you have a venue and date finalized, now send out the greeting cards. I would say steps 1 and 2 should happen atleast 2 -3 months away so as to give you enough time to plan.
5. Layout a to do list for buying decorations, food, cake.
6. As you get closer to the date about 1 month away, send the invites. Always give an RSVP date that is 2-3 weeks away from the party.
7. 2 weeks away start gathering the decorations and finalize the food and cake. Put the decorations in a box so as to keep everything in one place.
8.  Now wait for the RSVP’s.
9. Sit tight till the day. As the venue to get their earlier to decorate and lay the food.
10. Enjoy the day

Do you have any tips or tricks to organizing birthday parties?