Setting The Party Stage

Set up the front walk way of your party event location with a red carpet. Do this by buying inexpensive red craft paper in rolls.  This will help you create the "red carpet" for an awesome kid’s party.

Every awards event has a red carpet photo op including paparazzi.  You can hire a  photographer or play the part of the paparazzi yourself.  As kids arrive at the party make sure they walk the red carpet.  If you hire a professional photographer make sure the teens shot for the country music star interview and photo experience.

This country music bash doesn't end with the red carpet.  Tweens and teens will need the whole country music award atmosphere. Party decorations must include glitter stars, balloons, fan banners and a glitzy food table with floral sheeting.  Add a country music band or DJ emcee with country music karaoke and you have the makings of a fine country music hall.  Take it to the next level by renting a dance floor. A the band plays or even during karaoke the kids will want to dance.  So, checking into renting dance flooring.

Award Them With A Country Feast

This party is more about dressing up and walking the red carpet. A fun night partying requires a fair amount of fuel.  Grab and run is the food of choice -  chips and dips, granola bars, sodas and bottled water.  To add a little WOW factor to the party get a country music theme cake and it the focal point of the food table.

Since the food and beverages are simple and relatively inexpensive, you'll have more money and time to invest in the party decorations. Be sure to make this party just as glitzy and great as the awards show.

And The Winner IS

All who attend this party! Give every person who attends an award – their own party favor or favors.  Create a goody bag for each tween or teen with an inexpensive cowboy hat, sunglasses and tiny chocolate cowboy boots.  To really make it memorable have some party glasses engraved with the date ad theme of the party.

With a little planning your tweens/teens next party will be a winner!

This party theme planning idea was brought to you by www.weddingandpartynetwork.com.

You are not alone. Many times, Dads feel left out when it comes to planning kids parties. What they don't realize is moms are tired of planning every party for their child. This year try reversing the roles. Dads let the moms sit back and watch as you do it all.

Dads don't panic you can plan it. Yes you can.  For dads looking for children's party ideas, I've got four easy steps to building a great party.  Use the following steps as the building blocks in constructing a great kids  party.

STEP 1 – Party Theme

Start with a theme (a concept for the party – pirates, star wars etc.) which help focus the other basics steps and guide us in planning the party.  For our example, the party will have a construction theme.

A construction party consists of the parents helping the party attendees to build an item.  You can choose to build any number of things.  For children ages 3-5, build a truck or a car with construction paper. Using pre-cut paper trucks and cars have the children color and draw in wheels or special features. You can cut cars and trucks from your old car magazines and let the kids glue them to old milk cartons as a way to build their own car.  For kids 6-10, build bird houses out of Popsicle sticks. All you need are popsicle sticks, glue and some craft paint.  You can buy bulk popsicle sticks at most craft stores. These are just a couple of theme suggestions. When choosing a theme draw from your own and your child's interest.

STEP 2 – Party Invitations

Invitations should include a minimum of four things: Who, What, Where, When.

Begin by setting the date and the place. Once you've got that you can decide about whom to invite. Most experts say for children 3-5 invite their age plus 1. So, if your child is 3 invite four, 4 invite 5, 5 invite 6.  With children 6 and over you can use the rules given or invite the amount of kids you feel comfortable entertaining.

Invitations should be personally delivered or mailed at least 2 weeks prior to the event.  I also suggest picking an invitation that displays the theme. For our example it needs to be something that represents a construction theme.  Hanny Manny invitations would be a good example of a construction theme or even ones that have Tonka Toy backhoes or dirt movers on them. You should be able to find kids theme invitations at party or stationary supply stores.

STEP 3 Party Decorations:

When choosing decorations work from your theme. You'll notice that when you were choosing your invitations the party store carried theme decoration as well. You will find that items like napkins, posters, plates, cups and other theme party decorations will compliment the Hanny Manny or Bob the Builder invitations you have already selected.  If you can't find character or decorations based on your theme, use colorful streamers or balloons to dress up your party area. Although not necessarily a decoration, party favors are a must.  Now is the time you will want to pick up the party favors. The best kids party favor is a small gift bag containing candy, toys or fun items for each child.

Step 4 Party Food:

A little food goes a long way with kids since most kids 3 to 10 years old would rather play than eat. I recommend with younger kids in this age group you serve cake and ice cream only.  But the cake should be specially designed around the theme. As for drinks, I suggest bottle of soda and water or juice boxes.  Be sure to contact your bakery one week ahead, so they can create your party theme cake.

So there you have it dads. A blueprint for building the perfect kids party. Go out and build one today!

These tips for planning a kids party were brought to you by the wonderful local party vendors in the United States and Canada.

Halloween theme parties are one of my favorites. When throwing a Halloween party, you’ll need to invest in few scary surprises for your party guest.

Tip #1 – DRY ICE

The most important surprise begin with dry ice.  It creates the ultimate spooky party feeling. You can use it in your punch and with your decorations. Not sure about dry ice but still want the creepy affect of an eerie fog rolling in? Rent a fog machine.

Tip #2 – Get Into Character

Create the ultimate Halloween party atmosphere by hiring some scary characters to mingle with the crowd. There performers can liven up the party with ghoulish activities and spooky skits.  Be part of the fun by renting a character costume for yourself or make it a Halloween costume party. Transform your party area into a Halloween mecca. Decorate with fake spider webs, mini caskets to hold the food, orange and black streamers and black candles placed in a fake skull. Cardboard cut out tombstones for your outdoors and well as indoors.

Tip #3 – Ghoulish Food Equals Good Time

Once you’ve got your dry ice punch, other food and drink ideas are simple.  Serve a blood drink for Vampires (7up™ or Sprite™ colored with red food coloring). Serve your ghoulish dip served in carved pumpkin. (Ghoulish dip can be made from anything but dips with chunks of pimentos, mushrooms, etc. give a creepier effect.) Don't forget the spooky sweets.  If you’re not good at making creepy cakes and spooky cookies have your bakery make them for you. Serve super spicy bat wings. Okay, you can’t really buy spicy bat wings but you can chicken wings and call them bat wings.

Tip #4 – Treat Them To Entertainment

Although entertainment will vary by age, a Halloween party lends itself to many options. A unique kids entertainment ideas is pumpkin bowling.  All you need for this low-cost form of entertainment is some empty water bottles and a few pumpkins.  Everyone loves to bowl, but teens and adults might prefer a more refined type of entertainment.  Try a murder mystery game.  Halloween entertainment options are endless.

These are basic tips you can use for any type of Halloween party. These same principles for a kids Halloween party or for adult parties.  Just remember with the help of these tips, your local bakery, and a  party supply store, you can throw a wickedly fun Halloween party!

As always Wedding and Party Network, is a great place for ideas when planning your party.

]]> http://www.weddingandpartynetwork.com/blog/uncategorized/halloween-party-4-spooky-tip/feed/ 0 http://www.weddingandpartynetwork.com/blog/party-ideas-tips/party-idea-charity-party/ http://www.weddingandpartynetwork.com/blog/party-ideas-tips/party-idea-charity-party/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:00:25 +0000 Leigh Morrisett http://www.weddingandpartynetwork.com/blog/?p=607 Sometimes you want to throw a party, but you also want to do something to help out a good cause. So by all means do both!. Throw a Charity Party! It will be a fun event for friends and a big…

Let's start off with a little entertainment that doesn't take a lot of work to get planned. Children usually have a large imagination and just about anything will get their attention. The number one thing to add festivity to the air of a birthday party is music. Play kid-friendly songs, or have a musical DVD playing on a TV in the main party room. Besides the music , children's party activities always make a party a lot more fun for every child.

Here's a simple idea that doesn't cost much to do. You could set up a game room inside your home, or even outdoors. This game room could be arranged with a variety of homemade games that cost very little to do. You could then provide each child that completed or won the game with a "prize". This could be anything from candy bars to glow sticks, whatever you think would be fun for any child. A couple of homemade games you could set up are soda bottle bowling, or even mining for jewels. Sounds fun!

Need bigger entertainment ideas? One major hit at most children's parties is to book an entertainer. This could be a standard clown or magician. To change things up a bit, you could even book "character entertainers" who come as popular TV, movie, or story book characters. But before making your decision to hire an entertainer, you need to be sure of a couple of things. Try to see them in action performing before the party to determine if they are the right entertainer for your child's party. Another thing is to be sure and let your entertainer know ahead of time if your child is shy. This would prevent the entertainer from asking your child to participate in the show, if you know that's not what your child would have in mind.

Another entertainment idea that any child is for sure to enjoy is to rent out a "bounce gym" or also known as a bouncer. Kids love them! These bouncers usually tend to cost $150+ per day including delivery and setup. They also come in lots of fun themes. Not only do kids love them but these bounce gyms are even actually good for their bodies. They have fun while doing a little exercise. Talk about two for the price of one!

Regardless of which of these entertaintment ideas you use, your birthday party is sure to be well entertained. Just make sure to have back up plans in case one of your entertainment ideas ends up not being possible. Which is why planning ahead of time is always a good first choice!

Your thinking popcorn is not a party theme. A party revolving around popcorn is boring. Not so! Popcorn can be a fun party activity, a great party theme and a hectic of a good time.  You can pop your own and make popcorn balls or pop up a big batch of plain popcorn and set up a table with "fixings" for the popcorn. You can even rent a popcorn machine that looks like an old popcorn cart.

How To Make A Popcorn Party Exciting

Create a special popcorn table with all the "fixings". Your "fixings" table should have some sweet items, sour items, flavored salt and cheese toppings. Sweet popcorn fixings are items like raisins, M&M's, peanut butter chips, gummy bears, anything sweet and chewy.  Sour items such as mustard, sour patch candies and pickles will add interest to popcorn.  Flavored salts or cheese need to be shakable. Black pepper, garlic salt, shakable cheese and special popcorn salts that come in a variety of flavors will satisfy and intrigue many palates. All of these toppings will create a Yummy treat!

You can put the popcorn in paper coffee filters and allow each child to mix up his/her own popcorn. Now you have both a treat and a great party activity (you get a twofer with this one). Kids will mix all kinds of things like mustard and gummy bears and dare each other to eat their creations. What could be more entertaining. Kids will love it because they get to make decisions. Kids like to feel important.

What goes better with popcorn than a movie. Movie rentals are inexpensive and a convenient way to take the party up a notch. Need a bigger screen? One thing you might look at is renting a projection screen. One day projection screen rentals can be very inexpensive and it certainly gives the kids the feeling of a movie theater with out the cost of the movie tickets.

With a decade as a theme, you can incorporate many aspects of entertainment into your party planning including: popular foods, clothes, games, and music. To make sure the theme really takes off, be sure and send out party theme invitations ahead of time incorporating elements of the decade. Let guests know that decade attire is required for the party. Guests decked out in decade party attire will add to another element to your party decorations, not to mention some good laughs. Think of how much fun guests will have putting together outfits for the event. You can even have a contest for the best decade outfit.

Choosing what to serve at your party is completely up to the host. Regular party food is always fine. However if you want to get creative, find or make some foods that were popular during that time. Entertainment is a must. Games are optional of course, but games such as Twister and Super Nintendo sure do bring some laughs to a room full of MC Hammer pants. Of course pumping it up with a little music, is probably the best way to immerse your guests in the decade, as well as, entertain them.  To add that special musical ambiance to the party hire a band that plays a variety of songs from the decade. If you can’t find the right live entertainment for your party, a good decade music list from your Ipod will work just fine.

A decade theme party is a fun and unique way to throw a fabloulous shin-dig.  So pick a decade and let the good times rock and roll.

Choosing A Party Theme

These days it’s all about the theme and a must have before you can plan any further. There are endless theme ideas for childrens parties; some more elaborate and creative than others. Cartoon character or movie character parties are always exciting themes for children; plus invitations, decorations, and even party favors can usually be bought pre-made in corresponding theme motiff thus keeping the planning stress at a minimum. Remember your child's interest when choosing a party theme.

Providing Entertainment

Without entertainment of some form a kids party isn't a party.  One great and effortless form of childrens entertainment is inflatible game rentals. This entertainment option is perfect for kids’ parties.  Many inflatable game rental companies have packages that revolve around themes.  Set up is easy for "mom" since the rental company provides that service.

For more creative party theme ideas, the entertainment may require more work and planning. Camping themed parties and sleepovers are always great for school age kids and lend themselves to many forms of entertainment.  If weather permits, you can have the whole party outdoors with a campfire, tents, and s’mores.  For an inside party, you can set up tents or drape blankets indoors, and roast hot dogs over the fireplace. Telling stories around the "campfire" while roasting food is an inexpensive form of entertainment.

Guest Participation

The more the guests are allowed to participate in the festivities the more fun they will have.  So plan your party around guests participation.

Need a great party theme and entertainment for older children? Try  is to have a decade party. 70’s, 80’s, or 90’s themed parties are fun for both boys and girls.  Ask guests to dressed in decade attire. With their attire the guests will become part of the decorations and involved in the party fun.

With any party the invitations, entertainment and decorations can be coordinated with the theme you choose. So start with a theme and build from there.  Don't forget to check with your local bakeries. They can help you with themed cakes for the party and other themed sweet treats.  After all you can't have a party without cake.

Of all the responsibilities of throwing a party, the invitation is often the most overlooked—and the most important. The party invitation is the first thing guests will see. It gives them an idea of the theme, atmosphere, and basic information about the party. If you rigorously work to throw a party, you want the invitation to show it!

For every type of party, there are hundreds of invitation possibilities. While creativity at a party is somewhat optional, it is a must for the invitation. It’s the “calling card” for the event. Invitations represent the event in its entirety.

Add A Personal Touch To Party Invitations

Beach Party Invitation With Photo Insert

Find a humorous or endearing photograph from a scrap album, have copies made at any photography development counter, and add the time, date, and location on the back or on the rest of the invitation. Imagine getting a photo in the mail of a friend dressed like a cowboy as a four-year-old and how difficult it would be to forget. We all have such photos, and using them as invitations is a memorable way to bring guests to the party.

Announce The Special Event With Party Invitation Pizzazz

Another event that requires an invitation is a wedding. The invitation, like the ceremony, can be as extravagant or as simple as the bride and groom desire. Including the color scheme of the wedding is a good idea in any case. For more casual weddings, such as a beach wedding, gathering cues from the surroundings is an excellent idea.

Sending a customized monthly calendar with the date marked is one way to add flair to function. Another functional idea that is also appealing is a magnet with a picture of the couple and the wedding information. Both of these unique options ensure your guests will remember the big day and are full of personality. Black-tie weddings suggest a more formal invitation, but any of these personal touches can be sent in addition to a high-quality wedding invitation.

Playful Invitations For Playful Occasions

Fun Theme Party Invitation

Also, don’t be afraid to get creative. If there is a theme or a location, something tropical for example, perhaps add a little umbrella to the invitation. A simple card with the basic information and an umbrella attached sets the tone for the party, provides the necessary information, and suggests an exciting time.

House-warming invitation invites can be something as simple as a paint sample with printed information. A take-out menu with a quip about being sick of eating it could be a humorous invite to close friends and family. However, if the guest list is large, it may be wise to stick to a more generalized invitation.

Birthday parties for kids are usually themed and the possibilities for invitations are numerous. The invitation should display the theme for the party and be kid-friendly, as in no small parts a child could choke on. A common theme for children’s parties is a pirate theme. The invitation could be a treasure map made of card stock or a paper bag. Draw a map, add the basic information, crinkle the paper, and burn the edges.

After a child grows out of his pirate years, the graduation party invitation is another easy way to be creative. A mock diploma, rolled up, tied, and sent in a little tube is a quirky way to invite people to the celebration. A copy of the “last report card”, complete with funny grades and comments, is another way to humorously let people know someone is out of school.

The Sky Is The Limit With Creative Party Invitations

There are endless possibilities for parties and party invitations. Celebrations go from traditional to outlandish, and the invitation should reflect whatever direction you choose. While the purpose is the same for every invitation, no two should ever be the same. Putting thought into an invitation is the same as putting thought into the celebration. It doesn’t have to be complicated, although it can be, it just needs to provide guests with an idea of what to expect when they RSVP to your event.

Contributor: Ashley Slayton

Princess theme party items were easy to find at our local party supply store. The store had matching princess plates, napkins and table cloths. We even found little princess themed purses at our party supply store. So we stuffed the purse with party favors, like candy, toys and also some costume jewelry. For our little princes we found some castle shaped boxes that we could use to put party favors in like sword shaped straws.

We had our local bakery make a cake; but what made the cake special was the airbrushed a picture of my niece dressed like a princess on the cake. My niece talked about this party for months.