Budget Party Planning

Tonight I presented budget party planning tips to the women's group at church.  I ended up setting up displays for 4 different types of parties.  I borrowed lots of party supplies from my family- thanks for sharing, it made my job so much easier!  Here are the photos followed by the info I shared.

Party Planning on a Budget

 

The basics

The basics to keeping a party simple and saving money include:

·       Having the party at home

·       Baking & decorating your own cake

·       Creating your own décor rather than buying store made décor

·       Using solid colored tableware versus licensed tableware.  You can have a themed birthday party without a characters face on every paper plate, cup, and napkin.  Maybe just one of these mixed with the more affordable plain colored tableware.

·       Use the internet to search for ideas and save time.

Step 1- Plan Ahead

We all know when our kids birthdays are - so it is helpful to plan ahead for their party to make your dollars stretch.  When planning ahead you can shop sales and clearance racks.  It also gives you time to come up with some out of the box ideas that will make the party a lot more fun. 

Step 2- Set a Budget

This is a very important step. Come up with a budget because every decision you make after this will be influenced by how much you have to spend. This will also help you keep it simple. I love to make things serve more than one purpose- for example using party activities as part of the décor, or using something fun in the décor that can be taken home as a party favor.

Step 3- Outline the Party

·       How many people will be invited?

·       Do you plan to serve a meal?

·       What space will accommodate the people and activities?

·       What time of day will your party take place? If you are not serving a meal, hold it between mealtimes

Step 4- Pick a theme

This isn’t as intimidating as it may sound.  It can be as simple as selecting colors to focus your party décor around.  Having a color scheme makes selecting paper goods, party decorations, and invitations easier.  Plus the whole party will look well put together.  You can also pick a style of décor. Some fun ideas for style would be rustic, vintage, graphic art, glitter, or a fun pattern like polka dots or argyle.  These are a fun way to give the party a particular feel without having to buy items with logos or licensed characters.

Choosing a theme will also direct the rest of your party planning.  It will help you choose food, activities, time of day, etc.   You can choose themes surrounding a favorite television show, movie, storybook, toy, a favorite activity, something a child loves to pretend, or even around a favorite food. 

Step 5- Plan your details

Menu

By knowing ahead of time what you would like to serve allows you time to watch food sales and keep your eye out for deals.   You can also save a lot of money by making the cake yourself.  Cupcakes are a fun and easy way to do affordable and adorable portions. 

Activities & Games

This is a fun place to get creative.  I prefer activities over games. They are more forgiving for different skill levels; take less explaining than games; keep guests busy while waiting for everyone to arrive and still allow late guests a chance to participate; you can have your party
guests create their own party favors, part of their meal, or part of the décor. 

Party Favors

It can get expensive to fill a traditional goody bag for kids parties. I like to use something in the party décor or from one of the party activities as a take home party favor.  We have used beach balls, mylar balloons, dress up jewels, boas, aprons and paper chef hats.  They seem big and substantial but usually come from the dollar store, costing just $1 per guest.

Decorations

This is an easy place to save big and really set the ambiance at the same time. Choose an area to focus your décor.  If you are having a food table or other type of display, focus the décor around it.  Popular and simple to make decorations include

·       Tissue paper pom poms

·       Paper banners or fabric buntings

·       Photo displays

·       Balloons arranged in the shape of a number or letter

·       Making colorful cake stands to display cakes and other refreshments

Invitations-

Invitations can be made in lots of clever ways- check the links below for great ideas!

Invitations should include the obvious time, place, and date, but don’t forget the extras that will help your guests know what to plan on.  If you are serving a meal, say so! If you are just serving treats, say this too.  Do you want guests to dress up for your princess party?  Or bring jackets for an outdoor activity?  If you are hosting a baby shower- kindly include the gender of the baby if you can, even if you think everyone already knows.  

Places to look for great party ideas:

http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/

http://familyfun.go.com/parties/parties-by-theme/

http://www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com/

http://www.karaspartyideas.com

http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com

http://www.thebirthdayblog.net

http://www.bumpsmitten.com/

http://party.tipjunkie.com/

http://www.ucreateparties.com/  

Sites with ideas about simplifying parties

http://www.birthdayswithoutpressure.org/resourcesParent.html

http://simplemom.net/simple-birthday-ideas/

http://simplemom.net/how-to-have-a-simple-inexpensive-and-meaningful-birthday-party-for-your-child/    

35 Years of Adventure Party

This year my hubby turned 35.  We keep his parties pretty low key, at his request.  He is certainly the adventuresome type, though having a young family and a busy job have really limited his adventures lately.  He is also an avid fan of National Geographic.  I put these all together to make the theme for his birthday celebration. 

Here is the invite I sent out to let everyone know when to stop by.  I used my photoshop skills on this one, but there are websites out there where you can add your own photo to a magazine cover if you want to make your own. 

We kept the food simple- a doughnut tower for a "cake" and hot chocolate & wassail for drinks. 

I used neutrals with Nat. Geo Yellow to accent.  Thank heavens for scrapbook paper!  On the wood wall I hung paper with sticky tack, and the little banner across the table front is jute, clothespins, and squares of paper.  

The party was held in a partially finished basement, which gave quite a blank slate for a backdrop.  The rest of the decor also doubled as the party activity.  I found pictures of his adventures from when he was a little guy up to now.  I hadn't planned on how heavy 100+ pictures and clothespins could be.  I had to tack in little finishing nails to hold the jute I clipped them to.

 When our guests arrived they enjoyed their food while browsing the photos and keeping the Birthday Boy busy answering questions and telling stories about the pictures that caught their interest.  It was really fun!

I didn't want all the memories to leave him longing for the adventures of the past, so for his gift I made him up a set of adventure passes.  He can redeem these throughout the year for fun activities he wants to enjoy.

Princess Luncheon Party Planner

I am getting ready for the Birthday Princess Luncheon. Here are some menu ideas I am looking at: (I am trying to think beyond the pb & J, since we will have a princess with food allergies)

• White grape juice, tinted pink or
• Pink lemonade
  
• Selections from this kid friendly tea sandwich list, including Cinnamon sugar on buttered white; Jelly on bread, rolled into pinwheels; On white, marshmallow cream topped with bananas and strawberries
• Meat and Cheese Tea Sandwiches: Make a regular meat (ham, turkey,) and cheese sandwich, with a little salad dressing. Make sure the ham and cheese are cut into very thin slices for this one. Cut the sandwich into little triangles by making two diagonal cuts across the sandwich. nt.
• Mini muffins
• Fruit kabobs with fruit dip
  

The order of events is set as follows:

• Arrive and decorate princess hats
• Go to dressing room to get dressed & bejewled for the luncheon
• Princess Manners class: A variation on this script
• Arrive at the luncheon
• Dine
• Princess induction ceremony & Photo Shoot
  
• Cake & gifts

Other References:

• A collection of stories from ladies who have hosted children's tea parties
  

Princess Cake Ideas

What a find! Check out this castle using the Wilton Kit and cookies! No cake required.Here is another one where the main theme is not cake! She used a cake mold to create a chocolate castle. How smart! Her description:
"How to make castle: Make your mold with chocolates when it has harden. Trim off the excess choc from the edges then with the extra icing put your dowel rods on to the back and the lollipop sticks that you made for flags. Put back into freezer to let it harden. Design it with Royal Icing and let it dry till it is hard. All the flowers, bushes, trimming on the castle is made out of Royal Icing. The other is Butter cream."One of my good neighbors has this nordic ware castle pan. I might have to call and borrow it for a cake similar to this
And how to decorate? I am trying to find a good way to do it and not lose the details. Here is the Williams Sonoma Recipe for glaze.

Combine in saucepan:
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C water
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
Stir together over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Stir in 2 tsp vanilla. Use pastry brush to apply to warm cake. (Then I will try to sprinkle it with sugar sprinkles while it is still wet. Yummy and sparkly!)

Here is a solution another person proposed:
Make icing with confectioners' sugar and milk. Make it fairly thin, as to 'paint' the icing on the cake with a pastry brush. Thin enough to spread easily but not so thin that it just makes your cookies wet and runs off.You can always add layers of it if too thin but one should be enough.

ICING FOR CAKE INGREDIENTS:
* 1 cup confectioners' sugar
* 2 teaspoons milk
* 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
* 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
* assorted food coloring

DIRECTIONS
1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
2. Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Paint cake with a brush.

~~~~~
I like the idea of grass cupcakes around the perimeter. No need to cut the cake for the friends party, just give them a cupcake.Or, for the adventurous at heart who want the kids to eat all their hard work up, try these cupcakes with party favors included

Yes, this one is ridiculous, but I like the look of clustered turrets on top.

This Castle seems to use ice cream cones for the turret towers and points. A good option if you don't want to buy the Wilton Castle Kit with plastic towers.

Here is an option for a flat cake with castle outline shape.

A fun idea using the Wilton Castle Kit, but more simple decorations.

I am always looking for impressive looking, but easy to make decorations. I like the marshmallow stars on this cake

This is certainly elaborate for a 4 year old, but I wanted to remember the feel of a little backdrop and the lit base. I might give that a try.


If you want to find a wealth of birthday cake ideas submitted by regular folks and semi-professional decorators, check out the Coolest-Birthday-Cakes website. Here are some ideas on turrets from that site:

Two Cone turrets, free-standingTwo Cone turrets with one cake for support and then the sugar cone.

Other turrets were created as so:

• "To make the towers I melted white chocolate and brushed it on 13 cake ice cream cones using a pastry brush then immediately sprinkled them with hot pink sugar crystals. For the last eight cones I did two at a time and stuck them together end-to-end before adding the sugar crystals to make the tall corner towers. I then melted hot pink chocolate and brushed it on nine sugar ice cream cones then immediately sprinkled them with multi-color mini decorating balls."

• "For the cone roofs I dipped 4 waffle cones in melted cherry flavored chips then rolled them in glitter sugar." (see next pic)
  

• I started by taking 10 regular ice cream cones and dipping them in white chocolate placing 8 of them end to end to make the tall pillars. After they hardened I dipped them again to help smooth it out. Then I dipped mini marshmallows and placed them on top for the "stones".(see next pic)

• The towers were made from ice cream cones stuck together with apricot glaze and also used apricot glaze (someone else said the same thing with apricot jelly) to stick the sprinkles to the spires. I covered each tower in a thin coating of icing sugar
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I also like the curling ribbon base on this. A little flair, zero skill!



So after looking at all these complicated and tricky looking castle cakes. Perhaps I should consider a simple crown. If you check out the link to the pan, this cake is more versatile than you would think. (If you have frosting skills, of course) Who would think it could also be a baby in a cradle and a Thanksgiving turkey!
Here we have the same pan, but the crown tips are done with cookies. I like that a lot.

And a carriage for the ball