PARTY IN THE HOUSE
How to plan
a successful celebration
A celebration in your own home is always something special.
You open your apartment or house and give
giving your hospitality a very personal touch.
Here you will find a proven list for planning,
so you can relax and enjoy your own party.
Start today if you want to celebrate in a year
Of course you can outsource almost all components of a celebration. For this we are planning our own GloriousMe guide with helpful tips, because the selection, the briefing and the quality control of specialists for a celebration has its own requirements.
However, if you enjoy preparing a lot of things yourself, then it is worth reading on here, because the secret of a successful celebration is detailed preliminary planning. Getting your homework done on time gives you enough time during the party to relax and celebrate with your guests. The countdown is running:
save the date
A year in advance
It’s never too early to start here. Once you have set the date, time and maximum number of guests, you should send a save the date to your potential guests. This can be done a year in advance for festivals that are particularly important to you, for example due to a special event. Otherwise, three to four months is a good lead time for the save the date.
Since your guests have already noted the date with the help of the Save The Date, the actual invitation can then be sent out six to eight weeks before the party. Be sure to set a deadline for acceptance and make it easy for your guests to accept by providing their contact details.
A creative name for a party or at least a description of what your guests can expect, such as “Drinks around the Fireplace” for a party in Advent or “Rose scent and charcoal” for a barbecue in summer, will make the party memorable before and after.
The name of the party and possibly a theme should be used throughout from the save the date to the invitation and labeling of the gift if you are planning one.
live music
10 months in advance
Bruce Springsteen, who now prefers the smaller formats to huge halls or stadiums, or Till Brönner naturally have a much longer lead time. Good musicians, students from the music college or suitable DJs who are supposed to enrich your party usually have extensive travel activities and in some months a very busy schedule. Clarify in good time how much space the musicians need so that you can take this into account in your room planning.
When it rains, it pours
Six months in advance
If your party is to take place in the garden or on the terrace, now is the time to think again about whether you have sufficient rain protection or add additional rain protection in the form of large rental umbrellas, tarpaulins or other forms of roofing if there is not enough space inside for everyone guests suffice.
beverages
Five months in advance
The further count down to the festival follows the principle “What you can get today…”. Some things can and should be done well in advance so you can focus on time-sensitive preparations in the days and weeks leading up to the festival. After all, you have many other things on your to-do list besides organizing a party.
You can buy or order drinks like wine and champagne (… GloriousMe) months in advance. In this way you are protected from the fact that your favorite wine or a specific vintage of it is possibly sold out and you still have enough time and leisure to test and order alternative wines if necessary.
Crockery, glasses and cutlery
Four months in advance
Very few households have the dimensions of Buckingham Palace, where a large state banquet can be effortlessly equipped with suitable crockery, cutlery and glasses. In every larger city there are rental companies that have a very good selection.
You should also do this item well in advance, because in certain months, for example in summer and at Christmas time, many festivals are planned and then there can be bottlenecks if you want to order very specific things.
In addition to the obvious items such as crockery, glasses and cutlery, it is also worth thinking about additional bowls, candelabra or large champagne bowls. The latter, filled with ice, can be used very well on the day of the party for drinks such as champagne and white wine, which are easy for all guests to access and also look decorative.
The decorative champagne bowls are usually among the items that sell out the fastest in the loan service.
Rental companies always offer ice as crushed ice or in the form of ice cubes
on. These are delivered in Styrofoam boxes, which can be used to cool drinks on the day of the festival.
A little tip: Choose service, cutlery and glass variants that you can easily distinguish from your own inventory. Because even with the best calculations, late in the evening you still use one or the other plate or cutlery from your own stock. So it’s good if they can be easily sorted apart.
The rental crockery is usually returned uncleaned. This has an enormous time advantage for the hosts or other helping hands during the festival. The loaned items can be quickly placed in the specific transport containers and used plates, cutlery and glasses efficiently disappear out of the way and out of sight.
The tour planning of the rental company is only created much later, but it is often worth inquiring early on if a certain period of time on the day of delivery or collection is important to you.
party favours
Four weeks in advance
You already chose the motto of your party some time ago, so you can start thinking about the guest gift. Creativity is called for here: a small gift that reminds you of the motto of the festival is ideal.
playlist and speakers
Four weeks in advance
Now you can prepare a playlist at your leisure and consider whether you might want to invest in outdoor speakers.
tablecloths and candles
Four weeks in advance
The Queen’s household employs Linen Keepers. Their task is to coordinate the entire table linen of the royal household. This means knowing exactly which tablecloths are currently being cleaned, which need to be repaired, which and how many must be available for daily use and for upcoming state banquets. The job description is interesting to read.
You probably don’t employ a line keeper. Therefore, it is now time to keep an eye on the tablecloths so that by the time of the festival, the tablecloths are available in the desired colors and sizes. At the same time, you can check your supply of candles again and supplement them if necessary. Candles after sunset give every celebration a special atmosphere.
meal
Four weeks in advance
If you plan to cook, bake, or prepare salads yourself, four weeks in advance is a good time. Then it is easy to estimate which fruits and which vegetables will be in season and by then the approximate number of your guests will be known.
Derived from the planning of the meal, it is advisable to create detailed lists of which foods should be bought where and when and which foods, such as meat, fish or fresh bread, must be pre-ordered. You can now copy the recipes from time to time so that different cookbooks or baking books do not have to find a place in the kitchen.
Decoration and napkins
Three weeks in advance
Tablecloths, vases and candles can be planned, procured or supplemented at this point in time so that they are only decorated with fresh flowers on the day of the festival. If you are planning paper serviettes for a casual party, you can now get them in good quality, tailored to the colors or the theme of your decoration.
Neighbors
Two weeks in advance
If you don’t live alone out in the country, let your neighbors know it’s going to be a little noisy on the feast day. One or two neighbors have enough time to make their own plans if they want to escape the increased noise level.
Preparing the rooms
A week or two in advance
The aim here is to free up as much space as possible. Your guests should have enough space to move around the party and easily switch conversation groups. The placement of seating, tables and table decorations can be planned and prepared in advance.
The longer the evening, the more unusual the places where glasses are placed. You should consider this now and place very fragile or valuable objects elsewhere. Accidents can always happen, someone stumbles or has a fainting spell and a full glass of red wine lands on a piece that is particularly close to your heart.
At this point you should already plan the spatial flow of the festival. Where should drinks be placed so that they can be accessed quickly and refilled without any problems. How is the buffet set up, where are the glasses and carafes and where is the place where the boxes for the crockery can be set up without the sight disturbing the rest of the party.
Where should the cloakroom be stored, where can smokers and the respective ashtrays be found
her place. You can already provide a scented candle in the guest bathroom and check whether the guests will find enough guest towels etc.
Where are the boxes with ice stored, where are food that is stored cool stored. Where is the cloakroom planned, where can dripping wet umbrellas be deposited and where can you leave your gifts later? If you think through and arrange all of these things beforehand, there’s no more need for improvisation just before the party.
Checking rental crockery quantities
A week in advance
At this point, the number of guests can be predicted relatively accurately. Here it is worth checking the order again and, if necessary, asking for more or reducing it. Ask again whether the desired period for delivery and collection can now also be confirmed with binding effect.
Ordering fresh groceries
A week in advance
Now it’s time to pre-order fresh groceries. Arrange a pickup time that best suits your plans on the day of the festival. The best butcher, baker, cheese or fish shop are often a few kilometers apart. Well thought-out logistics save a lot of time later.
Detail scheduling for the day of the festival
Three days in advance
Make a detailed schedule for everything that can only be done on the day of the festival. Start with the arrival of the guests and calculate forward from that point. Allow enough time to dress up yourself before the party and also have some time to relax afterward.
Ideally, you greet your guests in a relaxed manner and with a beaming smile. Nothing is more uncomfortable than hectic hosts who whirl around organizationally at the last minute.
All activities that you want to do yourself during the day should be listed in this plan. The time you plan ahead for the kitchen, as well as the time setting up the dishes, picking up fresh groceries, arranging fresh flowers for decoration. The list is your friend. After this calculation, you know exactly when you have to get up in order to work through everything calmly and without hectic.
Final preparations
On the day of the festival
The pre-written list is now your most important planning tool. Since not all of your guests are GloriousMe readers, you will most likely receive flowers as a gift. Discreetly set out a few vases of different sizes with water. Otherwise, at the beginning of the festival, when the majority of the guests arrive, this will cost you far too much valuable time.
You already have matches for candles, charged cameras or telephones, charging cables, the number of taxi services, etc. ready at a suitable place, as well as gifts that you might want to give your guests as a souvenir of the party.
With this preparation, you can enjoy your own feast.
The day after the festival
For the day after the party, you should plan enough time to get the apartment or house back to normal. Ideally, plan a vacation day for it. This gives you time to reflect on the festival in your mind and to take your time to recall the beautiful moments during the festival.
You can also use the time on this day to thank helpers, to send the neighbors a bottle of wine as compensation for an overly happy and perhaps therefore loud party.
