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Twin Cities Mom Collective

Six Tips For Planning A DIY-Style Party Outside Your Home

Because my husband and I planned to throw what I would call a “mid-sized bash” for our son’s first birthday, and Minnesota is like a teenage girl in April and can’t decide what the weather should be, we knew pretty quickly that we’d need to find an offsite indoor space to host our son’s party. We were on a budget and I’m big into DIY, so I was excited for the chance to plan a big party, and transform a blank space (because they’re cheap) with lots of crafts and projects. In some ways, it’s a lot less work to not have a party at your home. There’s no last minute clean up or rearranging of the furniture before guest arrive, the party has a firm end time, and the mess stays contained at an offsite location. But in other ways, it’s a lot harder. You can’t test out any of your decor ideas, space planning can be more difficult, you have to find transportation for all the stuff you’re bringing and sometimes, event spaces don’t have a kitchen, so food can be difficult.

Along the way of planning my son’s birthday, I learned few things about throwing a DIY-style party outside your home – and these tips apply for any type of party – birthdays, anniversaries, heck, even a wedding. Here are a few things to think about before you plan your next party outside the home.

DIY Party Planning Tips | Twin Cities Moms Blog

1. Location, location, location. Obviously, this is the biggest thing to think about. But it’s so much more than finding a pretty space at the right price, which is what most of us think of off the bat. Here are a few more things to take note of when determining your location:

  1. What’s included with the rental price? Tables, chairs, use of a kitchen? A lot of times these are considered “add ons” which can add up pretty quickly. Or sometimes, you’ll need to secure your own, which is another thing you’ll need to know to plan for. Quick tip: The Minneapolis Community Centers are all $20 an hour and include table and chair rental. You can add a fully-equipped kitchen rental for an additional $5/hour. All the community center’s rental spaces look different, so if you don’t like the look of one, visit another and it might appeal to you more. 
  2. Will there be other events at the same time? Try to find a time to rent the space out so it’s not too noisy or busy.
  3. Do guest need to be checked in? How will they enter? This will help you plan for signage so people don’t get confused as to where to go when they arrive.
  4. How does food work? Can you bring your own in, or do you have to get it from a specific vendor? This can make a huge difference in the cost of your party, so it’s important to find out up front.

DIY Party Planning Tips | Twin Cities Moms Blog

2. Make a plan. Once you’ve nailed down your location, make a plan. A floor plan. Measure your space, making note of windows, doors, even the ceiling height. If the space comes with tables, measure them just in case so you know what size tablecloths to get and the scale of the centerpieces you need. They’re probably standard sizes, but it’s always worth double checking. I drew a floor plan out on a plain piece of notebook paper, duplicating it as time went on as I formed more of an idea of what decor items I wanted. Plus, you won’t truly know how many tables to plan for until the RSVP’s start rolling in, so things may change further down the road for your space planning.

3. Practice makes perfect. As you’re creating the decorations for the space, test out as much as you can. If you’re making paper garlands, string them in your house at around the same length, just to be sure they’re not too heavy to hang and they seem to be the right scale. There’s only so much you can do to visualize the decor, but it’s worth the time to try to mock things up in your own home to work out as many of the kinks as possible. After you’ve created decoration, consider how you’ll transport it. Will it fit into a large trashbag or does it need more support from something like a laundry basket? Can you wrap it around an old piece of cardboard so it doesn’t get tangled? Or it is so delicate (like a cake bunting) that you need something to temporarily hold it up? Often times, others will be helping you load up the cars and set up, so it’s important to think this through ahead of time so something doesn’t accidentally get ruined in transport – and it helps you to not have to micromanage on the day of the party. Because nobody likes a micromanager.

DIY Party Planning Tips | Twin Cities Moms Blog

4. Food forever. I’ll never forget when someone was giving me wedding planning advice and told me, “The only thing people will truly remember is the food. If it’s bad, they’ll remember. If it’s good, they’ll remember. Forever.” And I think that rings true with most any party someone throws. (Well, they may not remember FOREVER … but you get the idea.) The food is where it’s at. Offsite parties can make it difficult for planning food, especially if you’re not catering, but trying to make it yourself. When planning your menu, look for things that can be easily cooked in a crock pot and won’t need a lot of attention in the few hours before your party. Pasta salads can easily be made the day before, and you can even freeze most cakes and cupcakes a week or two before the party. Spend some time researching recipes that are fairly hands-off the day of the party, and enlist the help of others to get it delivered in time for the big event, particularly if you don’t have a kitchen available to keep things warm or cold. For our party, I went with a combination of catered and simple store bought items, which meant there were a few errands the day of, but not a lot of work for me since we didn’t have a kitchen.

5. Allow people to help you. While you can plan and plan and plan, in the end, you’ll still need help on the day of the party. Most rental spaces are paid per hour, so you’ll need to maximize any rental time you have. My husband and I loaded up the car the night before with everything we could, leaving only a few items to load the day of. I let my family know I’d love some of their help for an hour or two before the party, and they gladly came to help me unload the car and set up. The saying, “Many hands make light work,” rings so true here. People want to help, so let them. This is a perfect way to get things done quickly and allow people feel involved. I rented our space two hours ahead of time, knowing I probably only needed an hour for set up. This allowed those that were helping to go home before the party to get ready, and gave me time to breathe and relax a bit before I  needed to get my “social game face” on. If you can, get two different groups together, one for set up and one for clean up, so you can divide up the work. Consider writing down a list of everything that needs to get done, so that you’re not the only one with all the answers – making the work get finished that much faster.

DIY Party Planning Tips | Twin Cities Moms Blog

6. Let it go. On the day of the party, whatever happens, happens. Maybe a decoration didn’t turn out like you envisioned, maybe something was accidentally broken on the way over or maybe even with all that planning, something was forgotten. Doesn’t matter. No one will notice. Promise. This isn’t Pinterest, this is real life – and people know that! On the day of my son’s party, we had to hang a photo sideways and the main decoration I created – a wall to wall garland that spanned no less than 50 feet – didn’t turn out at all. My sisters-in-law were there to rally me and we made it work, but they let me be disappointed for about five minutes, then told me I needed to move on. And they were right. It won’t be perfect because you don’t have time to tweak and play and change and move, but just because it’s not perfect, doesn’t mean it’s not great. Let go of your expectations and planning, and roll with the punches.

DIY Party Planning Tips | Twin Cities Moms Blog

And finally, enjoy the party. Planning a party with lots of moving parts is hard work! Now that you’ve done all the behind-the-scenes work, force yourself to enjoy the actual party because that’s what it’s truly all about.

How about you? Any tips you’d add?

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3 comments

Suzanne May 7, 2014 at 8:24 AM

Love this…only thing I want is….more pictures!!!!

Nice work, Laura..u good momma.

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Alicia May 7, 2014 at 10:17 AM

Thanks for posting this! Our son’s first birthday party is next weekend and even though we are tempting fate and still doing it at home the tips are great! Fingers crossed the weather is less temperamental next weekend.

Reply
Kristen Pederson January 12, 2015 at 3:39 PM

This is great advice, Laura! I am starting to plan my little girl’s first birthday party, so I’ll definitely be referring to this as I plan!

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