A first-time party planning checklist for parents
Attending parties can be exciting, but the organising involved ahead of the big event can be stressful and overwhelming, especially for first time parents. Hear from a parent on how she prepared for her son's special day.
1. Set a budget
Choose a suitable price range for your decorations, gift bags, food and drinks, and stick to it. Shopping around for items across different stores and online helps you spot the best bargains. Ebay and Poundland are reliable for basic items.
2. Choosing the best date
Majority of the guests for her son's birthday were children and parents from his nursery. June was a busy month for birthday parties, so she liaised with other parents to make sure they didn’t have any birthday clashes and could set the best date to host the event. She hosted her son’s birthday on the Saturday before his actual birthday, which worked out perfectly.
3. Timing
Give yourself at least 3-4 weeks to coordinate everything and a few days before, check who has RSVP’d. On the day itself, 2.5 hours is enough time for a toddler party, allowing enough time for activities, eating and cutting the cake.
4. Create the guest list
Once confirmed, she decided to create physical and digital invitations using Canva. To make managing toddlers easier, she would advise parents to stay for the full duration of the party. You can choose to mention this on the invitation or communicate that verbally in-person.
5. Choose your party venue
Choosing an appropriate venue for a toddler can be tricky. She decided to host his party at a local park. Being close to home made transporting everything easier and the park was a convenient choice because it had an adventure area for little ones. Ideally you’d want to choose somewhere that already comes with play provisions for children.
6. Think of fun activities for toddlers
Depending on your chosen venue, you’ll probably want to keep the little ones busy with lots of activities. If you don’t choose a park to host your party like she did, other fun ideas for your chosen venue include:
Scavenger hunts
Bubble machines
Put up a piñata
Balloon animals
Bouncy castles
Arts and crafts
Face painting
Hire a children's entertainer
7. Pre-order your cake
What’s a birthday without a special cake? If you are looking for something bespoke, she highly recommends pre-ordering fresh cakes from your favourite local bakery like The Cupcake Avenue of course. If bespoke cakes fall outside your budget, you can always pick up a cake from your local supermarket. Colin the Caterpillar is always a crowd pleaser!
8. Choose your theme
Probably the most important step! She say's that her son is currently obsessing over farm animals, so when designing his invitations, she made sure to involve him in the process so that he could select the images and colours that he liked. Having a set theme is also helpful when it comes to outfit and colour coordination.
9. Purchase your supplies and food
Try and choose environmentally friendly, biodegradable or re-usable supplies where possible.
Find out if any of the children have allergies or special dietary requirements and do your food prep i.e. cutting veggies the night before.
Don’t forget to provide nibbles for the adults attending too!
Need balloons? You can get your balloons inflated at Card Factory.
Giving out gift bags? Pre-pack them ahead of the big day!
10. RSVPS
Follow up with parents a few days in advance to confirm attendance. Anticipate potential dropouts, which is common and understandable for parents with toddlers. If that’s the case, as a courtesy, save and send their child a gift bag when you next see them so they don’t feel left out.
11. Enlist support
It’s going to be a BUSY DAY so make sure you have someone on stand by to help you out. You could ask your family or friends to help you set up, take pictures or keep an eye on your child while you greet guests. It truly makes a huge difference!
12. Closing the party
Remember to finish on time! Thank all the guests and hand out gift bags to the children that attended. If you’ve taken pictures of the children, you may also want to gain consent from the parents and mention where or if the images will be posted online.
And, breath!
Congratulations, you did it! Reflection is good, so remember to take away key learnings for future party planning! Remember, these memories are priceless, so it’s worth it!
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