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January 27, 2011

Event Programs Don’t Have To Be Boring

Filed under: Seasonal & Special Events Ideas — PDWriter @ 8:00 am

Pristine Specialty ProgramsWhen it comes time to have an event where a lot of things are taking place, like a school musical, a wedding or a show, the first thing we get when we walk in the door is a program. Some event programs do a great job of listing everything that’s going to be going on, and some don’t do quite as well. Some programs are little more than a folded piece of paper and are as boring as they get. But with a little imagination and the right paper, they don’t have to be boring at all.

People who put on events want everyone in the audience to know what’s coming up. Thatway people can take part when need be, or just so they know who’s coming up on stage next. Having an event program that does that well not only gives the audience the cues they need, but also gives them a certain level of entertainment andinformation in the process.

Allegro Programs

Printing event programs is easy to do. You can get paper specifically designed for programs and download templates for your favorite word processor so you can lay it out easily. That way if you get program paper with a nice border or with an interesting fold pattern, you don’t have to fight with the layout to make sure it’s right. These templates make it easy to place graphics, to set up text and to make sure everything looks perfect before you print them off. After you get the layout right, just hit print and in a few minutes, you’ll have made some great event programs.

Baccalaureate ProgramsThe great thing about printing your own event programs, aside from the fact that it is actually fairly easy to do is the fact that they are inexpensive as well. Buying blank program paper and doing your own setup and printing costs only a few cents per program and you can make more if they’re going to be needed. This saves a lot of headaches since you do not have to send the job out to a printing company and go through the proofing process and having to wait for production.

No, event programs don’t have to be boring, nor do they have to be expensive. Check out all the great paper designs available and see what you can do to make your own. You’ll be surprised at how great they’ll be.

December 30, 2010

Fun Invitations for Game Night

Filed under: Seasonal & Special Events Ideas — Tags: , , — PDWriter @ 8:00 am

Fantasy Football InvitationWhen it comes to game night, we get all kinds of opportunities to have a get together, especially during football season. You’ve got college ball on Saturday, pro ball on Sunday and then Monday Night Football as well as Thursday night football. And that doesn’t include all the other nights when sports are played. That means there are tons of opportunities to have a get together, meaning you’ll have lots of times you need to send game night invitations.Slugger Invitations

Having neighborhood get-togethers and parties for friends during a ball game (football, baseball, basketball) is a natural for fun times and good company. But setting up a great party means there will have to be a bit of planning. And a well planned party means invitations. Since we’re talking about game night, sending out fun invitations has to be a given, since the party is going to be about having fun. That means we need to come up with ideas for fun game night invitations.

Good Sport PostcardsThe easiest way to sent out invites like this will be on a postcard. Not only are they inexpensive to order, print, and mail, but they can hold a lot of information as well. You’ll want to put the place and time on them, but there is also plenty of room for graphics, meaning you can put football players on it, cheerleaders, or whatever other graphics that will apply to the night. Putting the team names on it, especially if there’s a huge rivalry involved will be a fun factor as well.

If you’re putting together a large affair, like a Super Bowl party, you can use regular invites with RSVP cards so you will have a better idea of how many people will be there. This will enable you to have enough food and beverages for everyone, and to have enough time to prepare. Fun invitations are easy to create, and basing them on a football or other sport game night makes for a fun time.

Check out the invitations you can get online and see what ideas you can come up with for a game night. Depending on what sport you like best and want to throw a party for, you’ll have lots of options for layouts and designs and the templates for the invites and postcards makes it a snap to do. Have a great party!

December 9, 2010

Insider’s Guide to Throwing Great Parties

Filed under: Seasonal & Special Events Ideas — PDWriter @ 8:00 am

Heirloom Vine Specialty Pocket InvitationsIt’s coming up on the holiday season where parties are going to be thrown. And throwing a great party is exactly what a lot of people are going to try to do this year, even with the economy in the dire straits it’s in. There are some totally easy tips which make throwing a great party a breeze, and you, too, can throw a great party this year.

First, plan ahead. Start as soon as you can to make plans for your Entice Flat Invitations party. This enables you to make changes as need be, to get everything that needs to be accomplished done, and to give yourself enough time to get it all done without having to stress and fret over every detail. Sit down with a desk calendar or day planner and mark down when to take care of certain things. For instance, send out your invitations with plenty of time to spare. That way, if you need to do RSVP’s so you can have a good idea of how much food and beverages to have on hand, you can get the replies back in time to make your plans. Keep in mind that even with RSVP’s things change, so allow for a little leeway.

Imperial Foil Specialty Tea Length Wrap InvitationMake sure you’ve got any entertainment you’ve got planned either booked in advance or purchased early enough to ensure you’ve got what you need. Follow it up a few days later to make sure all your plans are still locked in place. Next, make sure your menu and food plans are set. If you need to split purchases across time, make sure you get items that don’t spoil first, that way you can store them as long as needed. Last, get the food that does spoil purchased and prepared. If you’re doing a catered party, make sure the caterer is still planned, and that everything is a “go”.

Then, on the day of the party, with all your plans in place and going, sit back and relax and enjoy everything as it happens. When it’s all over with, you’ll have thrown that totally great party, and gotten to enjoy it in the process.

October 14, 2010

10 Secrets to a Great Party

Filed under: Seasonal & Special Events Ideas — PDWriter @ 11:00 am

Gold Balloons Casual InvitationsPeople love parties and love them even more when everything is perfect. From the food, entertainment and even the guests, when everything works together, a party usually turns out great. But there are some key elements that make for great parties.

1.) Plan ahead for issues
Make sure you’ve got food and beverages everyone can consume. Some people have allergies and the last thing you want is to have your party interrupted by the ambulance because someone has a peanut allergy and ate some type of dip that contains them.

2.) Resolve Guest List Conflicts
While some party planners enjoy a little excitement in their evening, most guests would prefer to have a fun time. This calls for not having people who don’t get along well with each other showing up at the same party

Good Vibrations LetterTop™ Certificates 3.) Use invitations with RSVP’s
By using RSVP’s, not only can you make sure how many are coming, but you can adjust seating arrangements, dietary issues and other little details as the responses come in.

4.) Plan Ahead For Setup and Teardown
These things don’t happen by themselves, so making sure you’ve given yourself enough time to setup is usually more important than clean up, but if you’re in a rented facility, that could be important too.

5.) Make Sure There’s Plenty Of Parking
Nothing is worse than having to walk a mile to get to the party because there’s no parking.

6.) Control
Make sure you keep control of the party and don’t let the party control you. Set the theme for the party and the tone by making sure music doesn’t get too loud and guests don’t get out of hand

7.) Keep An Eye On Your Guests
This way, you can keep track of who is where, when people leave, etc. Not only can you prevent problems, but you can get a head start on cleaning up

8.) Check On Consumables
Incidental supplies like bathroom tissue, etc. can kill a party or keep it running smooth. A quick walk around where people are lets you keep those stocked as well as letting you monitor how the party is going

Barbeque LetterTop™ Certificates 9.) Stay Ahead Of The Game
Empty ashtrays (if need be) and collect empties when you pass through a room, This keeps accidents from happening and gives you a head start when it comes to cleanup later

10.) Know When To Say When
While it’d be nice to party all night long, most people have other obligations that have to be tended to the next day. Not only that, but while it’s nice to have a great party while its going on, there comes a time when even the best parties have to end.

While these are the most standard tips to having a great party, using these tips will make your party experience as host or hostess that much better. Everyone enjoys a great party, and with these tips, every party you throw will be great.

October 12, 2010

How to Throw a Great Surprise Party

Filed under: Seasonal & Special Events Ideas — PDWriter @ 7:00 am

Everyone loves a party. Even those who claim they hate surprises love them, too, once their heart restarts after everyone shouts “Surprise!” But there are a lot of ways to have a surprise party that veer away from the heart stopping celebrations everyone thinks of when the words “party” and “surprise” are used in the same sentence together. That’s where finding new and innovative ways to throw a surprise party comes in.

When it comes to these types of party, most people use the “standard convention” of getting the intended surprise out of the house long enough for everyone to get in and hide. But one way to throw a surprise party that is totally unexpected is to have the ambush or “un-party” which is like a surprise party, only in reverse.

Instead of having everyone congregated together and having the guest of honor show up, have everyone begin showing up after the guest of honor gets there. This is especially effective in a restaurant environment where you go to have a “nice, quiet dinner” and people begin arriving and say “Oh, look! Isn’t today your birthday?”, etc. Since this is actually planned, the waiters begin adding tables to the group, and within 15-20 minutes, you’ve got your party assembled, but the center of attention is pretty much clueless until well after the party has begun. You can also apply this scenario to the “quiet evening at home” where friends and family merely “show up” and happen to have brought “party stuff” like munchies, beverages and even a cake. Same ideas apply, “Oh, we were just in the neighborhood and thought we’d drop in.” While all along, the plans had been in place for weeks.

Being creative with surprise parties means thinking outside the box, and ideas like this definitely brings a new flair to the old, tired surprise party. Why not throw an “un-party” for someone soon?

September 22, 2010

Hosting Timely Events – Holiday Event Planning

Filed under: Christmas & Holiday Party Tips — Tags: — PDWriter @ 8:04 pm

The holiday season is upon us yet again, and as with every year, planning holiday parties and events is up for consideration. When it comes time to sit down and work up holiday party planning, the biggest issue, aside from where to hold the function, is when to hold the function. While a couple of dates are definitive, there are other dates that have play to them and we have to incorporate a lot of factors into defining those dates.

Halloween parties generally take place on October 31st. If that doesn’t fall on a Friday orBlack Cat Capers Postcard Saturday, however, we have to take a look at what kind of party we’re having, the people to be invited, and where it’s being held. If it’s a kid’s party then having it at someone’s home (for a small party) or at a public park or event center (for a larger one) is a good idea. Not only can it be held on the 31st, regardless of what day it falls on, but it can also be held during the day, if need be. This way kids won’t be kept out late on a school night.

Snowflake Wishes PostcardFor office parties and parties where only adults will be the guests, then limiting it to a Friday or Saturday is necessary. This way parents will be home on school nights as well. This kind of attitude also applies for Christmas parties as well. While it is more acceptable to have an office or church related Christmas party during the week, it still interferes with school schedules and should be avoided if possible.

Being reasonable and balanced when it comes to party plans is what it takes to have the most success when it comes to having the parties themselves. It can be difficult, especially when trying to balance school schedules around work schedules and church schedules, but it is do-able. Plan well and have a great Holiday season.

September 17, 2010

Great Party Tips – Party Invite Wording Ideas

Filed under: Designing Your Invitation — Tags: , — PDWriter @ 11:31 am

Holiday InvitationReady for some great party tips, start with great party invite wording. Parties are all designed to celebrate something. Birthday parties, Christmas and New Year’s parties and even Halloween or Employee Recognition parties are all designed to celebrate accomplishments or to commemorate a special occasion. When you’re planning your parties, one of the key elements to almost all of them is invitations. And while that would seem to be the easiest part of the party to plan, they can actually be the main reason a party is a success or failure.

All too often, people don’t apply any real thought when it comes to invitation wording ideas. They’ll simply put a time and date of when the event is, and maybe add an RSVP if they have to know the number of people coming for reservations purposes. But putting some brain power into how you word the invitations can actually make your party a real must-see event.

Gold Stars InvitationGranted, you do need the time and date on the invite, as well as the location of where it’ll be. And if you are having to reserve tables at a restaurant or other facility that needs a reasonably accurate head count, that needs to be in there too. But that doesn’t mean your invitation has to read as dry as the Sahara Desert during a drought. On the contrary, while that style of delivery does ensure the facts stand out, it doesn’t encourage the invitee to participate.

When it comes to fun parties and celebrations, having a fun invitation sets the tone. Having a humorous patter to your invites encourages people to expect a fun, entertaining party. If you’re planning a celebration specific to an event, using words that encourage that theme and concept will set the tone. While a certain amount of expectations can be set with the kind of card you send, it’s the words and concepts delivered with the wording that will ultimately have the most impact on how the party starts, and ultimately progresses.

Choosing the wording for your invitations may not seem like it’s a very important thing to do, but it can make all the difference when it comes to how people expect your party to be.

September 15, 2010

Cool Halloween Invitations You Can Make

Filed under: Seasonal & Special Events Ideas — Tags: — PDWriter @ 8:45 am

Black Cat HalloweenBorder PapeWhen it comes to parties, there’s usually not a better party during the year than a Halloween party. Not only are there lots of fun decorations, but all the different costumes are enjoyable as well. To start things off, you can even have cool Halloween invitations. And the best part of that is the fact you can make them yourself!

While having Halloween invitations printed up is something you can do, it’s usually pretty expensive, and having them made for you takes away a little of the fun. And spending tons of money on Halloween cards that all you have to do is put your name on it actually seems lame in a lot of ways.

Good Ghost Halloween Border PaperThat’s why making invitations yourself can be an enjoyable task to do. Even if you simply buy printable invitation cards and run them through your printer to add the text, you can customize each card and even do fun things inside them with graphics and styles to make them stand out. Even if you decide to hand design each card, people receiving them will know you’ve put personal time, effort and thought into something as trivial as the invitation. That kind of attention to detail is going to make for an entertaining party!

I Want My Mummy Halloween Border Paper

So take a look at the different styles of invitations out there, pick one or two you like and sit down and make them your own. Whether you’re planning a lively party, or a scary haunted house, you don’t have to start from absolute scratch to get a great customized, totally cool Halloween invitation and the rest of it is pure fun!

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