Halloween Party Checklist - How to Plan a Great Party

The fall season lends itself to the Halloween spirit. The long, cold nights seem to go right along with zombies, vampires, goblins, ghosts, and witches. If you choose to host a Halloween party, you just might be expecting quite the turnout of such creepy creatures.

zebra party decorations

How can you start planning your Halloween party?

PARTY DECORATIONS

To start, think about who will be attending. Depending on whether your guests will be kids or adults, the rest of the planning process will be completely different. If the partygoers will be of diverse ages or you want to have an event for the entire family, it will be important to make sure everyone has a good time. That might mean saving scarier fun for after the younger children have gone to bed.

The next step is deciding where and when to throw your party. Once you have a date, time, and location, you can send out invitations, which should naturally follow a Halloween theme. Invitations can be made truly unique, adding fun little touches that go along with the overall scary feeling of Halloween. Take your guests into consideration, though. Not everyone will think it is funny if plastic spiders fall out of their invitations. Ask guests to RSVP so that you can have a number of guests in mind while planning and be sure to remind guests to come dressed in a costume.

The entryway to the party location and any rooms where guests will be should be decorated in such a way so as to set a Halloween mood. The haunted house feel is always a good choice, using ghostly images, dim lighting, scary sound effects, a fog machine, spider webs, and jack-o-lanterns to create an eerie feeling.

After carving out jack-o-lanterns, you will be left with quite a bit of excess pumpkin parts. Consider using that to make pumpkin soup and pie. Other Halloween themed dishes can add a great touch to the festivities. Be careful though, since overdoing the horror theme while decorating might do away with your guests' appetites.

You will also need to decide whether you will be serving snacks and finger food or a full meal. If you go with the latter, you also need to determine if a sit down dinner or a buffet style meal would be better. Party favors are a great addition to meals and they can contain games, jokes, and fun conversation starters for guests to enjoy while eating.

All plans regarding costumes should be handled well in advance, since you need to decide if you will rent, buy, or make them. Halloween costumes are an excellent way to make your guests feel comfortable in a party setting and will get everyone talking. Asking guests to wear masks can also help them feel less self conscious in their costumes and make starting conversations easier.

Halloween Party Checklist - How to Plan a Great Party

PARTY DECORATIONS

Baptismal Party Planning - Checklist For Success

When throwing a baptismal party, it's important that you have all the details arranged prior to the date of the event, so that the entire day can be a meaningful experience. In order to do so, some pre-planning must take place. 

pirate party decorations

First, you must choose and order an appropriate outfit for the baby being baptized. Also, decide who you'd like to be the Godparents and ask them if they would accept this honor. Then it's time to work on the party. A few weeks to a month before the party, you can do the following:

PARTY DECORATIONS

Create a guest list Mail invitations and request that everyone RSVP (You may want to ask people to bring their cameras and request copies of some of the pictures after the party.)  Decide if you'd like a formal or casual party, and begin picking out decorations and party favors accordingly Decide on a menu Order a cake Once the RSVP's start arriving, you can begin to go more in-depth in the party planning. Keep in mind that some people will forget to RSVP and others may have last minute plan changes that won't permit them to attend. A week before the big day, you should:

Shop for the ingredients for your menu, order all prepared food. Make sure you have enough food for everyone - it's always better to have a little extra than not enough. Choose activities for young guests to participate in and determine if you will have an area for the children to play Finish with decorations and baptism party favors so that everything is ready to be set up before the date arrives If you do all of the above ahead of time, you will only have to spend the couple days before the party decorating and putting finishing touches on everything. Then, when the day of the baptism arrives, you can sit back and create memories that will last a lifetime.

Diva Entertains, Copyright 2009

Baptismal Party Planning - Checklist For Success

PARTY DECORATIONS