#1 Awesome way to make your party memorable if you don’t have a strict budget!

So here it is, as promised – based on my observation of a few thousand parties, what’s the best way to make your party memorable if you don’t have a strict budget?

The most memorable parties have a theme.

Now I know what you are thinking, dress up parties are dime a dozen, but I want to assure you that the parties that I most remember (and this is just as a worker there, not even as a guest) and the party memories that I see being most recalled by people years later, are about theme parties that are done very, very well.

This is what I know from evil science and direct experience that has made parties awesome:

1.       Get the key people involved early

2.       Dress up and make sure your close friends do too

3.       Supply costume

4.       Appeal to all of people’s senses – sight, sound, smell, taste and touch

That’s all you need to know, but if you want more explanation and elaboration, read on!

Involve your key guests in the choosing of the theme. This makes it easier to choose a good thee but more importantly it gets the key people who will make the party fun and memorable engaged very early in the process. If you need a resource for choosing good themes this one has helped me for my parties! I went to a “Princess & Princesses” theme party last year where all of the key female guests has absolutely amazing gowns and awesome tiaras that were welcoming people and introducing them to other guests and it was really memorable – they not only looked great but I could see that there was a key group of 10 girls that really cared about the party being great for everyone.

Ensure that your costume is totally out there. This is often overlooked. People will remember that you wore a full suit of armor, a penguin suit or a onesie complete with bum flap. Choose a very flamboyant costume that represents the core of the theme. For example I went to a toga party and the host was not wearing a toga. He was wearing a Julius Caesar outfit; a toga but also a wreath woven through a crown as well as jeweled arm and leg plates and sandals, with a huge silver chalice and a sword – they were the absolute centerpiece of the evening.

Let key people know how much trouble you are going to with the theme and let them help you. Letting key people know all of the key parts of the party that will make it awesome and allowing them to take responsibility for one part of it allows them to feel ownership and will also make your night easier!

Make this invitation clearly reflect the theme. Be creative and embody the theme in your invitation – I was recently invited to a retro party where the invitation was printed in the text plate of 7 inch vinyl record and sent to me in a record sleeve. This made me both want to come and also want to dress up because I could see that the host was all about the theme. If you need help designing an inviatation, try Crowdspring or oDesk!

Decorate the people more than the tables. I see a lot of people spend a huge amount of time and money decorating the tables. They are important but they don’t make any impact if everyone isn’t dressed up. I went to a back to school party last month and the host has bought 100 school ties from a big op shop from the $2 bin and picked up a whole bunch  of grey and white school shirts as well as a range of tartan skirts in lots of sizes – it was $400 well spent because when guests arrived out of costume he got them to dress up from the bits provided. For people who has dressed up there was a face painter going around putting freckles on people faces and band aids on their knees and issuing them with rulers to smack each other on the butt with. With absolutely everyone dressed up, this party was a blast!

Decorate the tables more than the walls. So use most of your decorations budget on people, but save some for the tables – good themed centerpieces really set a great context for the whole party. They don’t have to be large, what matters is that they are in theme – I went to an under the sea party about 5 years ago. In the middle of each table was a fish bowl with lots of weed with a deep sea diver statue at the bottom single goldfish swimming around in it. It really set the tone for the theme!

Let the music set the scene. At the end of the night when people are drunk & dancing, just play songs they like, but for the first hour or two as people are arriving play music that is theme. I saw this done with massive impact at a superheroes party where for the first hour the music was all hero themes from batman to bond, the pink panther and everything n between. It was only about 20 songs but it really set the scene because when the theme song that people has dressed to came on they cheered and got on the dance floor to strut their stuff – it really broke the ice right at the start of the night,

Lighting matters! The easiest way to make the room look right over all is with lighting. You can spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on elaborate room sets. Good lighting, if combined with themed centerpieces and everyone dressed in theme will save dollars and allow the room to work for your theme. For example I went to a fire & ice ball recently and the only room set beyond an ice statue of a fire in the centre of each table was an led light under each statue that switched from blue to red every few minutes as well as really intense blue and red color changing lights spilling up the centre of each wall ot the room. It was simple, classy and absolutely embodied the theme.

Involve themed service providers. I went to a circus themed party for about 200 people for a 21^st. It was in a person’s back yard. One of the things I most remember was that they had a bouncy castle. It only cost them $300 for 3h, but I can tell you, I DJed at that party over a decade ago and I can still remember the people lining up in their circus costumes for a shot on that castle! I also went to a Mexican Party where there was a 4 foot tall man in a matador outfit running along the bar giving people lay back shots of tequila. Unforgettable!

Use propos that create smells and tastes in the theme. I went to a carnival theme party many years ago. I it was in someone’s front yard. I can still remember the smell of fairy floss and the Dagwood dog and donuts that I was served as my lunch. Smells and tastes make very lasting emotional impressions – use them to your advantage!

Make a fuss over the people who dress up. This helps people remember what was particular about your day – the most effective way I’ve seen this done is not with “winners” like a prom queen, but with group activities – I went to a Latin party where they got everyone in costume to do the limbo and then gave everyone a prize when they count skip the bar, with the prizes betting better toward the end, but everyone got a prize. I also went to an 80s night where they got all the people who dressed up to compete in a hula hoop comp and gave them all snap bands as a prize – it really got the dance floor pumping!

So, get the key people involved early, dress up and make sure your close friends do too, supply costumes and appeal to all of peoples senses – sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, and you will create a lifelong impression