What’s Cheap and What’s Awesome to Have at My Party?

So, what are the 3 cheapest ways to make a house party great?

And what are the 3 most awesome things that you can do that people will remember?

Well, I don’t know for sure, but I’m going to make some suggestions over the next few weeks  from my experience in organizing and attending these sorts of shows over the past decade.

Cheap & Effective #1: Buying your own booze and getting your crazy uncle to be the bar tender.

This has definitely been a big one for me – so many times I’ve seen people do this well. Your uncle, you know, the crazy one; ask him if he wants to be the bar tender – he will usually say yes!

From there, you need:

2 long fold up trestles  – you can hire these, borrow them from someone on your block, or buy them at a hardware store for quite cheap. Or you can do what I saw at one party and lay two wooden doors down on a pile of hay bales. It actually looked quite cool!

2 large black table cloths. These get soaking wet in the first 15 minutes but no one cares because they soak the drips of the table so you don’t have to wipe it down.

Ice. You need 4 bags plus one for each 10 people at the party.

Stackable plastic 52-68l buckets. These are large buckets – you put the ice in them to keep the drinks cold. You ca buy them at the hardward store.

Glasses: Hire hard plastic glasses – this ends up being about the same cost as crappy plastic throw aways, but much cheaper than hiring proper glasses because they don’t break so you don’t get charged for breakage. Also stops your female guests cutting their feet when they dance barefoot & drunk across the lawn.

Booze: My advice: Soft drink, bubbly, red & white wine, beers and ready to drink only, and beer and ready to drink only after speeches. Why? 2 reasons:

Firstly your uncle isn’t a pro bar tender. None of the these drinks require mixing or ice. Make his life easy, he will make your guests happy.

Secondly, spirits at house parties and bottles of wine & bubbly swigged after speeches often end up in an ambulance call or you cleaning up a lot of mess the next day. Make your night smooth and the next day easy by keeping to lower alcohol drinks, especially later in the night.

Cloths: Use tea towels – they can soak up spills and be wrung out on the lawn when they get too wet.

Goooood huntin'!

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