Plan smart. A good party planner makes sure to have everything thought out in advance and put together. Start
early with your planning, especially when it comes to the holidays.
Be prepared for everything. Putting things together in advance and making sure to have extras tucked away
for that unexpected guest will make things go smoothly. Have a wide variety of hot and cold beverages to offer. Remember the
sugar bowl and creamer. Have everything stocked and ready to go.
Pick out the date early. People's schedules quickly get filled up around the holidays. It doesn't
have to be on Christmas Eve or even the weekend before; you can do a weeknight party or even wait until right after Christmas.
Do whatever works best for you and you think will work well for your guests as well. Along with this, you will want to get
your invites out quickly to make sure people save that date.
Keep your guest list organized. Have all of your invitees listed and leave room to mark regrets and acceptance
so you know just how much you need to prepare for.
Figure
out the logistics. Map out where you'll have everything and place settings if you're doing a sit-down dinner. Know in
advance if furniture or other objects will need to be moved around to make room for your guests, gifts, and food.
Set a timeline of when things need to be done. Include during
the party so you don't run out of time to open gifts or do grab bags or whatever you want to make sure you have time for.
You don't want guests leaving before having had dinner or opening gifts because you spent too much time on one thing.
Plan your recipes in advance and try them out ahead of time.
You don't want to be trying something new at the party. Know exactly what you're going to make and make sure you can execute
it the night of the party.
Enjoy your guests.
Don't be in the kitchen the entire time your guests are there. You should have the bulk of the cooking done beforehand. Sit
down, chat with them, and don't spend too much time with just one group of people. Work the whole room.
Delegate tasks to others when possible. Don't try to do it all
on your own. If you have a good friend who's a talented drink master, then get him to serve drinks to your guests. Put someone
on music detail to keep the music going. If at all possible, hiring people to serve might make things easier as well.
