Finding a Planner

The easiest way in finding an event planner is through friends and families. They can give you a personal review or experience of a specific event planner. Your friends can also comment on their organization style and their ability to handle large groups of people. This is a very effective way of finding an event planner since your taste or preferences are most likely the same with your friends and family.

If your friends and family have never experienced working with an event planner, visit a hotel or the place you’ll rent where the party will happen. The manager will have a few recommendations as event planners have most likely worked there. You can also consult some magazines and newspapers for any posting of an event planner.

The Interview Process

You have to interview each possible event planner. This is very important since you have to know their experience, their organizational skills and their creativity on handling your event. You have to look for someone who shares the same vision for your party so that the event planner will execute your ideas as closely as possible. Talk to as many event planners as possible in advance. It is highly recommended that you already have an event planner at least six months before the said event. Also be sure to ask about the cancellation fees and other payments related to hiring the planner.

Insurance

This is often ignored but only realized when something wrong happens to the party.  Talk to the event planner about their insurance which is used to cover when something goes wrong with the party. Although a good event planner will make sure your party will go as expected, they are also insured to protect their interest and the interests of their clients.

Party Invitations

Avoid any boring design for your invitation by personally designing your invites. Here’s one idea: place the logos of every team your friends support. Print it out in a bookmark-shaped invitation to make it look like a ticket for a basketball game. Make sure you use high quality paper when printing the invitation or else your invitation will look really cheap. Distribute them at least two weeks ahead so that your friends could accommodate your invitation.

Party Decorations

Keep your decorations for your party simple but that doesn’t mean you’ll never have anything on the walls. Look for posters and banners of different NBA teams and strategically place them in different areas. Complement the decoration with some small basketball hoops. You could even have a game where you have a shooting contest using the small hoops you installed for the party.

You could also set-up your television so that you can show basketball videos. This is very ideal if your goal is to have your friends around to watch the game. This is even better if you have two television sets so that you have two televisions playing the same video. This will allow your friends to enjoy the game anywhere.

The Right Time for Party

Here’s the tricky part: since the game usually starts early in the evening, you also have an option to have a dinner party. But you can simplify things by letting your friends know that they bring something for everyone to enjoy. It could be beer, food or any other drinks. This will help cut costs without disappointing everyone.

With the right preparation and little creativity, you can have a fun NBA theme party with your friends. It doesn’t have to be expensive as you and your friends gather to enjoy the sport with little food and drinks on the side.

Favorite Sport and Activity

Popular party favors for adults in a retirement party are often based on the retiree’s favorite sport or activity. A good example is personalized golf balls, caps or small fishing rods. Personalization is simply done by engraving the retiree’s name on these items. Don’t worry about the rate – there are party providers that specialize on these items and they often provides discount on bulk orders. Engraving would require additional fee so you have to haggle a bit to get a better rate. You can also consider the favorite activities of the couple (if retiree is married). For example, you can give out passport holders if the couple is very interested in traveling.

Food and/or Drink Package

Don’t worry if you’re on a tight budget but still would like to give out some party favors. Instead of items, consider handing out food or drinks as party favors. Create a small gift basket and neatly wrap them as gifts. To make it personalized, choose the favorite food and drinks. You could give out tea or coffee packages or small bottles of wine depending on the retiree’s preferences. The only tricky part is on gift wrapping as you have to carefully arrange the gifts before wrapping them and handing them out to guests.

If you have some extra funds to spend on party favors, a good idea is to have these packages personalized. Don’t just limit yourself to some tea and drinks; have them personalized with customized pack. A popular party favor for adults are lemonade, tea or any drink packed with the name of the retiree. This can be used for different types of celebrations including retirement parties.

Add more life and memories to the party with the right party favors. The options are almost endless as long as you make sure these gifts will provide good memories for the retiree.

Shopping Days After the Season is Over

Christmas lights and Christmas decorations are no longer in demand after the holidays. Naturally, prices will significantly drop. This is your chance to purchase products related to Christmas. Aside from getting a lot of items in discount, this is also a form of pre-holidays shopping. When you purchase the items you want in advance for the holidays, you only have to think of the holiday gifts.

Create a Cool and Dry Storage Area

An often ignored factor by those who constantly host a party is on how they keep their decorations. Many simply place the items in a box with a mark and place them in the basement. But the conditions of the basement may not be suitable for your decorations. The items will no longer be usable the next time you take them out.

Avoid this problem by creating a space in the basement or anywhere in your room where the items will avoid direct sunlight, humidity and water. You may have to create a container or a rack where you can place the boxes.

Be Creative…be very Creative

Creativity is one of the best ways to save money. It’s very easy to just buy things for the party but people will really appreciate if you add personal effort in preparing the party. Think how you can make simple things special. Some simple learn unique ways of folding papers and table placements and the party setting will look a lot better.

You can learn a lot of things online as many people show their creativity in parties through their blogs and videos. You can even join forums so that you can gain ideas or even ask questions on how to throw a party without digging deep in your pocket.

It All Starts with a Photo Paper and a Bit of Research

The internet is the best source of everything you need for a movie-themed party. If you can’t find an online supplier, you can download photos from the movies and use them as your invitation. Print the invitation in a quality photo paper. This is the first mistake for those who wanted to go cheap in a party as photo papers is very susceptible to heat, water and even dust. You need quality photo paper to at least protect the photo from being destroyed.

Looking for High Resolution Photos

While a simple “Google Image” search will yield the photos you need for the invitation, you need higher resolution photos if you want to print banners or streamers for the party. Instead of looking for photos through search engines; look for their official website. Use their free wallpaper downloads – these are perfect as banners and wallpapers for the party. You may have to spend a little bit for large print format but it’s a good way of getting the right atmosphere for the party.

Utensils, Bottles and Souvenirs

This is your biggest challenge for the party – how to come up with designs for utensils since you can’t order locally or online. If you still have time, you can request some party supplier to help you with this task. Customization will actually cost you but try to bargain with the owner or manager. Since you have come up with the idea, you can trade the design with some discounts. You can also ask them for some assistance on designing the cake.

While you can gather and print out the invitations, banners and have the utensils and souvenirs, it’s still necessary to use your creativity to bring them together. While planning what to print or download, know what you will do with the image to improve the atmosphere of the party.