All About Color

Mardi Gras is a festival of colors. This should be emphasized not only in your decorations but also in your invitations and even in utensils. Look for banners, streamers and paper ribbons that can be used as decorations. Cover the backyard with different colors to perfectly capture the Mardi Gras feel of New Orleans.

Hold a Costume Party

The appeal of Mardi Gras is not only on the celebration of Fat Tuesday. It is also a celebration of freedom and self expression. Include in your invitation a note that they can come in any costume they want. A good idea to have a ballroom party but since you’re going to have it in your backyard, let your guests choose the type of dress they want to wear.

To encourage your guests, prepare a special prize for guests who wear something outrageous or really unique for the party. Include this in your invitation so that they can prepare the costume.

Masks and Beads

Mardi Gras parties in New Orleans are never complete without masks or beads. Have a small budget for different types of masks and beads or you can encourage your guests to bring their masks for the party. Also, have a special prize for someone who comes in with interesting concept for masks. You can order the beads you need for the party online. It could be a bit expensive for authentic New Orleans beads so look for bargain beads so that you can still have fun without spending too much.

Food and Music

Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday which is a day of fasting. Inform your guests to bring something for the party while you prepare barbeque and drinks for everyone to enjoy. To keep with the spirit of New Orleans Mardi Gras, music should be jazz or blues.

The mistake that most people make when planning a lingerie party is to take the lingerie as the main theme and then go from there.  While lingerie can certainly be part of the party, you need to be more specific when you are thinking about thematic ideas.  Only specificity will allow you to plan a party from start to finish and that means that everything from the place settings all the way up to how lingerie will fit into your party needs to be defined.

Typically, a lingerie party takes place when the people attending the party exchange gifts of lingerie with each other.  Wives or women in long-term relationships are the traditional people that come to lingerie parties, but they do not necessarily have to be the only people there.  People that are willing to have a good time looking at lingerie and dishing on the lives of the other people at the party should be welcome no matter what their background might be.

Of course, if you have some good friends that are more conservative in style, you might get some resistance to the idea of throwing a lingerie party.  If you can’t convince them to make an exception in this case, you should be respectful of their views and find a way to include them in the party.

Instead of lingerie for example, they could exchange swimsuits as well.  This is a unique lingerie party idea that can be all-inclusive and enhance the fun that everyone has at your party.  Changing over from lingerie to swimsuits (or at the very least combining the two ideas into one party) is also a good way to get men involved that might otherwise be lukewarm to the idea of attending a lingerie party.

Most people are aware of what healthy fruits and vegetables are out there.  Things like celery stalks are perhaps not the best for parties because they are not particularly tasty.  However, fruit slices of apples and pears can never go wrong because of how tasty they are.  If you want something different, you can go for plums, peaches or even more exotic fruits like kiwi, all of which are absolutely delicious.  All of these foods are good for you and as that added bonus they are all extremely healthy.

If the straight up healthiest snack foods are not really appealing for you, maybe you’d be more comfortable taking a closer look at some of the other healthier options to pop and chips that are out there.  Fruit juices are healthier than pop and many of them still taste good.  Lemonade on a hot day is probably more refreshing than cola and it is definitely a lot healthier.  The same is true for crackers and peanut butter in comparison to chips.  Crackers are healthier and many people would rate them tastier than chips.

These are only the most obvious healthy party snack ideas that are out there.  Obviously, there are many others available if you use your own creativity to come up with tasty and healthy snack food combinations.  The point is that you don’t always have to default to chips and pop.  They are tasty for sure, but they are not healthy.  If you can find foods that your guests will love but which are healthier than junk food, you’ll definitely be doing yourself and your guests a big favor down the road.  They may not thank you for it, but their bodies certainly will.

If you are someone that is thinking about an expensive party but does not really want to spend the money needed in order to make that party dream into a reality, it might be a good idea to start taking a look at ways to avoid that expensive party.  Even though expensive parties can be really fun, money does not necessarily guarantee fun and it will put a big dent in your pocketbook regardless of whether you and your guests have fun or not.

This is why you need to take a close look at ways to reduce the cost of your party.  Parties can still look expensive without actually being expensive.  Instead of using expensive materials for example, why not buy materials from your local discount crafts or materials store instead?  You can also buy them online for costs that are pennies on the dollar compared to what they would cost you at an expensive party supplies store.

Going back to basics is another way for you to save a lot of money.  Instead of spending hundreds of dollars for different yet entertaining decorations, something as simple as a bag of balloons can be bought.  Balloons are dirt cheap yet you can have fun blowing them up and your guests can have fun playing with them during the party.  The same is true for many other cheaper party supplies.

The important thing for you to realize here is that expensive party ideas can be modified slightly to maintain the quality yet remove the expense.  It does take some creative thinking from you to accomplish, but in the end it definitely can be done.