Party planning: learn from my wins and mistakes.

I am not an event planner in any way, shape, or form. However, I recently planned a surprise party for my sister with a “RIP to my twenties” theme. It was an absolute joy to plan, prepare, and set up everything. Along the way, I had a rollercoaster of ideas, emotions, and events that occurred. But, with positivity and support, I was able to manage it all.

Despite being my first time planning an event, I learned a lot from the experience. I made some wise mistakes that will better prepare me for the next one. So, without further ado, I would like to share my insights on what was essential and what was not while planning the party, including tips on choosing the best venue, cake, food, games, and music. Rest assured, the party was a huge success. Everyone was happy, and most importantly, the birthday girl was surprised.

Our good friend on the left, My sister AKA the birthday girl in the middle, and myself on the right.

Alright, let’s dig in!

Venue: I went through multiple venues and I would say this was one of my top concerns (besides cake but I’ll get into that later). I ended up having the party at an amenity room in one of the buildings nearby our own home. I did this so that I would be able to save on the venue location so that I could spend more on other items. BUT that does not mean I made the right choice. When looking into a venue for a birthday, especially if you have any decorations that need to be put up, you will need to think of the following:

Number of people coming which helps you determine the size of venue. There was 16 people at our party and the venue size was approx. 500 square feet. We could have had an additional five people in there and it would have been no issue.

A rough idea of what type of decorations you will need. Are you taping anything to the wall? Are you allowed to tape anything up and is there paint on the wall? If so, BE CAREFUL. I ended up using balloon tape because of the balloon garland I had and there was no way of me removing the balloon tape strip without it removing the paint. I highly recommend using a balloon arch stand or assembling an arch with the balloons itself so that the wall is not used as a crutch. I ended up damaging the walls and now I’ll have to pay for it.

The type of furniture and tableware you will need. You might think guests can stand for hours, but they would rather not. We did have enough chairs and sofas, but many venues I looked into do not have any so you would have to rent them. I did not have enough tables so I had to buy an outdoor picnic table from Canadian Tire and cover it with a silver foil tablecloth. Honestly, it was worth it – I got it for a pretty decent price and it was a last minute purchase. The picnic table is not the one used in the photo above. For my cupcake stand, I went to Party City and I got these disposable stands which worked perfectly for my set up.

Cake & Sweets: Looking for someone who can create the perfect cake in terms of flavor and design is not an easy task. Although it’s easy to find someone to make the cake, most of them have pretty tight schedules, so it would be wise to start looking for someone at least three weeks in advance. I had an unfortunate experience when I placed an order with one person, I didn’t hear from them, so I panicked and placed my order with someone else with only one week to spare. Luckily, I explained my situation to the second person, and they did me a huge favor by taking my order so late. I ordered my cake, as well as some custom cookies and cupcakes, from Sweet Treats by Alicia, and she did NOT disappoint. If you live in the greater Vancouver area, I highly recommend ordering from her! The cake’s flavor and design were both 10/10. Here’s a picture of the cake (I got inspired by some designs on Pinterest). There was a fresh and tart raspberry filling on the inside + chocolate!

This is called a coquette cake and those are black wax candles we stuck on right before the bday girl blew out the candles.

Games: Whether or not you need games for your party depends on various factors such as the number of guests, the type of gathering, and the size of the party you’re planning. We decided to mix things up by playing a game called “What would the birthday girl rather do?”. I prepared sheets with ten questions that guests had to answer, and then we sat in a circle to listen to the birthday girl’s responses. It was a lot of fun because everyone tried to persuade the birthday girl to change her answers. Afterward, we put the birthday girl on the spot by asking her questions about her 20s. It was easy to do because our group was relaxed, and there was no judgment. However, this may not be as easy with a larger crowd or in a professional setting.

Decoration: It can be difficult to determine which store, whether online or physical, offers the best prices for all the items you need. Additionally, convenience is also a crucial factor to consider. For instance, when I needed to purchase the “RIP TO MY TWENTIES” balloons in the first photo, I found that buying them on Amazon was more cost-effective than purchasing letter balloons separately. In addition to these, I also used black and silver 9-inch and 12-inch balloons. If you plan on having balloons stick to the ceiling like I did, it’s important to use a helium tank and 12-inch balloons, as they look better.

When I first had the idea for the sparkling silver foil background, I thought that the amount of silver foil I had bought would be enough. But clearly, it wasn’t quite enough to cover everything. Still, we managed to get some great shots that worked perfectly for the setup. If I had had a bigger budget, I would have loved to go all out and cover the entire room in shiny silver foil – I just loved the look of it so much!

I based my decoration purchases on this process list below:

Week 1: Look into pinterest for ideas.
Week 1&2: Look into sites such as Amazon, Party City, Canadian Tire, and Dollarama for item availability and prices.
Week 2: How soon can I get the items? Does the item look like the inspo photos, does it follow the theme, and is the price worth it?
Week 2: Order or purchase the items.
Week 3&4: Review the items in person (especially if they were ordered online) for any problems.

This was a rough plan I prepared for myself so that I hold myself accountable and ahead of any deadlines. The last thing I wanted was to have any problems arise on the day of set-up, and even with all my meticulous planning, I still had a few problems arise. Now, the party was very simple, but even so I had to make sure I planned everything out early because that’s the kind of person I am.

Printing: If you are planning to print any posters, cards, sheets, I urge you to get to the print shop seven business days in advance so that you receive prints a day or two before the party. This is the most time consuming process. It took four business days for my poster to print via Canva for pick-up at Staples. I’m not even mad about it because I love the poster I printed, I’m just glad I did it when I did.

Music: I had a stressful time searching for a reasonably priced Bluetooth speaker with great sound for the party. I watched several YouTube reviews of different products to narrow down my options, and ultimately decided on the Soundcore Glow Mini. This small speaker has amazing sound quality, bass, and clarity at a very affordable price. It worked perfectly for my 500 square-foot space, but if I had a larger room, I would simply get two and sync them via its own app to play music simultaneously.

You don’t even know how happy I am with purchasing the black sunglasses for the party. It matched the theme, it was meant to hide our teary eyes from the end of a decade, and was great fun for all the photos. And I miraculously bought sunglasses (two different types) that matched everyone at the party! These are the fashion sunglasses I bought online! And the best part was, everyone got to take them home as a party favor!