Party Planning 101- part 1

So- people always ask me how I go about planning my parties.  I just hosted my daughter, Charlotte's 6th birthday party and I thought it would be fun to share what goes into creating the party before featuring the actual party. She is a twin and has always shared her birthday with her brother.  This year, they both protested and insisted on their own party.  I was happy to oblige- just meant one more party to create!

Party Planning Step 1- Theme

Obviously the first thing that goes into a party is picking a theme.  There is a tremendous amount of resources out there which are great to draw inspiration from.  I usually settle on a theme for the party 6-10 months before the actual event:) Yes, I know crazy long but this gives me a lot of time to create the event in my mind and to be on the look out for ideas and party props.   For Charlotte's birthday, I settled on this theme last July.  I have had the theme for my daughter, Audrey's November birthday since last December.  This extra time also allows me to come up with the party plan and then "sell" it to my each of my children. (I've also thrown parties together in 2 day, like my silver and white one, so don't panic or quit reading.  You don't really need to choose one that far ahead.. I just like to.)

When I was trying to come up with the theme for Charlotte's birthday, I wanted 3 things-

1. It needed to be new and fresh- something I hadn't really seen much.
2.  I wanted the party to be based around a simple object.  I had recently seen a party based on the line drawing of a firetruck.  I loved how simple and graphic it was.  I wanted the same for this party.
3.  Most importantly, it had to be based on something that reminded me of Charlotte.

So I started running objects and themes through my mind (think of alphabet cards)
immediately apple popped up. Perfect for #1 and #2 but how did it relate to Charlotte?  As it conveniently worked out, my husband calls Charlotte "Charlie Pie", which took me to apple pie which lead me to "Apple Of My Eye."

I quickly jumped on the computer and searched for apple of my eye parties and apple parties.  I found one apple of my eye party for a boy in 2009 and one or two baby showers with apple of my eye as a theme.  I was pretty surprised because the theme seemed perfect for a party.  Next, I looked on Etsy.  There were a few invites matching my theme but they were all in red and green and leaned towards harvest.  I wanted neither.  I decided to use pink and green as a color scheme and wanted a feel that was more modern and graphic than a harvest would be.

Apple of My Eye!

Theme picked, and basically, I crossed my fingers for the last 7 months hoping it wouldn't become too popular. I only hit one snag when my dear friend, neighbor and extraordinary party planner, Lauren, whose works I've shared here and here, told me in December that she was having an Apple Of My Eye party for her daughter, who's birthday is six days before Charlotte's.  Lauren graciously came up with a different (amazing) theme, but knowing that Lauren would have had an incredible party, made me step it up!

Come back tomorrow for part 2:)   Hope this helps!
XO