Birthday Party Tips

The smallest details can make your party extra memorable. Try using scented candles that tie into your theme, like Yankee Candles “Butter Cream” scent for your cupcake party, chocolate scented candles for your Wonka party, or evergreen scented candles for your sow party. 

Kids love balloons, and they can be an inexpensive way to fill the room with your party colors. You can rent a helium tank that will fill approximately 200 balloons, or you can purchase one of the smaller ones from your local party supply store and fill the balloons with helium and tie the ribbons yourself, but it’s hardly worth the sore fingers.  Party supply stores charge approximately 1.00-1.50 per balloon, filled with helium and tied with matching ribbon.  Most will deliver the balloons to your party location the day of the event for a small delivery charge. 

Do you want to try one of our cake designs, but you don’t have the time to bake, not to mention the mess and difficulty of leveling the cake?  You can purchase pre-made, un-frosted cakes from most bakery departments at your local food stores that you can take home and decorate yourself.  Super Target sells them frozen and wrapped in plastic, but you have to ask for them, they are kept in the bakery freezer and not in the display case.  They will even give you the plastic covers for transporting the cake.  You have the option of chocolate or yellow, round or sheet cakes. 

When icing your cake, try the crumb coat technique to avoid cake crumbs mixing in with your frosting.  Spread a thin layer of frosting all over the cake, then put the cake into the freezer for a half hour.  The frosting will harden a bit and allow you to frost the cake like a professional. 

Take lots of pictures!!  Add pictures to the thank you cards of your guests playing party games, or enjoying a nice big piece of birthday cake. 

Providing name tags at the welcome table can be helpful if you do not know all of the children or parents attending your event. 

Do you have a movie projector?  If so, this has the potential to deliver many possibilities at your party. Play a movie in the background that represents your theme. Show a photo-montage of your child’s past birthday parties, music videos, the possibilities are endless!!

If possible, host the party off-site, or NOT IN YOUR HOME.  This helps keep the children focused on the party games and entertainment you have provided instead of playing in your child’s bedroom.  It’s also much easier to clean up your neighborhood clubhouse or local civic center after the party is over.  The flip side is that you have to be a bit more organized in the planning and decorating because the rental room may only be available a couple of hours prior to your event start time. 

Once you decide on a theme, check the post office to see if they have any postage stamps that tie into your theme for your invitations and thank you cards.  Postage stamps can also be purchased online at www.shopusps.com. 

Recently the USPS has offered:

The Simpsons
Landing on the Moon
Quilts (good for barnyard themes)
Cinema (Hollywood or Oscars themes)
Legends of Hollywood
Gerbera Daisies
Sunflowers
Tropical Fruit (Beach Parties)
Silver Coffee Pot (Princess Parties or Tea Parties)
The Art of Disney
Olympic Games
Polar Bear (Snow Parties)

If you can’t find any postage stamps that match your theme, go to www.photostamps.com, where you can order personalized postage stamps with your child’s picture. 

Wilton offers several cake design options complete with step-by-step instructions for do-it-yourselfers.  Even if you don’t want to bake and decorate the cake yourself, this is a great place to gather ideas and print pictures to take to your local baker.  You can search themes at www.wilton.com. 

The Biggest “Party Tip” we can offer is “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff!!”  When there are children involved, accidents will happen.  Just remember, as long as the birthday child and their guests are having the time of their lives, nothing else matters!!