I hope you enjoyed the first post in this series by Events by Nat with some great styling and business tips.
This post we hear from the talented Johanne from Mum’s Little Party Secret who not only offers party styling but also runs an online party store and has fantastic party hire items in Queensland (which you can see below).
She has shared some great party planning tips for mum’s as well as some business advice for other mum’s in business!
Party Planning and Styling Secrets
1. Themed parties are still a popular choice for birthdays. Old time classics like pirate and fairy parties are still number one favourites for younger children. When creating a themed birthday party choose a theme that is of interest with your children and age appropriate. If your children are old enough – discuss this with them and encourage them to be involved in the planning process. Consider asking your guests to come dressed in costume. A great way for little imaginations to run wild.
2. Don’t get caught into the trap of decorating with over commercialised cartoon characters. Instead choose a colour scheme that represents your theme. Say for example a Pirate Party; you could use the traditional black, red & grey with skulls and crossbones or for a softer touch, light blue, red and grey with cute pirate characters. Decorate with bunting, hessian and pirate style props.
3. Personalise your party where possible. You can personalise pretty much everything – bunting, cupcake picks, napkin ties, straw flags and even drink bottles. Personalise with your children’s names and age celebrating or even personalise with your guests names. This is a great tip when labelling drink bottles. No little mix-ups. A personalised thank you message attached to take home gift bags is always a nice touch.
4. Organise age appropriate games for your little guests. We suggest 2 or 3 games. This will still allow enough time for play time.
5. When it comes to food, keep it simple and again age appropriate. Make you children’s favourite foods and sweets. Keep a balance of healthy options as well as little treats. Favourites are cupcakes, cake pops, fruit kebabs, jelly cups and of course lollies. An important tip is to check with parents for any food allergies.
6. The number one tip that we can offer when planning and styling your next birthday party is to remember who the party is for. Transport yourself back to childhood and remember what you used to love. Join in and enjoy the day with your children. You will not regret it. Celebrate their lives together and together you will create magical memories.
Business Advice for Mums in Business
1. Have a 5 year plan and balance your time. Realise everything can’t get done in one day and sleep is important.
Have strict times that you work to and from and don’t deviate from this.
If you let your business take over your life you will miss out on the most important thing – spending time with your family.
Thank you Jo for sharing such important and valuable party tips and business advice!
Life’s Little Celebrations is launching a new service to help you with your party styling needs which I announced in this post! Perfect for busy mums who want to remain hands on with party planning but want extra inspiration or detailed ideas and sourcing of items to save them time!
Our services include inspiration boards (including inspiration boards for specific aspects of your party if that is all your need) as well as the most comprehensive party styling pack you can wish for, e-mailed to you based on your requirements, vision, colour scheme and budget! For more information please pop in here.
Now for a fantastic giveaway to celebrate this launch!!
Rosanna Decor Bon Bon Footed Bowl - My Garden Party
To celebrate the launch of our new online party styling service & inspiration boards, we are giving you the chance to win a free Online Party Theme Styling pack (from Life’s Little Celebrations) AND a gorgeous Rosanna Decor Bon Bon square footed bowl from My Garden Party!
I’ll also be drawing a 2nd prize to win a custom Inspiration board!
My Garden Party is a new unique party shop & hire service offering children’s tables and chairs for hire. They have vintage and new chairs to make your garden party extra special for your little one, a beautiful range of partyware will also be available when they launch in November 2011. In the meantime look for them on Facebook.
You have the opportunity to gain 2 entries to this competition! To enter:
1. View the Rosanna Products photo album on the ‘My Garden Party’ facebook page and then comment below on this blog post stating which is your favourite cake stand! = 1 entry
2. Subscribe to the Life’s Little Celebrations blog using the subscription link on the right hand side of this blog and then comment on this blog post to state that you have done this= 2nd entry
That gives you 2 fantastic opportunities to enter this giveaway!
We’d love for you to share this competition with your friends! Don’t forget to tag us if you do =)
A few simple conditions:
1. Entries close on Wednesday 14th September at 8:00pm (AEST) when the winner will be drawn randomly and announced on this blog.
2. Entries are strictly limited to people located within Australia
Thank you and good luck!
Note: This is a bit of a wordy post so I’ve dabbled in some pretty inspiration throughout 🙂
Since I started this blog I have received so much lovely, encouraging and positive feedback about how these posts have helped you, inspired you and saved you time in your party planning for your little one’s celebrations. This was the whole point of this blog and I am truly happy that I have been able to help all of you who visit my blog and have become part of the facebook community as well!
Icecream Truck party - Kara's Party Ideas
Embarking on this blog has also helped me realise how much I enjoy providing this service and how it is a much needed service. After being approached by a mum to assist her with sourcing of products for her upcoming child’s party I decided that this was a service I wanted to offer to other mum’s as well.
So today I launch my Online Party Theme Styling service ! Perfect for those of you who want to be hands on with the planning for your little one’s celebration but would like to save time regarding sourcing items & ideas and seeing what would work together.
Tea Party 'Down the Rabbit Hole' - Blue Satin Sashes blog
If you have found my blog posts useful, imagine something like this tailored for you specifically based on your theme, colour scheme, budget, requirements, tastes etc – all e-mailed to you in an electronic document with hyperlinks. It would save you hours of time and help you source some gorgeous as well as practical items! This is what you receive in a “Complete Theme Styling Pack“.
If you are after something smaller then I am also offering Inspiration boards, again tailored to your specific requirements offering either overall inspiration or inspiration for just a specific aspect of your party you want assistance with (Eg: decorations).
Confetti system bronze garland - Third Drawer Down
I put in hours of time into finding unique items for various party themes and you can be assured I will contribute the same amount of thought and effort into these services for you.
You can find more details of my new services here.
I will still be blogging suggested party items for various themes and endeavour to showcase some wonderful ideas to you. My future blog posts will be great starting points for your theme planning however my Complete Theme Styling pack will provide a much larger range of ideas all tailored to your needs.
Ferris Wheel Cupcake Holder - Horchow
In addition to this I will also be doing blog posts showcasing fabulous party finds and general party items which could fit into a range of themes (eg: vintage items, girly items etc)!
Rosanna Decor Bon Bon White Footed Square Bowl - My Garden Party
To celebrate the launch of this new service I will holding a giveaway where you have the chance to win a Complete Theme Styling Pack AND a gorgeous Rosanna Decor Bon Bon Footed Bowl (courtesy of My Garden Party) for first prize, and an Inspiration Board for 2nd prize.
Details will be posted up tomorrow on how to enter, so keep an eye out for this!
In the meantime you can view more details of my new services here.
Thank you for your support and encouragement!
