In every party celebration it is important that the entire area of the event venue is maximized to its full potential specially if you are renting a venue. During parties, we often see rows and rows of chairs lined up in the area, with no tables provided for the guests to eat. Instead they hold their plates with one hand or place it on their laps. The only table in the area is the buffet table. This is applicable for occasions when the event venue cannot support the number of expected guests. Additional chairs will be placed instead of tables to conserve space.
Every occasion calls for tables and chairs, unless you want your guests to sit on the ground. Birthday, corporate event, wedding, fiesta, and graduation—as long as you have guests you need tables and chairs.
As the host of the event, you have to secure these equipment before the event. Venue, food, location, decorations, tables and chairs are some of the most important things you need for your party checklist. The event venue can be set easily, the internet is a reliable companion in doing so. For decorations, you can make them from scratch to save money, buy them, or you can also negotiate with an external renting service. Food can also be home-cooked or you can consult a catering service in your area.
In most cases, we borrow tables and chairs from our neighbors or from the Barangay hall. But what if it is a large gathering at a venue far from your neighborhood? You can still borrow from them but the logistics and the extra labor needed to move and arrange the chairs will be a huge obstacle for you. Or what if it will be a formal occasion? Chairs may not be uniform and vary in size or design if borrowed from different people. This is not a good idea for a formal event. Aside from that, you still have to prepare the table cloths and seat covers.
To save you the effort, expense, and hassle, some catering service providers also provide tables and chairs rental. You might think that renting tables and chairs will be expensive, but in some conditions it will save you some money. First, all the equipment will be uniform and clean. Tables and chairs are of the same size, quality, and style. The consistency will add formality to the venue. Aside from that, you can opt to include table cloths and seat covers in the service. You can suggest an idea for the design, or you can leave it to them. Table clothes can be skirted for a beautiful look, and chairs can also be decorated. Second, it will save you the hassle of borrowing from a lot of people and transporting it too. You won’t have to worry in the set-up also.
Tables and chairs rental are common nowadays for celebrations. It may be a little heavy on your expenses, but think of what it can benefit you. Before availing tables and chairs rental, assess the location first if it can accommodate the set-up. Also, determine how many guests there will be. Make your guests comfortable by letting them eat on a table and not on their lap. So should you rent equipment for your event?
Challenging, tedious, and a little bit expensive—these are just some terms to describe the process of organizing a homecoming or class reunion. Class or batch reunions are held 10 or maybe 20 years after graduation. They can be nostalgic, memorable, and a bit exciting, most especially if you were close with each other.
Challenging, tedious, and a little bit expensive—these are just some terms to describe the process of organizing a homecoming or class reunion. Class or batch reunions are held 10 or maybe 20 years after graduation. They can be nostalgic, memorable, and a bit exciting, most especially if you were close with each other.
In planning a homecoming reunion, here are some tips and steps to guide you effortlessly through the process.
1. Organizing a school reunion takes months, or even years. So, before entering the committee, be sure to have enough time and perseverance to endure the painstaking process. Connect with some people you were able to maintain connection through the years and ask for their cooperation. Set a leader, or someone to head the planning and execution of the class reunion.
2. Retrieve contacts of batch mates or class mates. Engage massive social networking to complete the contacts list. Know their current names, civil status, residence, contact number, and occupation. You can use your year book as a reference or if you have saved your graduation program then you can also refer to it. Don’t do this on your own, rather tap people to look and get the information needed. One of the fastest ways to do this is to create a group in Facebook and allow former classmates to add other people.
3. Updating your contacts list and connecting with former classmates may already take 3 months, so if you have gone past halfway through the peoples list then start preparing the invitations. Create a general invitation and sent it to them via courier service, social media, and print publications. If you have connections, then you can also announce it via broadcast mediums. It setting the date, provide at least 2 months from the day you distributed the invitations. This is for them to save the dates, or notify their attendance. Also, if possible, choose a low-cost venue. You can choose your former school as the venue or have it in a hotel where your batch mates can also stay for the event. Most reunions last for a day and may even extend up to 3 days.
4. Secure financial support. Some classes or schools have ensured savings account or funds for the students to use in the future. But if you don’t have these, then look for sponsors for the mean time. This will help you relieve one load off your chest. Get five or ten people to spare funds for the reunion. And during the event, collect contributions from your former batch mates to refund the money spent and allocate for the future.
5. Don’t offer to cook for the event, unless you can take care of feeding more than a hundred people. Spare yourself and go instead for catering services. Since this will be a whole day event, they can take care of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. This will also provide a spontaneous event, no need for you to be worrying about the distribution of food.
Everyone loves to celebrate. We tend to look forward to getting party invitations from people we know. For some, they say there is an unexplainable feeling of happiness when they get to witness and become a part of the celebration. Others love to attend because they know that delicious food that are not usually served at home will be served there. Just because it’s a party doesn’t mean that you need to spend big. Here are some ways to help you enjoy and throw off an affordable party package. Tipid tips for your party list.
1. Have your party at home! All you need is to rearrange, clean up, and set your house. Free your front yard and living room to create a lot of free space. This will save time and transportation fees on moving food, chair and tables, and decorations from your house to the selected location. Plus, you don’t need to pay any rental fee. You can just borrow the chairs from the barangay hall, and find people to lend tables. Or if not, go to a public park for your celebration! Though you have to mind other people, because you’re not the only ones having a party there.
2. Celebrate with someone else. Collaborate with a friend if their son is also having a birthday party celebration. Or someone in your neighborhood plans to throw a party. Or, if there are two birthday celebrants in one month in your family then set only one celebration. This will really save a lot on food, resources, and money.
3. It’s not that you are picky or ungrateful, but you really have to limit your guests when you want to save on money. Invite people whom you really know, and tell them politely not to bring along their barkada or all of their neighbors along. You’ll spend extra time asking who they are and finding out they are not even related to you in any way. Plus, you’ll have to spend more on food.
4. Hire a catering services provider. You might think this is expensive, but in some ways catering service is cheaper for you. It will save you time grocery shopping, preparing, cooking, and renting wares. Also, narrow down your food choices. Select two or three viands, plus the rice, and dessert. You can opt for plated meals to avoid wasting food and laying a buffet table. Use paper plates and plastic utensils. Or, you can bring out your utensils and plates. Doesn’t matter if they are unmatched or old. Just make sure nobody will bring them home, or you’ll regret buying another set of plates. For the drinks, instead of buying small cans or bottles for drinks, buy the biggest container in bulk so that you can save money. Or buy powdered juice packs, instead of buying 10 bottles of soda.
5. Discover hidden talent in from your relatives or friends. Ask people to help you in organizing and hosting the event. Ask people to lend you a sound system. Talk to a friend to host the event. Another one can prepare games and presentation from your relatives and friends as well. Be an expert in networking, and you’ll find people close to you who can volunteer their talents.
6. Be an expert at Do-It-Yourself stuff. All you need is to be creative. Use items at home. Impress people without spending much.
Kiddie birthday parties are always fun because of so many ideas and themes you can play with. It starts with your child’s favorite cartoon character or TV series and the rest of the creativity can follow. All you need to do is complete the birthday checklist and make it enjoyable for the kids and the adults as well. The key to a good kiddie birthday party is colorful, lots of food, games, and prizes. This year, let’s look at the hottest and most exciting kids party themes to try for your kid’s birthday party.
- Rainbow Party
Mix and match with 7 pretty colors for your kid’s birthday bash with a Rainbow-themed party. Play with Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet. Put assorted balloons following the 7 colors, if you can, use one color of the rainbow for each table. Party hats can also be rainbow colored, and tell you guests to wear clothes from one of the rainbow colors. But, the rainbow-themed party doesn’t stop there. Be innovative with the food by coloring them too! Aside from that, provide cookies that are colored too, plus gummy bears! Kiddie guests will never get tired of the colors and the treats.
- Hobby party
What does your child love to do? Or where do they excel in? Give them a boost by linking their interests with their birthday celebration! If your child has talent in music, then surprise them with a piano decorated cake. You can also serve chocolate bars with keyboard-like topping designs. Or if they like arts, then be artistic and colorful with the decorations and the food. Other interests might be sports, math, or board games. You can also customize the invitations and goody bags to match your kid’s interests.
- Robots party
My Big Hero, Transformers, what other machine-related movies went out this year? Robot-themed parties are a classic, and you might want to throw on for your son too. Choose metallic colors like silver, gray, white, and blue and use these to decorate the venue. Design the banner, goody bags, hats, and invitations with famous robotic characters. For the prizes, you may want to hand out robot toys like do-it-yourself robot cardboard box and other cute things.
- Asian party
This is a cute way to celebrate your daughter’s birthday party. Dress her in a mini kimono and parasol and play with the colors pink and green. The decorations are easy, paper lanterns can work. Serve Asian cuisines like Buchi, Fried Noodles, and Chinese Chicken Style Fried Chicken that kids will surely love. Also, instead of a cake, serve cupcakes with mini parasols attached to them. Don’t forget the fortune cookies, and Ang Paos filled with treats.
- Tea Party
Make your little guests feel like grown-ups with a tea party! This is good for snack parties, instead of a lunch or dinner. Prepare bread and pastries for the kids to much on. Oatmeal cookies, pretzels, ensaymada, ladies fingers, muffins and banana cue are some of the options you can serve. Instead of tea, serve natural fruit juice or hot chocolate for the children. Ask for the kiddie guests to wear dresses, and lay-out charming tea cups in a garden venue.
In our previous Birthday Party Celebration Tips article we ended up with number 3. For this article, we will start with that one.
3. Add unusual booths like Vendo Machines, Wheeled Candy Carts, Photo booth, etc.
Instead of providing a table for drinks, rent a vendo machine where guests can get their drinks by inserting a special coin or a peso coin for donation. All the money to be collected will not go to you, but for a special charity or to the church where you held your wedding ceremony. You can also add a Photo Booth or Instagram Booth, but in this case the photos will be printed and not uploaded. Bring back the value of developed photos with this creative booth.
Some celebrations might take long, and people just want to keep on eating. Provide snack tables for them. One creative idea is to put mini chocolates in different sizes in big jars, add sprinkles, pretzels, and gummy bears. Then provide cups where the guest can scoop up the snack of their choice. Or hire people to walk around carrying several sweets, they may look like the food vendors during a baseball or football game. Another version of this is a Wheeled Candy Cart. Or you can hire a Sorbetes cart, or Street Food cart. Guests will surely go crazy on these additions.
4. Own your menu. Instead of getting the whole family to prepare and cook the food, why not go for food catering? You can suggest your personal preferences, and even ask them to make your favorites and family recipes. Offer something new and exotic during your event, and you will feel like a guest in your own party. Try mixing different cuisines from different places, and remove the usual party foods like Spaghetti, Adobo, and Fried Chicken. Go crazy with Ramen, Baked Fries, and our own Kakanin. Lay-out your own favorite foods to amaze you instead of plating the usual foods to please your guests.
5. Discover talent from your family. Ask them to make presentations that you have in mind, like a video timeline of you and your mom. Ask relatives to sing your favorite songs instead of playing them in the speakers. Create witty games or play traditional games you love to play.
6. Honor your ancestors by making your wedding a bit like where you came from. If you’re from Ilocos then wear weaved table mats or decorations. Use bamboo tables, or make the stage look like a Bahay Kubo.
7. Ask your guests to wear something unique. This can be a personalized pin or yellow t-shirt or a bracelet. This will really stand out in photos, and will make your celebration unique.
8. Instead of asking guests to leave a message for you, try other creative methods. Like ask them to write a prayer for you, or to suggest a song for you. Instead of a piece of paper, why not ask them to write on a wood jigsaw puzzle. You can also set up a photo booth where their picture will be taken and they will write a message for you at the back so that you can remember them after 10 years.
Plated or Buffet? Whether you are planning a wedding, birthday, reunion, or any celebration, it is very important to harmonize everything. Your theme should match the venue and the food, and your food should be enough to serve all your guests. Although sometimes coordinating these three elements can be tricky because of last minute changes, like more people came than you expected or some were not able to go, you just have to be prepared. In this case, you might be asking, what is better: Buffet Style or Plated Meals?
Let’s first differentiate the two. Buffet is when meals are laid out in a long table. Condiments are one end, and the people will fall in line while serving themselves. Or in some cases, there are waiters to help you guests. While plated meals is simply handing out already filled plates to guests. No need to stand-up, the waiters will take care of this.
So, which is better than the two? None of them actually. The style of food service is dependent more on the people and the availability of resources. To elaborate this more, let’s give some situations.
When to go Buffet
It’s a birthday celebration and you have invited your friends, relatives, and the whole neighborhood. Let’s say, 50 or more people have confirmed to attend. The venue is your front yard, and after setting the tables and chairs around you found out there’s still some space. So, now the food. You prepare the usual, meals that kids and adults both like. However, you don’t know what food will first run out or what meal will most likely be untouched. So, the best option is: Buffet style.
When you are not sure of the exact number of people, choose Buffet. The same goes when you don’t know what people would most likely want to eat. It would be a waste if you serve chicken on a plated meal, but only half of your guests ate it. So lay out more choices for them in a Buffet table, like a variety of chicken, beef, and seafood. Another option to consider is the venue. Buffet style will most likely to cause long lines and heavy traffic, because people might have a long time choosing and serving themselves. Sometimes, they even chat in front of the table, oblivious to the people waiting in line. Don’t choose Buffet Style to avoid overcrowding and waiting.
When to choose Plated Meals
Plated meals are a more appropriate option during formal events or those with a time limit. Imagine a seminar or business meeting, every minute is precious so as to make the most out of the event. Lunch is nearing, and surely it will only be for an hour. Instead of asking your participants to stand up and serve themselves, let the food come to them while they are sitting and going around with what they are doing. In some cases, you can even continue with the program while they are eating. It’s hitting two birds with one stone. This is also an option if you have limited resources, you don’t want to waste food by serving so many entrees or you don’t have space for a buffet table.
