Decide if you want to hold the party at home or in venue

Work our roughly how many you will invite (this may help decision if you need to hire venue as halls are restricted by numbers)

Decide on date (or if hiring venue have couple of dates in mind to ensure getting the venue you want)

Find venue, enquiry if dates you want are available, book

If hiring bouncy castle or disco or entertainment, caterers, or booking cake to be made- once venue and date decided- get it booked – if you are after a particular castle or type of entertainment you may want to check out availability before booking venue

Once everything is booked you need to start thinking about the how the party is going to run

If you want a fancy dress party make sure you give your guests plenty of time to get their outfits sorted so get invites out early.

Approx 3 weeks before send invites out (always advise asking people to RSVP so that you have an idea of how many expect to attend

Are you having party bags? Set a budget as to what spend per bag as it’s very easy to get carried away – often cheaper to buy things in packs rather than individually.

For kids party always a good idea to have plan to have some kind of control? we’ve found 1 ½ - 2 hours is plenty long enough. Eg when arrive let them run around let off steam till everyone arrives –don’t start organised games till everybody arrives. If doing food and party is 2 hours – have it about ¾ hour before end- this leaves 15 mins to eat then ½ hour for you to get food put away and cake cut, party bags ready before they leave The last ½ hour usually maddest as kids tend to be overexcited !

Rather than worrying about table and chairs for kids we do a picnic so only plates to clear up afterwards

Drinks if can get cartons easier as harder to spill or knock over!

Are you going to have games? (Have a look at my party games page for ideas) Always a good idea to have quietish game after meal to let the kids food go down about

Decorations – lots of balloons on floor fill up any space and immediately there’s something to play with – to get rid of them all let all the kids take one home with them!

Night before party – get as much preparation done as possible – fill party bags etc

On day – keep calm - and remember after that day that’s it for another year!!!