Easy Party Planning: “L” is for Lighting

WELCOME BACK! We are so excited to be starting up our 2nd Semester of Party Planning 101. It's going to be a party, so be sure to come back each week for new tips and tricks for stress-free and easy party planning.

For all of you newcomers, we'll just take 2 seconds of your time to tell you how this A to Z: Party Planning 101 works. Each Monday, we will feature a party element and tell you how to easily incorporate that into your party or event.

For example, last semester we started with Ambiance and made it all the way through Kids. These Party Planning "Lessons" as we call them are just what we have learned through years and years of planning, hosting, and throwing parties professionally and for fun. We don't claim to know it all, but we certainly hope that what we've learned will help inspire you and show you that planning parties and events is easier than you think!

And...just to make it a bit more fun, we've got a HUGE party pack to give away to this semester's best student. Details are at the end of the post.

If you'd like to get all caught up before you begin this week's lesson, feel free to check out our previous posts in this A to Z series ::

this awesome idea!

Ambiance

Beverages

Clean-up

Decorations

Entertainment

Favors

Guests

Hosting Tips

Invitations

Jukebox

Kids

Now, let's jump right into this week's lesson, shall we?

Lighting is an important part of your party and it can really help add to the ambiance you are trying to create.

First off, ensure that you have electricity and the resources to decorate your party venue. High volt electricity can damage the devices, so consider getting a whole home surge protection to add to the electrical panel. You never know what will happen when it comes to electrical devices. Anyway, here are our best, simple tips when it comes to lighting your party:

2. For a kid's party, make sure everything is bright and extremely light (unless you are going with a glow-in-the-dark party, of course!)

3. You can really add to the mood by using candles in all forms.

4. Make sure common areas are well-lit, i.e. the bathroom, coat closet, and food table.

5. Even if you are doing a candlelight dinner, make sure there is enough lighting for your guests to see their plates and each other.

6. If your outdoor party happens to start in the late afternoon, be sure to have lighting available just in case it continues when it's dark. It is very likely that you would've rented a 20x20 commercial tent (or two) to protect your guests from the elements, so maybe you can hang some festive lights on these tents too. You can always have twinkle lights or tiki torches set up before your party begins. But, of course, setting up lights in the tent could be a little tricky. So, if you do not have the right tools, it is best that this task is left to electrical professionals providing lighting installation in Manchester, NH (if that is where you are based).

We want to reward you students for all your effort throughout this semester. So here's what we've got planned:

Each week, we will have a quiz at the end of each lesson. For every quiz that you participate in, you will get one point towards your "grade." The Party Planning 101 student with the best grade at the end of the semester will receive a HUGE party pack in the mail. It will be awesome. That's all we can say.

Quizzes must be taken by midnight each Tuesday night of the week that lesson was given. For example, to earn points for this week, you must take the quiz by midnight on Tuesday. If you miss a week, no big deal. Just come back each week to keep raising your grade.

We'll make our quiz easy this week. Share this post on any social media site (i.e. blogs, pinterest, twitter, facebook, instagram). Each place you share, you get one point towards your grade. Leave a comment telling us where you shared it.

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Photos by Marcelle Calder Photography

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