Whether you are thinking of throwing an adult party, a child’s party, or a mixture of both, perhaps a neighborhood party, you should begin planning NOW if at all possible.
I usually send a “SAVE THE DATE” via email toward the end of August.
My evites or email invitations are usually sent one month in advance to give folks plenty of time to RSVP and to secure a babysitter if necessary. (Read my blog post on RSVP)
You also want to give folks plenty of time to add you to their calendar, put together a costume, and perhaps develop an idea for an interesting food item to bring.
Nowadays there are many ways to get your invitation out. For smaller groups, handmade invitations are really cool. There is a lot you can do with construction paper, recycled items you get in the mail, magazine cutouts, Halloween ink pad stamps, glue and scissors. At least I think so. It takes more time and effort but I think folks appreciate them. In some ways it will cost more because unless you are only inviting coworkers, kids in your son/daughter’s class, or your neighbors, you will have to use US Mail. If you aren’t creative or don’t have the time, there are Halloween invitation cards ready for purchase that you can find at most any retail store in the greeting card section. If you are hand-delivering invitations, then your potential for creative greatness just increased three-fold. I like Martha Stewart’s idea of attaching the invitation to a miniature pumpkin and leaving it for the invitee.
I have used Evite for many parties. Some folks feel that Evite exposes them to spam although I think more people are comfortable using it now than 5-10 years ago. The nice thing is that you can allow all of your guests to see who else is invited and who is coming. I also like the option where your guests can list what they plan to bring as far as food/beverage.
I suppose a lot of folks are going the way of Facebook or other social media for party invitations. I guess it just depends on where your target audience is likely to receive your invitation without having to alert the entire region or tri-state area. Unless that’s what you want…of course.
For several years I have incorporated my Save the Date and Invitation into a Powerpoint Show. It automatically plays when someone clicks it open via their email.
Sometimes I’m crazy and use combinations of Email, Powerpoint Shows, Evite and mailed paper invitations, depending on the recipient. For example, folks who attend every year might get a kick out of a handmade mailed invitation that they may keep or post on their refrigerator.
The most important thing is the almighty RSVP (but I’ll leave that to a blog post).
I will add items for either adult or children’s parties to the subcategories of this heading.
What has worked for you?
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Haunt My Town 