Party books are the easiest way for me to become inspired. Brightly co
lored pictures filled with food and people can give you ideas on how to decorate and what to serve.
Here are a few of my favorite party books:
These books on entertaining are filled with tips, too, on what to watch out for and provide you lists of planning steps.
I’m a bit of a party book addict so I’ll be sharing more titles in the days to come.
(And please remember, sometimes reading books can be a bit intimidating because they are so over the top. Yet, think through their ideas and see how you can make it work for your party.)
Where do you go to find party ideas?
I’m theme-oriented. I have to start with colors or an image when I’m planning a party. From there, I can create some kind of mental picture of what the setting might look like. I’ll start with the place settings and go from there to determine if I need candles or flowers or a mixture of both. For my step-daughter’s college graduation, which occurred around the holidays, I already had the colors — her college colors. But I needed the table decorations. Since it was Christmastime, I bought faux table top trees and decorated them with white lights and miniature diplomas (rolled), invitations and mortar boards. I made them all with cardboard paper and ribbon. For the flat diplomas, I actually took her invitation, scanned it, and reduced it to about a one-inch square. I glued 100s of them to little cardboard cutouts. The mortar boards were more of a challenge, and I had to practice drawing the shape several times before getting it right and in the right size. It wasn’t easy working with the small designs, but they looked lovely. I’m not sure everyone at the party took notice, but my step-daughter did. And that’s all that mattered. I was able to recycle them a year later when my own daughter graduated because they went to the same college. Thankfully, she didn’t mind at all. I also love making big banners. I haven’t had a party in a long time, but I find it a great creative outlet. Maybe it’s time…
Wow, Jackie, Your decorations sound amazing and so creative.
And thank you for another idea to blog about. Thank you.
Oooh, books! I love pretty colorful idea books!! While I can’t come up with my OWN ideas, I can copy other’s creative ideas really well.
Hi Kate,
That’s one of my “brags” too: I may not be particularly creative but I can copy!