Today we welcome a friend and fabulous event organiser, Brian Lee, to tell us about parties. Let's party on...
It’s always great to have a theme to any party. When planning your occasion, deciding on a theme opens up all kinds of creative ideas - as well as bringing a much-needed focus to the event. It also allows you to express your personality or that of the person whose party it is. For example, if you’re into the Bond films in a big way, why not throw a James Bond themed party? With the theme in mind, you might then think about having casino tables, an amazing martini bar, Bond villain look-a-likes, a glamorous black or white tie dress code and some Bond props. The beauty is that you can have as much or as little detail as you like once you’ve established the theme. So even if you only have a few ideas or components to bring the theme to life, that can be enough to have an amazing event. Your guests just want to have a great time and it’s important to keep this in mind. If you make sure the party is fun and well-organised, then everyone is most likely to enjoy themselves and the occasion is likely to run smoothly. Guests talking about what a lovely party it was is like music to your ears, after putting in all the effort to create it. It can be a fun process but it’s hard work as well. The reward is when the party goes to plan and is a perfect celebration. It’s then a unique and wonderful memory that you’ll be looking back at the photos of for years to come.
Why do themes help with the fun factor in a party? One of the main reasons is because it’s a bit more special than everyone just gathering in the hired room of a pub (for example), having a few drinks and sausage rolls followed by cutting a cake and a DJ. Not that those nights can’t be brilliant as they certainly can, and I have lots of great memories to testify of just such fabulous evenings. But a theme can turn another social occasion into an elevated one that stands out and is much more exciting, as well as being more memorable. Many of us like to dress up and a theme will elevate this. At a music festival like Glastonbury, people like to dress up in all kinds of wild outfits. If you had a party with a music festival theme, then that allows your guests to be creative and dress in ways that they normally wouldn't get to. Then you could have bands and ‘buskers’, as well as food stalls, fire pits (if it's an outdoor summer event) and various other festival features. Once you have a theme, ideas are much more likely to spring to mind - there's more potential for originality and quirkiness if that's what you like also.
A strong theme can also bring out other fun elements very naturally. Even if the weather doesn’t play ball, you can still have an indoor English Garden theme. As well as an English high tea for catering, you can have ‘lawn’ games like croquet and bowls. You could even have a vintage jazz band wearing bowler hats. There is a lot of fun inspiration to be had, purely based on the theme. And of course, the more you brainstorm and use your imagination, the better. You’ll come up with all kinds of ideas once you get creative, and let yourself dream up whatever appeals to make the perfect party.
Finally, a theme for your party can tie everything together. This means that if you want to have eclectic styling, you can, since the theme will help everything work together. Parties will have their own unique and spontaneous moments anyway, so once the theme is there, you’ll find that most if not all of your guests will embrace it. They’ll find the right amazing outfits and join in any theme-based games and activities. A photo booth can be great fun and even more so when everyone is already dressed according to a theme.
If all this sounds appealing, but you’re not that keen to do the work of coming up with the ideas (as well as finding the suppliers to provide them), then that’s where we come in. Here at Lee & Klein Events, we love to provide the bespoke service of finding out what kind of theme our clients want and then providing the perfect party to suit. We do this in the form of bringing in our trusted suppliers that we know and work with and then helping you to create the vision of the party you’re dreaming of, but without the hassle and time spent sorting everything out. Then you can just enjoy the occasion, since you won’t have to worry about the details on the night. We take care of that so you can just celebrate. Seeing our clients have the best possible party is what makes us feel great. Do get in touch if you’d like some extra help organising your forthcoming event.
Brian Lee runs Lee & Klein Events, a West London-based party planning company that specialise in themed parties.