Making It Easier To Party!

"At our wedding we put together 4 huge bowls of marshmallows and stuck cocktail sticks in them labelled with each guests names and their table number. It was a brilliant talking point for the guests to find out their table numbers and a good excuse to eat the marshmallows!"
Alannah, Dublin

"We decided that we wanted wedding favours unique to us so as we’re both avid swimmers we got a local bakery to make us some biscuits in the shape of life belts"
Ann & Matt, Herts

"At my friends wedding the florist had used fairy lights in her designs. It made a real magical atmosphere, I’m planning on having that at mine too."
Sarah, Beds

"I bought some giant garden games and put them outside the front of the marquee. My intention was that it would give the children something to keep them occupied over the long day but in fact they were just as popular with the adults too!"
Gemma, Suffolk

"My kids love it when you add some touches to set the scene. For fairy themes I’ve cut out toadstool shapes from card and stuck them to small stools, then covered a larger chair in gold stars and netting tied with a huge pink fabric bow to create a fairy queen throne. For pirates I’ve drawn and cut out a large simple image of a pirate boat and stuck it to two chairs (one turned sideways) then bought one large pirate flag for the front. I then placed an old plank of wood by the chair turned sideways so the kids could jump off the chair to walk the plank."
Joan, Herts

"My daughter loves making things so I bought some different coloured felt so her and 6 friends could make their own party bags. I then bought some toys and sweets to go in them, labelled them each with the kids names and hid some around the garden, did the Fun Fanatics lucky dip game for some of the others and put a sweet and toy in each of their food boxes. They thought it great fun collecting their gifts for their bags throughout the party."
Kelly, Staffs

"My party tip is to try and cut the cake so each child gets the coloured icing or a cake decoration. I learnt this to my peril when the tantrums of sixteen 5 year olds started!"
Lucy, Cambridge

"Videos are brilliant to wind the party down while the kids are waiting to be picked up, means they are a little less hyper for their parents."
Wendy, Herts

"I found that a great way to start and get the kids in the party mood is to hide half a pack of snap playing cards around the house and garden with a sweet attached to the back then as the kids arrive hand out the other half of the pack so they can search for the matching half to their card. Only make sure you have enough for one card per child otherwise there could be tears!"
Sally, West Yorks

"My wife and I organised a Vegas Night at home one weekend. Everyone had to dress up in the 40’s gangster theme. There were 10 of us playing and we each put in £20 to make the winning pot £200. We then played several different card games to vary the night using Monopoly money and the overall winner at the end of the night won the £200. It worked well for a bit of light hearted gambling, nobody lost much and someone went home £200 better off."
Steph & Lou, Bucks

"Always invite more guests than you are expecting as no matter how close you are to your friends it’s inevitable some will let you down either before or at the last minute. It’s better to end up with too many than too few."
Steve, Wilts

"At my Grans 80th as she’s always loved flower arranging & gardening we gave each of the guests a mini basket filled with small bulbs as a table gift."
Lucie, Berks