Important Tips For People Who Are Planning A Large Party
Are you getting ready to host a wedding, a school reunion, or other large social gathering? Are you trying to decide how best to handle that many people? If you're trying to save money by not hiring a party planner and instead doing everything yourself, it can be tough to make decisions for your event. Fortunately, with a little effort, even the most inexperienced person can still create something that all the guests will enjoy. Here are some tips to help ensure everything goes smoothly:
Allow for extra guests: Many party planning guides tell you to expect that a certain percentage of your guests won't even show up. While this is reasonable, it's also reasonable to expect that some of the people may bring along an additional guest that wasn't on the invitation. You could turn this person, or people, away, or it may be better to simply accept that they are there. As long as they're being polite and not being disruptive, allowing them to stay will help you avoid confrontations and help foster a feeling of goodwill in the party in general. If you've chosen to host your party in one of your local banquet centers, planning for additional guests means that you should pick a slightly larger facility that won't feel crowded if everyone shows up.
Plan for food allergies: It used to be that when you were planning a party, you picked out party food and your guests simply ate what they were given. Unfortunately, in today's world, as many as 15 million Americans have some sort of food allergy. With just over 300 million people in the United states, that means that nearly 5% of the population may have a food allergy. If you serve allergen-packed food to a few hundred guests, you could wind up with a dozen or more hungry and unhappy people. Although you may not be able to cater to every food allergy, you should consider looking for banquet centers that can make at least a few foods that are free of some or all of the top 8 food allergens. Making sure that everyone has at least a little to eat is definitely a sign of a good host or hostess.
Let guests sit where they like: Seating charts have long been a staple of many parties. They can still be a good idea for certain business or charity events, but they aren't strictly necessary for more social events. You can spend weeks or months agonizing over the perfect seating chart, only for many of your guests to dislike where they've been put. Allowing your guests to choose where they want to sit lets them decide something like whether they want to sit with an obnoxious talker or whether they'd rather have a less ideal view. If you're hosting a wedding, you may still want limited arranged seating for the bridal party and let everyone else pick out their own seats. This sort of flexibility allows you to change things on the fly, should a few more guests arrive than you'd previously anticipated.
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