Whenever I host any kind of party at our house, I usually start planning a week in advance. If it is an elaborate party, I start planning theme and food in my head a few weeks ahead of time, but for the most part I am a one week party planner. Not usually any longer or shorter.
I mainly spend one week in advance because I go grocery shopping once a week. I don't usually bother thinking about the food too heavily until it is time to make the grocery list. I am a planning procrastinator if that is such a thing.
Besides food I start thinking of decor and setup early in the week. If it is inside, I start moving things around. I can live with my house in party prep for a couple of days, so I don't mind tearing it apart a few days before. It allows for creative wiggle room as I usually throw things together as I go. In the summer when we have outside parties, they are usually in the evenings which allows me the day time to put out tables and decor.
For my Valentine's party, my Valentine's Day decor was already out and I made the tissue paper fans a week before. If I am making any type of decorations outside of the tablescape, those get made a few weeks ahead and put out sooner than the rest of my week long planning if possible.
A few days before I started playing with table arrangement. Getting ten people in our dining room with plenty of room on the table to craft can be tricky.
Once I get a layout and enough seating arranged, I start to dress my table. Instead of getting too theme-y or having tons of decorations, I like to use what I have to decorate the tables. I try to use lots of table linens, candles, and flowers as those are all things that can get thrown together without a ton of prep.
Since the tea was in the morning, I arranged the flowers the night before. This was my original flower set up...full and big. And then I realized that no one would be able to see each other so I ended up taming it down quite a bit.
The day before, I clean the bathrooms, vacuum, and whatever else tidying up I need to do. We put out coat racks during colder seasons for guests to hang their jackets.
Then I make myself a list for the day before and day of. The day before is usually food prep and decor while day of is finishing up food, cooking, and getting myself ready. Yes, I put hair on the list otherwise I forget to make getting ready a priority.
See how the party turned out at my recent Ladies Valentine' Day Tea.
I have talked about getting ready for a party before, particularly outdoor gatherings. You can read that post here.
