Secrets to throwing a great party

Yesterday's party went way better than I expected. No games were needed, perhaps because of Olympics that kept people entertained. I loved seeing my friends get to know other people in my circle and at the end of the day, it was the fact that people were there that made yesterday so special.

Many have asked about where I got most of my stuff done. To save you guys all the trouble, I decided to just post them all here with some tips on holding a great party (from yesterday's experience)! 

The first ingredient to having a great party in Singapore is good food. You can have great people, music, location and whatsoever but if the food is bad, the party will be too. I don't have pictures of the food from yesterday and I didn't get to try much of it either (I was so busy!) but many people were telling me that the food was just fantastic! We catered from a friend who runs Soul Food. His business model revolves around employing youths with mental disabilities. By teaching them how to cook and getting involved in the cooking process, he gives these youths a job and a way to earn a living. Yesterday, we had mushroom soup, pumpkin soup, beef cheeks, mash potato, salad, grilled squid, poached salmon, BBQ ribs, grilled chicken, bread & butter pudding and tiramisu. You can contact Gerald at soulfoodenterprise@gmail.com and check out his menu & pictures here!

The next ingredient is alcohol. I personally can't handle hard liquor like vodka myself so I like champagne a lot. Yesterday we had tonnes of that and I do think it made a lot of people relx, loosen up  and have fun. When people are having fun, that's when the party is fun! So whenever possible, have light alcohol like champagne!

For decoration and goodie bags, it is best to always personalise it. After all, its your party! I do admit my internship in Gucci really gave me some help here. At fashion events, brands would get things printed in their name like the logo wall or the ribbons or so. It is little things like these that always makes the event feel like theirs. So for my party, I decided to get some balloons printed with my name on it. For this, I contacted Creative Balloons at Sungei Tengah. They charged me $100 for 50 balloons which was the cheapest I found so far! The convenient thing was that most communication was done over e-mail so that saved me a lot of time.

Next, to act as weights and a take home gift, I got some rock candy made for everyone! Everyone loves candy so you can't go wrong on that. You can actually order online with Sticky but I preferred to have some help filling up the form so I went down to Sticky personally. For $200, you get to customise 4kg of candy in whatever colour and flavour you like. For packaging, you have to pay for jars that cost 50 cents for the small ones and $1 for the one below. 

And for the cake, I was looking for a fondant cake that can be made into interesting shapes like shoes or bags. However, those cakes don't usually taste that great inside so I decided to go with my family's favourite carrot cake from 7th Manna. Located at Tanjong Katong, this bakery has created the best carrot cake I've ever tasted, with light cream cheese and moist cake inside. I got them to make a two tiered cake and then decorated it myself with cupcake toppers and polka dotted & stripped candles from  Paper Eskimo sold at Times bookstore. 

As with every party, you need a photo booth. I hate it when people hire a company to take photos and print it for you but you feel so self conscious acting like a fool in front of them! So since my wardrobe was filled with so many silly stuff from red indian hats to bunny ears, I did my own photo booth by placing my own camera on a tripod, buying a few more whacky props and getting my backdrop done! The polka dotted backdrop was printed at Queensway shopping centre on A0 posters, each costing $32 so you can see how much money I saved! (Not to mention how much more fun everyone had!)

Of course all of these wouldn't have been possible if you don't have a knack for design. I spent some time creating the backdrop, name tags for everybody and little tags for my balloons. I started with some material from Love Vs Design, one of my favourite design inspirations and printed them on sticker paper or hard white paper. 

Lastly, I really wanted a theme party but found it hard to make it fun for everyone till my mom suggested getting everyone to dress up in polka dots. I know a lot of people don't dress up in Singapore, and what more to a themed party, so a simple theme like Polka Dots & Stripes yesterday made the party fun for everyone! On top of that, instead of having a "best dressed award" which is so subjective and often pressurizing for me, I decided to award the man and lady that turned up with the most pieces of clothing with stripes and polka dots on it! John and Leanne won with 8 things like shoes, scarf, bangles, shirt and skirt! It was so fun seeing people dress up to win something.

Well, thank you to all who came yesterday. The party wouldn't have been so fun and memorable with you guys! <3 To being 22 and beyond.