Get Organized: Make a To-do List

When planning for any party, you should always make a simple list or diagram, so your helpers know what to do. While you should be there for the set-up of every party, realistically that won't happen. You might have tests, appointments, classes, etc that may not allow you to have time to set up. Therefore, make a list. It will take 10 minutes to type up. Here is a sample:

Things to do for Party:

1. Put bar in corner of room

2. Set up decorations (you can draw a picture of the room and label the locations of the decorations)

3. Clean up living room

4. Place trash cans in (put locations here)

5. Put away tables and chairs from the common room

6. Put DJ equipment out

7. Set up lights

Setting Up for a Party

When you are setting up for your party, you need to arrange the room maximize certain things. There are a few things to remember when it comes to setting up the party. These things can change depending on the scope of your party. I will go into detail for those specific situations later when I talk about specific types of parties. For general purposes, I will assume that you are setting up a cocktail party of some sort. For this cocktail party, the first thing you need to recognize is the flow of people and the party.

When you host a party, you need to make sure that people know where to enter, drink, and dance. In order to make it easy for people to do the aforementioned things, you need to move a few objects. The entrance should lead the guests to the main drinking room. When a guest enters this main drinking room from the entrance of your frat, the first thing they should see is the bar (if you don’t have a bar, then build one or use a large table). The bar should never be in the middle of the room, but it should be put in one of the corners or sides of the room. When the bar is located in the corner of a room, it allows people to easily see it and get their drinks in an orderly fashion. Remember that people tend to line up in front of the bar and stay there for long periods of time. To accommodate this, you should never put the bar by the entrance to the main drinking room, as this make the room too crowded by the entryway. 

The dancing room should be in a separate room from the main drinking room. The bar should also be as far away from the dancing room as possible, since you don’t want the music to be extremely loud by the bar. If music is too loud by the bar, then it’s difficult for guests to order a drink and converse with each other. You should have a couple of couches in the room so people can rest. These couches should be between the bar and the dancing room. If the couches were near the bar, then it would make the way to the bar too crowded, and this would make it difficult for guest to get their drinks. The couches are also there to show where socializing area is. The area between the dancing room and the bar will be the place where people congregate to converse and enjoy themselves. It shouldn’t be too crowded in that area, since people will have other areas to go, such as the dance floor or the bar. 

Also, a big thing is have plenty of trash cans. Your Clean-Up Chair will thank you for putting trash cans out. If your guests see trash cans, and they are conveniently located, they will throw away their drinks by themselves. Place large trash cans, next to the bar, main entrance, and entrance to dancing room. Ideally you should use the 32 gallon green trash cans with a liner in them. Trash cans will make your party much better!

How Much Alcohol Should You Buy?

Once you know what types of alcohol you wish to purchase, you will need to know how much to purchase. One handle (1.75 Liters) of vodka will serve about 10 people. I’m not saying that it will get 10 people drunk, but 10 people will get to all have at least one mixed drink and one shot. So for your smaller events at your frat house, you will usually purchase seven handles. Now you might be thinking that seven handles isn’t enough, but you are forgetting about the beer…

When buying beer, you are presented with two choices: keg or cans. If you own your own tap (that means you don’t have to pay to rent one), then buying a keg is less expensive than purchasing cheap 30 packs of beer. While there is no exact science when measuring the difference between the amount of beer in a keg and in the corresponding amount of cans, you have to assume a few things. There is a lot of foam in a keg, and this makes it very difficult to measure how many cups of beer you can pour out of a keg. A solution, though expensive, is to invest in a kegerator, which uses CO2 to get rid of the foam. Also when comparing the two vessels of beer, you have to buy 12 oz beer cups in order to have the same amount as a 12 oz beer can/bottle. The common red Dixie plastic cups are actually 16 oz in size.

So if you want to maximize your keg, I suggest purchasing the 12 oz cups, rather than the large 16 oz red ones. Now the bad part of getting a keg is that if the tap is broken, there is no other way to get the beer out. That means you are out of a lot of alcohol for the party. No one likes a party when the alcohol runs out unexpectedly. Also, having a keg is technically an easy piece of evidence for Police to use if they accuse you of supplying alcohol to minors. So the lower cost of the keg also comes with more risks and potential problems.

On the other hand, cans of beer provide a nice convenience. For one thing, there is no waiting around for the beer to come out of the keg. Also, there is very little or no foam that comes out of an unshaken beer can. You will 99.9% of the time be able to drink the beer from the can, instead of having the possibility of your keg tap breaking. Beer cans also provide the convenience of making it very difficult for Police to accuse you of supplying them. “After all, officer, we had a BYOB party. I guess the girls just put the beer cans in their purses.” A great excuse, indeed! Remember that the equivalent quantity of beer in cans will take up more surface area than the same beer from a keg. Therefore, make sure you have plenty of room to store the 30-packs of beer.

If you are buying the beer in conjunction with the seven handles of vodka, you should buy approximately four to five 30 packs. Since beer is the secondary alcohol choice, you don’t have to buy as much. However, if you are doing an event that revolves around beer, such as a beer pong or flip cup tournament, then you should buy 1 ½ to 2 times the amount beer.

Now that you have some vodka and beer, you will need some chasers to go along with that. The good thing about chasers is that they are cheaper than the alcohol. The bad news is that for each handle of alcohol, you will need at least one to two gallons of juice or two to four liters of soda. Chasers can add up in the long run. Also, chasers are wasted a lot as people tend to fill up their cups with a lot of chaser in correlation to the amount of alcohol in the cup. 

The basic chasers that you should always have are: orange juice, cranberry juice, coke/diet coke, and soda water/tonic. You make a variety of drinks with these chasers and vodka. Also, you can always find these chasers bottles in large quantities, which will save you money. If you are worried about overspending when it comes to buying chasers, I will explain some easy ways to save money.

How to Buy Fabric for Decorating Your Parties

The most cost efficient and effective way to decorate for your parties is fabric. Yes, I said fabric. You can use large pieces of fabric for different elements. You can change the set up of the room by hanging long pieces of fabric for dividers. Fabric is cheap. You can purchase it buy the yard for $1 to $2/yard. Fabric comes in different weights, designs, and colors so the possibilities are endless. One good trick is to buy a few yards of red velvet fabric and cut it into a long narrow carpet. Tape it down to the ground and now you have a “Red Carpet” for your cocktail party. You can reuse this carpet for all of your cocktail parties. 

You should know a little bit of lingo and tricks before you buy fabric. Most of the inexpensive and stretchy fabric that is easy to use is called “poplin.” So be sure to ask for that. You can usually find poplin for $1 per yard. Velvet, spandex, and other heavier fabrics will be a bit more expensive. Always buy in large quantities and in a variety of colors. For example, do not buy one yard of this and one yard of that. Buy 8 or 15 yards, and you will usually get a better deal. 

The fabric stores are usually in the downtown area of an urban city. If your campus is not located near a big city, then I suggest making an occasional trip to purchase your decorations. There are many fabric stores located next to each other in the same area. This allows you to haggle a bit. You will not find fabric for less than $1 per yard. For most fabric you will be paying about $2 per yard, unless it’s really cheap and ugly fabric. In the downtown area there might be a wholesale decorations place. These places serve professional party and event planners. You can usually find inexpensive trinkets and other things to decorate your party. This would be the place to find your paper lanterns for your Sake Bomb themed party.

You can also go to Michael’s, which is a chain of arts and crafts stores. You can also go to a similar store to Michael’s in your area. They also have little trinkets and such. There is also the online option of www.fabric.com. Click here to look at their Clearance Section
for cheap fabric. This site services party planners, and they have a wide selection. The only problem with going online is that you can’t get any last minute decorations.

Why You Should Decorate Your Parties

Some say that decorations are a waste of money. I agree, but that’s only if decorations are done poorly. Decorations for your parties should be used to set the mood of the party. The theme of your party should manifest itself as decorations. You want to transform your house into the theme. Your guests will have more fun if the party looks and feels unique. After all, it’s not just a regular party—it’s a themed party!

Decorations for your parties can be found at various stores. They should reflect the theme of your party. For example, if you are doing a Sake Bomb event, then you might want to buy some inexpensive paper lanterns. You can invest in specific items that reflect the theme. However, these can run up costs very quickly. You should allot 10-15% of your event’s budget for decorations. For a $400 event, that doesn’t leave you with a whole lot of money.

How to Create a Social Calendar: Intro

Creating and planning a social calendar might seem like a burden, but if you follow a simple formula, then you will succeed every quarter/semester for which you make your calendar. For these purposes, I will assume that your school is on the quarter system. This means that you have three 10 week periods in the academic year. At some schools, there are “invites” or “exchanges,” which occur two to three times per quarter. These events are held at a third party location, so I will not talk about them. At other schools, there are weekly or bi weekly small parties or events where sororities will come over to your frat house to party. Since the location of these events is at your frat house, I will explain how to plan these events.

Why You Need Time

The amount of time that you will need to plan for a party directly correlates to the size of the party. Smaller parties will usually take less time to plan. Larger parties will take more time to plan. For recurring weekly parties, you should allow seven days for planning. For your annual or semi-annual huge parties, you should allow for four to five weeks of planning.

I don’t expect you to be doing something related to the party for every day leading up to it. The allotment of days or weeks is needed for advertisement and purchasing purposes. You need to let people know in advance that you are having a party, so they can come. You want to make sure that girls will know about your party before they hear about competing parties. This time also allows you to motivate your frat brothers for the party. Most importantly, this time allows you to purchase the necessities for the party. Also, if any unforeseen event or obstacle occurs, you can have enough time to cancel it before you invest too much time or money into the party.