Complete Idiot Guide Throwing Great Partys [Mass Market Paperback]

Scenario: A quick look around the room tells you disaster is looming. Uncle Jim and your neighbor are arguing. The dog just ate the entire hors d’oeuvre tray. The kids are bored. And, the elegant soufflé you spent the entire afternoon preparing just fell. Can this party be rescued? How does Martha Stewart make it look so simple?

Often planning even the simplest party can be a lot of work and end up costing a fortune. But that doesn’t have to be the case. With the right planning, a little ingenuity and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Throwing a Great Party (from Alpha Books/Macmillan USA), anyone can pull off the party of the year and make it look as easy as one, two, three! Written by party planning experts Phyllis Cambria and Patty Sachs, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Throwing a Great Party is filled with all the party “do’s and don’ts” essential to making an event a success.

From tailgates and backyard barbecues to holiday bashes and birthdays, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Throwing a Great Party ensures that every party has a great outcome. Ms. Cambria and Ms. Sachs offer step-by-step instructions on how to plan, organize and pull-off a spur of the moment get-together, a business dinner for clients or a graduation celebration for 60 with the greatest of ease, while enjoying yourself at the same time. They offer expert advice on the basics of party planning, beginning with preparing a guest list; developing a theme; creating a budget and sending creative invitations. In addition, Cambria and Sachs follow up with suggestions for buying, preparing and serving food for any size group; stocking a bar; creating ambiance; innovative party favors; and cleaning up once the party is over.

Ms. Cambria and Ms. Sachs provide proven tips for managing and sticking to the party budget, and offer suggestions for pooling resources, co-hosting parties, power buying, and chic but cheap options. They discuss how to maximize space and traffic flow, strategies for keeping guests entertained and the conversation flowing, and keeping to a schedule. They also identify the key party pitfalls and what every host or hostess needs to know and prepare for in order to avoid disaster.

Finally, included in the book are more than 20 clever party plans for every occasion that readers can use either as a framework for their own parties or to follow down to the last letter for a surefire party hit. Also included are worksheets to help keep the host or hostess organized and on top of the party details.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Throwing a Great Party allows you to follow the ideas we share or gives you enough options to adapt them and plan an event that's uniquely your own.

These are all proven secrets to success that we've followed or created while planning parties for hundreds of clients throughout our professional party planning careers.

Best of all, the ideas we share can be done on ANY budget. We even give you a wide range of tips that will help you save money when planning your next celebration.We'd love to hear from you!

So, don't wait, celebrate! It's good for you!

Phyllis Cambria and Patty Sachs, Celebration Experts

Dear Party Host,

Congratulations! You've finally realized that there's more to being a good host than opening a bag of chips and plunking down a six-pack on the coffee table in front of your friends. The problem is that now you want to throw parties with a little more style, you're not sure how to do it. Relax, we're going to give you all the tools to make you a host who can boast you're the best.

As professional party planners, we've thrown hundreds of parties with guest lists as small as two or as large as thousands. The interesting part is that the steps for planning these parties are still the same. In this case, size really doesn't matter, technique does - and we're going to teach you those techniques. We'll take you from planning down-home hoe-downs to seasonal celebrations, from birthday blowouts to backyard brunches, from dinner at eight to dates with your mates. We've given you total plans for a year's worth of parties plus, with enough variations to make them uniquely your own.

Each chapter is filled with tricks of the trade and practical advice to help you give parties with panache for pennies or blowout bashes in your own home.

Please note, this isn't a recipe book. Since there are millions of books and Web sites available, we're sticking with the tools you'll need to make you a celebration host expert. Just follow the step-by-step instructions for perfect party plans, or use them as an outline to organize your own outstanding occasions.

Parties are fun, so let us help you enjoy yourself even in the planning. It can be a party before the party!

Come on, don't wait for the milestone occasions in your life to throw a party. Whatever your reason, it's a good one. So let the partying begin!

Phyllis Cambria and Patty Sachs, Celebration Experts

Patty Sachs and Phyllis Cambria give advice on planning any size of a party, with step-by-step instructions on how to buy, prep, and arrange food, how to keep the conversation going, and how to make and stick to a budget. They provide lots of worksheets to help you get organized, includes full party plans for every occasion, and even gives tips on how to entertain business associates in your home.

Phyllis Cambria, a celebrations expert, author and event speaker, is co-owner of PartyPlansPlus.com, the Internet’s first total party planning service. She has been the event coordinator and producer of a wide range of events including weddings, house parties, birthdays, and anniversaries, as well as award ceremonies, fund raising events, conferences, festivals, tournaments and other events for both corporate and non-profit clients. She is the author of several guides to party planning and has written numerous articles on the subject for newsletters, magazines and Web sites. Ms. Cambria has also been a presenter and guest speaker for several events and programs.

Patty Sachs, co-owner of PartyPlansPlus.com, the Internet’s first total party planning service, has more than 20 years experience in party and event planning. She is the founder of Celebration Creations which serves consultants and event designers for an international clientele, and the originator of annual "Don’t Wait…Celebrate! Week" which is held the second week in August. She has been the producer for numerous trade shows and conventions, as well as hundreds of social and corporate events. Ms. Sachs is the author of several books and guides on party planning and she has been the online expert guest and site moderator for several Internet Web sites related to special events and parties.

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