Four 4th of July Party-Planning Tips and Tricks
Can you believe it’s almost the middle of June? We know that we feel like we’ve hardly had time to recover from Memorial Day weekend (and we can only imagine what life has been like on your end), but it’s already time to start getting ready for the quintessential summer celebration: the 4th of July!
Since we had the opportunity to work with Warner Bros. to furnish and decorate the movie premiere party for The Campaign, we have plenty of experience with the ultra-patriotic, and our inventory is already stocked with all of the red, white, and blue furniture and accents that you could ever need. So to help you get ready for your big bash, we thought we’d share a few tips and tricks that we picked up along the way.
1. There’s a time and place to avoid being cliché, but a 4th of July party is not one of them. Independence Day is a celebration of America—and that means it’s all about the red, white, and blue. People expect 4th of July celebrations to have flags, food, and fireworks, and you’ve got to give the people what they want.
2. This is more of a general party tip than specific advice for the 4th, but it’s still worth mentioning. It may sound strange, but don’t have enough seating for everyone. If everyone has a seat, they’ll probably feel obligated to sit in it, and that means that there will be less interaction between guests. Especially since the 4th of July is such a festive day, you’ll want to keep the energy up and promote mingling instead. So plan to have enough seating for about 80% of your guests (or even less if the crowd is young) and let everyone else have a chance to dance, chat, and meet new people.
3. To the same end, don’t put all of the food and drinks in one place. Like moths to a flame, guests will be drawn to that area and probably hover around it all day, and then all the effort you put into spacing out and minimizing your seating will be for naught. Instead, put your appetizers on one table, your condiments on another, a self-serve bar on the other side of the room, etc. You want to give people a reason to move around.
4. We of course believe that playing with fire(works) should be left to the pros, but people love sparklers and other shiny things—and they’re especially fitting on the 4th of July. designer8* has light up bars and cubes to create a glimmering, glistening effect. This is one day when you can’t go wrong by adding a little extra shine and glow.
