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Do you want to plan a party, but are worried that it will cost too much? You can still have a great celebration without breaking your budget.   Here are 18 top tips to help you save money.

1. Borrow music CDs from your library.   Maybe you need dance music to liven up the crowd. You might want easy listening melodies as a background for conversation or Hawaiian songs for a luau theme party. Your public library should have it available and ready to lend to you.  

2. Decorate with balloons.   Balloons are festive and cheap, especially if you fill them with air, instead of helium.   Search online and you will find instructions for making impressive balloon arches, garlands, columns and more.

3. Rent a helium tank.   If you prefer helium filled balloons and you need lots of them, it’s cheaper to rent a tank and fill the balloons yourself.   However, if you’re only buying a few, you can save money by purchasing them already filled at the dollar store.

4. Light lots of candles around the party for instant, inexpensive atmosphere.

5. Keep your little, white Christmas lights handy.   String them around the buffet table, doorway, centerpieces, potted plants, just about anywhere to create an elegant look to any party, without spending a lot of cash.

6. Buy a reusable ice sculpture mold.   These can cost under $20, are easy to fill, fit in your freezer, and can be used over and over again.   Find them online for a low cost, yet fancy touch to your celebration.

7. Forget flower centerpieces. Yes, they’re pretty, but expensive.   Instead try tealights floating in a large shallow glass bowl filled with water.   Or you could place framed photos of the guest of honor on the table for a nice tribute.   You can even display party favors as the centerpiece.

8. Make your own invitations.   With greeting card software on your computer, your printer and a little creativity, you can save money by doing these yourself.

9. Browse online for cheap invitations. If you’re not the crafty type, you can find great bargains online for invitations.   Do some searching, and you may be surprised at the deep discounts available.

10. Go with photo invitations that feature the guest of honor. These can even cost less than regular paper invitations, if you hunt around the internet for the right company. You can also trim the price by choosing a smaller size, like 4 x 6 or 4 x 8 inches.

11. Invite less, save more. Sure, it’s nice to have a big bash.   But if you’re watching your wallet, nothing cuts expenses faster than shrinking the guest list.   Think quality over quantity.   It’s better to have a smaller party, than no party at all.  

12. Cut costs on party favors. You can obviously eliminate them if your budget is extremely tight, but if you decide you want to send your guests home with a little thank you gift, you can make them yourself.   One simple idea is to use occasion appropriate gift wrapping paper to wrap Hershey candy bars as a thoughtful giveaway.

13. Order cheap favors online. If you don’t want to make your own, you don’t have to resort to the dollar store for favors. For around the same price you can find inexpensive personalized items, some even with a photo.   You just have to be willing to do a little searching.

14. Consider having your party from 2 – 5 p. m. on Saturday or Sunday. No one will expect a big meal during those hours, so you can get away with just serving coffee and cake.

15. Invite your guests for just appetizers or dessert.   Your invitation can say something like “please join us for an open house with hors d’oeuvres”.

16. Go with a buffet, if you want to have a full dinner for a lot of people.   Include inexpensive, but crowd pleasing pasta dishes and casseroles.   Find recipes you can make ahead and freeze.

17. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.   Make it a potluck and request that guests bring a dish.   If you can, borrow rather than rent chairs, chafing dishes, outside tents, etc.   Enlist a friend to help you serve.

18. Be kind to the environment and your budget by using real plates, glasses and silverware. Of course, disposable paper plates, cups and plastic forks make clean-up easier, but they add to your expense. Use what you have, wash the dishes and save money.

Yes, you can have a great party without spending a lot of money. With a little creativity, time and effort you can cut expenses. But that’s not all. You can leave your guests with the impression you actually splurged.

Planning the Christmas party is a dirty job, but everyone accepts that someone has to do it. But what if that someone is you? Where do you start? How do you go about choosing Christmas party venues that suit your needs? Here are a few things to bear in mind when planning a festive Christmas party, and a few tips for taking some of the stress out of the organisation.
The first decision to be made is what sort of Christmas party you are looking to have. This will depend on a number of factors such as budget, the number of people that you expect to invite along, and any entertainment that you may be considering. Some companies like to have formal parties to which clients and other contacts are involved; others may prefer that their Christmas party is more relaxed, an opportunity for everyone to let their hair down. This will inform your choice of Christmas party venues and give you some guidelines on what you’re looking for.

Another early decision will be on the number of people to be invited along, as this obviously affects your choice of Christmas party venues. If your company is a small one with just a dozen or so people to accommodate, you’ll find a lot of local venues that suit your needs. If, on the other hand, you have a guest list that runs into the hundreds (as some large companies do), your options are immediately that bit more limited. This is a decision that it pays to make early. It is also important to establish what budget there is for your Christmas party; a £250 hire charge for use of a venue may be negligible to some companies, but a bit steep for others.

The next major decision to be made when looking at Christmas party venues is catering and drinks. If you’re planning to run a pay bar, then obviously your chosen venue will need to be licensed. If you want a formal sit-down meal or a buffet, you may need to check whether the Christmas party venue has its own catering, or whether you can enlist the services of caterers. Many Christmas parties may only have quite basic cold buffets, but this still needs to be agreed, organised, and paid for. Similarly, if you are expecting a large number of people, you’ll need serving staff for dispensing drinks, and this needs to be factored into the cost of the party.

Finally, you’ll want to consider any other requirements. For example, if you want entertainment such as music, you’ll need to check with the venue that they are equipped to deal with parties of this type, and book your chosen performers well in advance, as Christmas is a very busy time and the Christmas party is a staple of many musicians’ income.
Having made the big decisions on the size and type of Christmas party you want, the budget available, and the type of catering and entertainment involved, you can now start looking for a suitable venue. This can seem a daunting task, but it needn’t be. Bear in mind your key requirements, and make them clear to the venue in your first email or telephone call – this will save everyone a lot of time and effort. If a venue is fully booked, or otherwise unable to cater for your needs, ask them if they can recommend anywhere else in the area that would be suitable – once they’ve established that they can’t help you, they should be more willing to point you in the direction of the competition!

This is one of the times when a specialist venue finding service can help. Rather than opening the phone book or emailing round canvassing for suggestions, a venue finding agency gives you certain advantages – with a list of suitable locations in your chosen area, it can save a lot of time and effort by suggesting the sorts of Christmas party venues that may be able to cater to your needs.
In addition, a venue finding team will be able to recommend interesting and unusual venues that you wouldn’t have thought of yourself – a sporting venue, for example, that allows you to combine your office party with a day at the races, for example, or an out-of-town venue that offers activities such as paintballing or quad biking. This isn’t for everyone, of course – but by giving you the option, you have a wider range of choices.

Finally, a venue finding agency takes a lot of the stress out of dealing with your chosen Christmas party venue, because all the haggling over price, as well as details over catering and logistics are for them to worry about; you are left only with the important stuff; i. e. , making sure your partygoers have a Christmas party to remember. Now that’s the hard part. . .

Lets face it, your company Christmas party is one of the most important nights of the year for your team, so it’s vital to choose the right corporate Christmas party venue, get the venue and location right and your company will be sending out a positive message to it’s team – get it wrong and the message you send out will have a negative effect and you may as well have not bothered!
So what do you need to take into consideration when you are selecting the right corporate Christmas party venue? Think about your team, your guests and think what they will enjoy – the last thing you want to do is to be known for hosting a party that David Brent from The Office would be proud of! Do your research and get it right.

Have a realistic comprehension of what your budget can buy you. When you go out for a three course meal, what do you normally pay? Then take this, add in an amount for entertainment, perhaps some drinks and then you start getting an idea of a realistic budget.

Talk to a company that specialises in sourcing corporate Christmas party venues, they will have a very clear idea of what your budget can get you. Do you want a Christmas party exclusively for your company? If you do you’ll need private dining and entertainment and will have to budget accordingly.
Do you want the thrills of a huge themed party night with entertainment but know you don’t have the budget for that? If you don’t mind sharing with other companies, then you could attend one of the many spectacular cost effective shared Christmas party nights that are hosted around the country.
If you are having a private party think about how you are going to entertain your guests. Entertainment is a great ice breaker and can turn an average Christmas meal into a great memorable Christmas party, so look into the different options that your budget can afford. Talk to a company that specialises in corporate entertainment and they will give you a whole host of exciting options for you to consider!

Think about dates very carefully. You will never get all of your team attending at Christmas, it’s a sad fact of business that people have social lives and sometimes can’t attend (another reason for booking your company Christmas party early!). Talk to your key team members and look at the dates that they can all make, it’s not going to send out a positive image if your top person can’t make the party, it’s virtually a green light for next years excuses!

One of the biggest pieces of advice that we can give you is that if you want a corporate Christmas party venue that is good or if you want a peak date, a Thursday or Friday in December, then book early and we mean very early! Some party venues sell their peak dates in January, so you have to do some very forward planning here!

It’s not always easy to get your company Christmas party right, it does take a good deal of work but if you team up with an experienced corporate entertainment company, they will guide you through all of your different options and lighten your work load!