Here are seven tips from professional party planners to get you on the right track in planning your shopping list and timeline:

Tip #1 No matter what the size of your event, if it is for children or adults, a wedding or a simple birthday party, you must have a master shopping list as well as a good timeline. Simply use a pen and paper and decide on how long things will take you to do and start filling in your timeline. And, while you are going through the process, this is the time to start a shopping list as well.

Tip #3 Before you can start to build your timeline and shopping list, first you must decide on where your party or event will be held and how many people you will be inviting. If you will be using an event location or a restaurant, you need to secure your space before moving along to do anything else.

Tip #3 Once you have secured your location for your party, then you can start to build your lists. To start building your timeline think about the things you will need to do before the party, such as send out your invitations. If you will be having them custom printed you will need to allow extra time for the printing before you can mail them out to your guests.

Tip #4 Now that you have your date and location secured, and you have ordered your invitations, if necessary, then it is time to think about what you will be doing at your party, what type of food and drinks will be on the menu, and how long you want the party to last. Dedicate a single sheet of paper just to your party day and list everything you will need to do, in order, by time. For example, preparing food before guests arrive would be at the top of the sheet of paper, while giving out party favors may be at the absolute bottom.

Tip #5 In addition to your timeline for the day of the party, you will also want to formulate a timeline for the two weeks or so leading up to the event. Here you will need to block out time for cleaning, shopping, decorating, etc

Tip #6 As you do each of the steps above, you will start to develop a good timeline and a great shopping and supplies list of things which you will need. This will be a great help to you and can even help you to remember to pick up things that you might otherwise have forgotten. In addition, you will also start to see if there will be any conflicts in your timeline where you might need to move a few things around or enlist the help of others.

Tip #7 Once you have your lists generated then it is time to stick to them and make sure everything gets done. If you are finding that you have more work to do than time to do it in, it is perfectly acceptable to ask other people to help you with carious parts of the event. In fact, most people you will find would be happy to help you.

If you will be hosting a party or event, the best thing you can possibly do for yourself is to follow these tips, and others you hear from friends, and develop yourself a good timeline and master shopping list. By writing things down, you will much more clearly see what you need to do and what you will have time to do yourself.

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Today, most people associate Valentines Day with the exchange of love notes and other symbols of their love. If you are looking for some ways to show your love this Valentines Day, here are some tips to get you started:

Tip #1 One of the best things you can do on Valentines Day is to write your lover a love note. Dont send an electronic greeting or purchase a card, spend the time to write an actual, traditional love note to someone you care about. Your love note does not need to be long; however, it needs to be handwritten with some thought having gone into it.

Tip #2 If you have zero writing skills, then instead of an all out love note, you can write down a list of the things you love about your lover. A simple I love you because list can go a long way to showing someone how you care about them.

Tip #3 Place your love note on your lovers pillow or if you will not see each other in the morning then you can have it delivered to them with some flowers or candy.

Tip #4 If you want to add some creativity to your Valentines Day gift then you can create a scavenger hunt which your lover will have to follow around your house to find their gift. You can leave clues around the house which all lead your lover to find the next clue, and then ultimately to find your gift to them.

Tip #5 If you have a variety of gifts for your lover then you can start at the front door and run a string from one gift to another. By doing this, your lover has to follow the string to get to their next gift. You can use inexpensive kite string from the dollar store to string your gifts together.

Tip #6 Rather than going out and fighting the crowds on Valentines Day, you can celebrate it at home by cooking for your lover, or you and your lover can cook a meal for each other, together. Cooking at home can be both romantic and a lot more fun than going out and paying for an expensive meal out.

Tip #7 If you are looking for a non-traditional gift to give to your lover this Valentines Day, consider making some coupons for them that they can redeem for a variety of things throughout the year. You can make them for simple things like washing their car, or for more sensual gifts. Thanks to home computers and cool paper, you can make some really great coupons or gift certificates in the comfort of your own home.

Tip #8 If you are single this Valentines Day, there are many fun ways which you can spend the day or evening with friends. On fun way to spend the evening is to have a Valentines Day Sucks party with your other single friends. Each friend brings a romantic comedy movie and their favorite junk food to the event. You spend the evening making fun of sappy movies and eating as much junk food as you want, just for one evening.

Tip #9 Another fun way to spend Valentines Day if you do not have a lover to share it with, is to go to a very expensive restaurant with a friend and order the foods you have always wanted to try including desert. Take a long evening to enjoy the food and company of a good friend.

Tip #10 If you will not be seeing your lover until a day or two after the big holiday, you can wait to purchase your flowers or candy until the later date and save a ton of cash.

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Baby Shower Games

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For example, one popular bachelorette game involves asking the guests to become poets. Ahead of the party, take 50 index cards and on half, write romantic things, like “roses”, “cuddly”, etc. On the other 25 cards, write very non-romantic words or phrases, like “nose hairs” or “ironing”. Then have each guest draw one card from each pile. They should then create a silly poem based on the two very different words or phrases they have chosen, for example, “Roses are red, your nose hairs are ewwwww.”

One fun game that is sure to engender at least a few laughs is “name that item”. Take a paper bag (a fabric bag is better if you have one) and fill the bag with typical “male items”. The items might include a razor, a money clip, a tie, shoe polish, etc. Seal the bag, or fold it over really well. Then have each guest feel the bag and try to guess the contents. Have them write their guesses on a piece of paper. After everyone has had a chance to feel the bag, the contents are shown and the person with the most number of correct guesses gets the bag of male-oriented items.

Here’s a fun idea. This game might take the whole of the bachelorette party, but it’s a fun one that involves all the guests, helps them get to know one another and provides video proof you all had a good time. You need video cameras for this game, so if the host only has one camera, be sure to ask guests to bring more video cameras. Make sure you also have enough blank tapes for this game.

Depending on the number of guests at the party, you’ll divide the party into two or more groups. It’s best to divide the group into teams small enough so that the whole team can get into one car. So you’ll have maybe five women on each team. You’ll give each team a video camera, blank videotapes and a list of “scavenger hunt” type activities they must perform and tape.

Some video scavenger hunt ideas include having a complete stranger sing the national anthem, having a member of the team sing “I wish I were an Oscar Meyer hot dog” in the meat section of the grocery store and taping a stranger who can do a good impersonation of John Wayne.

The teams should be given a specific amount of time in which to complete their assigned tasks and then return to the party location (ideally, a home, in this case). The videos are viewed and the teams vote on the team that did the best. Bonus points are given for the team that creates their own stunts.

Bachelorette party games are not only designed to bring fun to the party, but sometimes to help people get to know one another. This might be a good opportunity for the bride’s best friend to get to know the sister of the groom, or for the bride to get close to the groom’s cousin or niece. So an icebreaker game isn’t a bad idea.

This isn’t perhaps the most intellectual of an icebreaker game, but it will likely break the ice early in the evening before you head out to other events. Play a game called “I never…” and see who takes the most drinks. So the first woman says, “I never…” and completes the sentence. The women who have done the thing the first woman says she’s never done take a drink. Then the next woman claims to have “never” done something.

Some suggestions for this game are: “I never …”
*Lied about my age
*Lied about my weight
*Shoplifted
*Got a speeding ticket
*Ran naked through my house

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