You may already know all of these things. But they are on our mental checklist for every single party we have. 

1. Buy ice. You will always need ice.
2. Lay all the serving plates out earlier in the day or the night before so you can plan where everything goes and be sure it's clean and ready.
3. Put a new trash bag in the trash can and have another one nearby. If guests go to throw something away and there's no room in the trash can, party fail. You'll have more clean-up later! And while you're putting out that extra trash bag, put an extra roll of toilet paper in a super accessible place.
4. Try to get as close to as an empty dishwasher as possible. This can take a little more planning, but it speeds up clean-up on the other side. And you'll be thankful.
5. Get your camera out. A party without pictures isn't really a party!

And if you already bought all the printables from us, your party is SURE to be a success. Check out what's new in the shop.

Read about all the foods from the party above over here!

We're often asked to print and assemble decorations for parties--and for those of you willing to spend a little more time to save a little money, we've assembled a list of our favorite tools for getting all your printables ready for your party. (You can click on all the images to be taken to their Amazon page.)



First up--the scallop punch. This is the quickest and easiest way to make your cupcake toppers look professional! You can also cut cupcake toppers out by hand as a circle, but they just look so cut as scallops!

Second... the paper trimmer. We literally use this for everything.  Invitations, water bottle wrappers, treat bag toppers, banners... anything with a straight edge gets cut with this! It will save you lots of time and hopefully some of your sanity. There's a bunch of paper trimmers out there, but I like this one because it has a wire guide to help you get as close as possible to where you want to cut.




Third... the hole punch.  This is the easiest way to punch the corners of your banner to string it on twine or ribbon. You can use a circle one of any size--but this is our favorite!