Party Decorations

Choose Your Style

Before you can choose decorations -- or even colours -- you must know what kind of party you want to have. Not just "birthday" or "baby shower," but formal or informal, serious or lighthearted, traditional or avant garde. Certain styles of party will dictate your choice of colour, decor, accessories, and activities.

The Basics

If your party includes a meal, whether buffet or seated, then the table linens, china, crystal, and napkins will form part of your party decorations. Some things to consider:

• Make sure that nothing clashes with your china.
• Instead of the simple folded napkin, choose a fancy fold, or try napkin origami for an unusual and distinctive look.
• While formal parties will include formal table linens, informal parties may use plastic tablecloths. When using a plastic cloth, a matching table-skirt is attractive, especially for the buffet table.
• Outdoor parties may require extra napkins, and some provision should be made for covering the food to prevent insects from getting into the dishes.

Table Decorations

In addition to the china and linens, some items that you may wish to consider for your table decorations include:

• Candles or oil lamps
• Flowers
• Confetti
• Place cards
• Napkin rings
• Mirrors
• Luminaria
• Cornucopias or still-life arrangements of fruit

Room Decorations

When decorating the room for the party, don't focus solely on the table area. Walls, floor, ceiling, windows -- all offer possibilities for the creative party planner. Some suggestions:

• crepe paper streamers can be twisted and hung from the ceiling, arranged to create arches, trailed along the edges or center of the tables, and mounted to outline doors and windows.
• balloons make interesting centerpieces as well as room decorations, they can be tied to chairs and other furniture, taped around doors and windows, or allowed to float free along the ceiling
• light strings make fine decorations even at formal parties, if tastefully done. For formal parties, choose plain, uncoloured lights. For less formal parties, coloured lights may be used, especially if they complement the occasion (e.g., orange lights at Hallowe'en).
• mylar streamers usually are available as strings of stars or other thematic elements, and are designed to be hung from the ceiling or along the edges of tables.

Decorative Accessories

Thematic parties will suggest all sorts of supplementary decorations that may be placed in the party rooms, in the entrance area, or outside. For example, a Spiderman-themed party might feature string "webs" in the corners of doorways, while a Halloween party might feature cobwebs made of wool or cotton fibre.

More formal parties need fewer decorations, but small bowls of mixed nuts, mints, or other light edibles can be quite effective, as can smaller flower arrangements that repeat the centerpiece's colour and form, or candle arrangements scattered throughout the party rooms.

Outdoor Decor

The outdoors needs very little to "dress it up" for a party. A few luminaria, or some strings of lights draped in surrounding trees or shrubs, can be quite effective at creating a party atmosphere. Flower arrangements and arrangements of other natural materials (like leaves, pine cones, tree nuts, and grasses) create a nice atmosphere without overwhelming the surroundings.

Where to Find Party Decorations

Start with what you have. Many people have all of the linens, flower vases, and other accessories that they need. Once you have exhausted the possibilities of your own belongings, there are many places that you can get party decorations.

• Party stores like Party City are a good place to start your shopping. They have plastic and paper tableware in many different colours. They also have a good selection of licensed merchandise (like Spiderman or Winnie the Pooh) for theme parties. Many such stores will have all of the balloons, streamers, confetti, and other accessories that you will need, and they can be a good source of ideas, as well.
• Online and catalogue suppliers like Oriental Trading and PartyPro are an excellent source of both ideas and products.
• Discount and dollar stores often have a fairly good selection of party decorations at extremely reasonable prices.

Related Links

• Party Supply Stores
• Party City
• Discount Party Supplies
• Party Favors
• Party Supply Rentals.