Guides, plans and kit calls.
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Start with the guide that matches the problem.
The party planning checklist
Printable timeline from day minus fourteen to the last bin bag.
- Three versions: 10, 30 and 60+ guests
- Shopping list split by shop type
- Weather plan B baked in
Hosting adults and kids together
One party, two audiences, no separate rooms needed.
- Zoning a garden or a flat
- Food that both ends of the table eat
- Noise and bedtime timings
Outdoor themes for adults
Themes that survive a British forecast.
- Night market, harvest table, dockside seafood, neon lawn
- Decor list with cheap substitutes
- Lighting plan for dusk to dark
Finger food buffets
Buffets built around oven slots, not recipes.
- Quantities per head, hot to cold ratio
- Make-ahead windows for each dish
- Display stands from cake tins and crates
Big-batch drinks
Punches, spritzes and zero-alcohol jugs scaled to a tap dispenser.
- Recipes at 4L, 8L and 15L
- Ice strategy so nothing waters down
- Dispensers compared
Four steps, in order. The order matters.
Fix the constraints
Date, headcount, space, budget, and the one thing that must go right. Everything else bends around those five.
Pick the track
Theme, food, drinks, games. Choose the one causing the most stress and build that first.
Buy once
One shopping list, split by shop. Kit picks show a budget option and an upgrade so you do not over-buy.
Run the timeline
Backwards-timed jobs from day minus seven to doors open. Hand the last page to whoever offers to help.
Questions hosts actually ask
Eight to ten pieces per adult across a three-hour party, five to six per child. Aim for a three to five hot-to-cold ratio so your oven is not the bottleneck, and put two of the cold items out before anyone arrives.
Budget two drinks in the first hour and one per hour after. For 30 adults over four hours that is roughly 150 servings including soft drinks. A 15-litre dispenser covers about 60 servings, so plan two dispensers plus bottled options.
Cash-and-carry or wholesale sites beat supermarkets on cups, napkins and foil trays once you pass roughly 25 guests. Below that, supermarket multipacks win because you are not paying for a case you will never finish.
Bagasse (sugarcane fibre) holds hot, oily food without going soft. Palm leaf looks better and handles weight. Uncoated paper plates fail with anything saucy. Check for a rim: it is what stops a plate folding in one hand.
For under about 25 people in a normal garden, yes. Past that, or with any wind, two paired speakers at opposite ends beat one loud speaker, and you will not have to push the volume into distortion.
No. Guides are free. Kit links go to Amazon and are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Bash Supply earns from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.
Not sure which track you need?
Describe the party in three lines and we will tell you what to sort first.