Favorite Things Party

There is a new type of party that is such a "HOOT" called a Favorite Things Party. My sister's dinner group did one and it sounded like tons of fun. So I decided to throw one. Ususally half your invitation list DOESN'T come....but I am telling you that is NOT the case with this party. I had 30 girls attend my party.....hence we had to relocate the venue to my church building to accomidate everyone.  I had many guest BRING friends. No worries, it was the party of the year. It did not turn out as "pretty" decorations wise as I wanted because I had such a big guest list, but it was a huge success. Lots of laughter and who doesn't like their name being called as a winner 4 times in one night....guarenteed.

(keep reading to find out how)

This is going to be a long post so bare with me...know it will be worth your while.

Details are a must!!!

    

Here are some common questions and answers:

1. What is a Favorite Things Party you ask?

Well, It is a knock off of Oprah's Favoite Things Show......only I am not a millionaire and not giving all my guest things for free....like a car. LOL It is a party for everyone to share their favorite thing.

    

    

2. How does it work?

Well, each guest is going to figure out what their Favorite thing is .....say a Pumpkin Spice Candle......they buy 3 (some parties do 5) of that same Pumpkin Spice Candle and bring it to the party. Each guest will put their name in a raffle 3 time when they arrive. Each guest takes turns talking about their favorite thing and then they pick 3 random names out of the raffle bowl and those are the 3 guests that take the favorite thing (Pumpkin Spice Candle) home. So you come with 3 same items and eveyone leaves with 3 different items.

Are you Excited Yet!!!!!

     

   

3. How does the raffle go and who goes first?

Carrie made these SUPER cute name tags for everyone to put on as they arrived. I also made a note sheet with the title "These are a few of my favorite things....." for everyone to make notes.....even notes of items they may be interested in trading with other guests at the end. Stappled to the note were 4 tickets.....3 green and 1 red. They would put their name on the back of all 4 tickets, but put the green ones in the raffle for the Favorite Things and the red one for the Sawg Bag raffle.

I decided to start the party off and who ever is the last person you call to take your favorite thing home is the next person up. For example......My favorite thing was raffled to Carrie, Barabara and Heidi......Heidi was the last one called....hence she would be the next one up.  It worked out great. We did come to a situation where our last person up to do thier Favorite Thing presentation was raffled off their own item (there were only 3 names left in the raffle bowl and her name was one of them)...so we just asked if anyone wanted to trade one of their things for her last favorite item. It worked out great.

4. Is there a price limit?

Well, we set the price limit up to $10 each item so possibly $30 total spent. Honestly it really doesn't matter and personally I didn't care what my guests spent. If it is a $5 candle so be it!!!! I had no complaints and I had guests from all sorts of financial situations.

I have seen some blogs talking about doing 5 items at $6 each (which still comes out to $30), but I also saw complaints about people having a hard time finding good favorites for less than $6. So I opted for quality verses quantity. I liked 3 items verses 5 items.

     

    

5. Did everyone bring a food item to share?

Yes. Everyone brought one of their favorite foods to share. It doesn't have to be s dessert...we had all sorts of food : salsa & chips, Texas Road House Rolls & Cinnamon Butter, Punch, Cookies, Brownies, Bean Dip & Chips, Skinny Cow Icecream Bars and more!!!

    

6. Does everyone wrap their favorite thing item?

It depends on what you want. I had everyone put all 3 things in 1 party bag....so it was covered and still a surprise. I saw other blogs that didn't have it that way and it was all on display at the begining. I really really wanted to have cordinated gift wrapped boxes or bags delivered to everyone before the party for them to put their favorite thing in, but with 30 guest it was just not fezable.  I did have everyone's name on cards to tape to their giftbag before they put it on the Favorite Things table. Everyone used their original bag to take their new things home in.

7. How long was your party?

Well, let me tell you I got scared about time with so many guests. We started at 7PM and I say we had all the guest arrive ontime. We chatted and grabbed a plate full of food and got the favorite things raffle starting at 7:25. I told the girls munch as we go and get up for 2nds anytime. We ended our last raffle at about 8:30PM Perfect timing to still chat before everyone would need to leave.

    

 8. Did you do party favors or party bags?

Well, I did a 'swag' bag for all my guests. Originally I was going to fill them myself with fun things, BUT who can afford to do 30 of them. So I contacted some local vendors and asked for donations for free items, gift certificates, coupons or even 30 business cards with treats attached to them in exchange for some free advertisement for their business at my party. I really wanted one big item in each bag and between myself and the vendors we had AWESOME bags! So all my bags had various business cards, discounts, big items, candy and even chap sticks. Since every bag varied...I opted to do it by raffle....hence the 1 red ticket. I grouped the swag bags by items donated by each vendor and then did a small commercial if you will for that vendor and showed off all the items donated. This really got the guests excited and it also was good advertisement for the vendor. I did Swag bag raffles inbetween every 3-4 favorite things raffles.

   

Needless to say......Here are my awesome vendors. I have posted some picture of some of my 'Favorite Things' from their personal sites. Please check out their Etsy shops, Blogs and websites!



Snugglybuggs - Carrie Hannah - www.etsy.com/shop/craftynightowls

                         (quilt patterns, party paper straws, cupcake wrappers and die cuts)

 Adrienne Woods...she has 3 sites -

freetimefrolics.com  (sewing, crafting, patterns, food & other great ideas and tutorials)

Mytemplebook.com (books to keep track of temple work) I LOVE these books. Perfect LDS giftfor anyone that attends the Temple. Perfect for moms or mother-in-laws

for Christmas. Contact me if you are interested in some locally

and I can get FREE shipping

Cosette's Closet - www.etsy.com/shop/cosettescloset   www.cosettescloset.blogspot.com

 

Mosh Posh - www.moshposhdesigns.etsy.com (handcrafted jewelry)

I have several new designs I plan to add so check back often for new items. My current turn around time is 3 business days for items in stock.

Snugabugz - Cindy -  (baby quilts, infant carrier covers & more)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Snugabugz     www.facebook.com/#!/pages/snugabugz/287272031308595

One of my favorite things to do is to make baby items, especially quilts

The Quilted Lilies - Jera Watson - www.etsy.com/shop/thequiltedlilies 

                         (custom boutique style clothing for your little prince or princess)

Hello there and welcome to The Quilted Lilies! We specialize in boutique style clothing, bags and hair accessories for babies, toddlers, girls, boys, teens and women! I do accept custom orders so if you have a special day ahead please keep me in mind. I would love to have the opportunity to sew for you!

Never Nola - Angela Christensen - www.nevernola.com (accessories for the original you)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/NeverNola



Vault Denim - Heidi Hinkley - www.vaultdenim.com (denim jeans)

Genesis Print Works - Windy Uhach - genesisprintworks.com (for all your printing needs)

Of course we had something introducing our new blog. Carrie made these cute cute box Owls that have candy inside.  www.craftynightowls.blogspot.com

Our little Owl Business Card. 

If you have any additional questions....please ask in a comment and I will reply. You may have the same question as someone else!!!!