How to Throw an Amazing Party at Home

In order to throw an amazing party, you need to consider a couple of important factors:

Who’s coming?

If it’s a family party, don’t bother reading this article, it won’t apply for you. I’ll post one extra for family birthdays that don’t suck (as much).

If it’s just a bunch of friends, colleagues, people you have never seen before or the current members of your old fraternity, welcome to the show.

What’s their taste in music?

This question is very important. This is where most mistakes are made. You may like to listen to Tom Waits’ creepy voice when you’re drunk, most people don’t. The music is one of the few things that can either completely save or ruin a party. Believe me! So if you want to put your Waits on and it’s not 5am yet, don’t do it! Just don’t!

Find out what your guests like. Ask them in the invitation, if you don’t already know. Try to find a common ground in music for all people there, don’t neglect anyone’s wishes. Even if there are only two people that like Funk on a party full of Bluegrass Folks, those two are going to remember that you played those two James Brown- songs for them. The Bluegrass people won’t. So everyone’ll be happier in the end!

Make playlists on your iPod or laptop so that you don’t have to run to change the song all the time.

Also an important rule: don’t change songs after they have started playing! People hate that! Unless it’s a 20 minute white noise as interpreted from Pink Floyd feat. Revolution No. 9 by the Beatles Tribute Band electro mix lady gaga, and it causes your ears to bleed (which is a song that probably shouldn’t have been on the playlist in the first place), don’t change a thing!

And most importantly: what is it that all of you have in common?

Maybe you don’t like dressing up all that much or you think wearing green on St. Patrick’s day is stupid, but if you are still reading this, you are probably like me and you simply LOVE that stuff! So why not make it a costume party? Especially when there are people there that don’t know each other too well and are usually stiff and boring, often when they are dressed up as someone else, they become someone else.

But back to the initial question: what do you all have in common? It can be as simple as let’s say you work for the same company, or you have the same college education, or even that you all don’t have to go to work tomorrow. It’s very important that you find something! It doesn’t have to apply to every single person at the party, I remember the “school’s out”- parties to be pretty amazing even if I had to go to summer school three days later.

The similarity gives your party a purpose. Drinking and having fun just doesn’t work as well without a feeling of belonging together, even if it’s just for one night.

Therefore try to have an overall cause for the party. Everyone is going to enjoy themselves more when everyone has something to talk about immediately. Especially when it’s in a costume!

If the party already has a purpose, like for example Halloween, or your birthday, you can still make your party unique by sending out specific instructions about styles (black and white, beach, monsters or if you like it politically incorrect, dictators of the past and present?) or by having contests or playing silly drinking games that you -to be honest- are way too old to play.

So make your party a memorable one! Give it a theme, select music carefully and for god sakes, don’t worry too much! If you keep in mind to invite your neighbors or at least give them a heads-up beforehand, play music everyone can enjoy themselves to and have two kinds of beer in the fridge, you’ll be just fine.