How to Throw a Party: Part One-Ambiance

am·bi·ance also am·bi·ence  (mb-ns, ä-byäs)

n.

The special atmosphere or mood created by a particular environment: "The noir ambience is dominated by low-key lighting . . . and deep shadows, creating feelings of disorientation, loneliness and entrapment" (UCLA Film/TV Archive).

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[French, from ambiant, surrounding, from Latin ambins, ambient-; see ambient.]

There are several aspects to putting on a fun party. Mainly you're going for "ambiance," but ambiance can get expensive when, for example,  you don't live in a mansion but you want your house to have that haunted mansion feel, not that Haunted Upstairs Apartment feel. Even when you're not going full hog on some themed out party you can end up spending a wad on ambiance. Then again, ambiance can SAVE you a ton!

Ambiance keeps your party planning focused. Its the first and most important step in your planning because everything hinges on that decision. You don't want to go out and buy a mess of modern cartoony Santa Claus paper plates only to change your color scheme to vintage, right? Sure the show could go on, but wouldn't it be nice to just have it right the first time? You'll feel better, rather than getting stuck thinking about how you coulda-woulda-shoulda. It can also save you some dough because you can choose to come up with a theme that compliments the setting you've already got, thus less work for yourself and your wallet.  That's all up to you and your creative juices.

So how do you create the ambiance, once you've decided what you wanna go for? These are the aspects that I find go into it:
Invitations
Lighting
Music
Decorations
Treats/Food
Entertainment
Clothing
Beverages

Some of you, this is all you need to know. Heck, maybe you didn't even need to know this! But plain and simple, these are the basics. They can be subtle, but they are all part of the whole and if you can manage to cover all of these bases in some way then you're party will be that much better! (In future posts I am going to cover each with some basic brainstorming, etc. Don't worry, I won't leave you hanging!)

Coming up! Part Two: Invitations