Throwing an apartment party

Hey everybody,

throwing a small shindig for my roomie's bday/belated housewarming (20ish ppl)...and I'm about ready to throw a grown-up party.

What's lame/overly femme, and what's acceptable/even desirable? Here are the things I'm on the fence about:

1. Candles - what kind, how many?
2. Light dimmers
3. A vase of flowers (for some life?) - what kind for the dead of winter
4. music - what kind? leaning towards indie pop, 80s style electro pop, etc (think Cut Copy, Vampire, etc)
5. any other suggestions would be appreciated.


We're all approaching 30 btw

oddly enough, GQ has a big section in this month's issue about throwing a good house/apartment party.

Lots of alcohol.

Originally Posted by harvey_birdman

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Lots of alcohol.

hah, well that's a given

but what to do here...a punch and a couple of very basic house drinks?

to the above poster, yea I read the GQ article...some reasonably helpful tips there, but its more geared towards a dinner party I think.

Watch Friends. I think Monica throws a killer apartment party for Rachel's 30th.

Not a fan of candles- a bit dangerous when people are drunk.

The best thing is getting a critical mass of people there all at the same time. If people trickle in, it ends up being really sedate and it is hard to break that vibe. Make sure a core group shows up relatively early and commits to staying a while.

Stuff that can help:

1) Punch. (Pink lemonaid, ginger ale, rum, etc.). Frees up serving time, pre-made.
2) Mix tapes. Have music pre-planned. You can always change. Also frees up time
3) Help.

Once you get above about 7 people it gets difficult to play host. You want to talk to everybody, but you need to get ice, change music, help with some request, etc.. If you can throw a few $$ at some local student to help serve drinks, etc., it will be a good few dollars spent to free up your time. Find a hot chick and ask her if she'd like to help serve your friends at a cocktail party. "They'll be some interesting people there".

20 people? Stuff will get spilled. Plan accordingly. Candles are good. Ask people to bring specific items if it'll help. E.g. "You must bring marshmallows or we can't have s'mores!" . Or "You must bring a burgundy so we have all the regions of France covered".

Is it a dinner party or a fun get together where people get drunk, dance a little, etc...?

Booze:
3 bottles of wine
bottle of vodka and bottle of something else
some mid-end beer like dogfishhead, sam adams or harpoon
sodas/juices

Definitely some fun music. I love good music but for parties it's more important for everyone to have fun and be smiling. Are you wanting people to dance and stuff? Mix in some current pop favorites like lady gaga, some fun 80s stuff and maybe some some campy stuff like 90s r&b, etc... If you had a kareokee machine that's always fun when people get a bit looser from booze.

If it's more of a dinner party, quiet gathering then you want the music to be toned down some, still have good booze, have nicer food. Maybe some interesting cheeses (go to a cheese shop or whole foods) and other fun little stuff that they may not have every day.

Flowers, candles and dimmed lights all sound kinda gay





If this is a house party kinda thing with 20 and maybe 30-40 people after phone calls are made, then things are much different so i dunno what you're looking for

Booze
Music
Some dancing

=

Sexy times to be had by all

Don't try to throw a "grown up party." Just throw a party.

Also, candles + drunk people = disaster.

Originally Posted by bsyde82

Click to expand...

Hey everybody, throwing a small shindig for my roomie's bday/belated housewarming (20ish ppl)...and I'm about ready to throw a grown-up party. What's lame/overly femme, and what's acceptable/even desirable? Here are the things I'm on the fence about: 1. Candles - what kind, how many? 2. Light dimmers 3. A vase of flowers (for some life?) - what kind for the dead of winter 4. music - what kind? leaning towards indie pop, 80s style electro pop, etc (think Cut Copy, Vampire, etc) 5. any other suggestions would be appreciated. We're all approaching 30 btw
Is your party having a theme? It'd be odd for two grownup men living together to host a party with the lights dim, candles lit and flowers put out. If you're throwing someone an engagement dinner party they'd make sense, but for a birthday party, pass on the top 3. Music - Choose whatever you feel will get people dancing, talking, socializing, smiling. Cut Copy would work for me. So would 80s. And so would top 40 hits that would get girls humping me. Alcohol and Food - This is where grown, sophisticated men (presumabely) should make the difference. Come up with some very interesting finger foods that aren't terribly messy but are awesome to eat - brushcetta, something with meat, etc. Booze: Go mid-high end. Maybe set up a cocktail section focusing on Vodka, Bourbon and CHampagne. Etc. You could think of cocktails that are simple to make but most people don't make often at home (Old Fashioneds, Martinis, Bellinis). Create a theme- Look for a reason to get people to dress up a bit (007 party with your roommate the main villain and the guests the 00's, the villains sidekicks or either of their damsels of the moment). In doing so, now you have a reason to set a mood to the space (candles, low lights, flowers, props or what have you).

They all end up in the kitchen anyway, just buy some Turkey Basters and do frozen vodka shots with them.

Women + booze + music + food...
When everyone seems to be having a good time.....suggest shots all around. That will turn it up a notch!

Make sure that you have a cab number handy when people are leaving....

Thanks for the suggestions guys...

couple of responses...yea the candle thing, I was thinking maybe a couple larger candles encased in some type of sconce or something...at a reasonable distance away from high traffic areas, just to create some ambience. Not a bunch of tealights or something all over the place.

themes...I would love do this just to have ppl dress up, but as I'm in SF, with many "techie" friends, dressing up is a burden for some ppl...so I guess we're not all that grown up. though that's not gonna prevent me from dressing up a bit.

as far as hosting goes, it'd be me and my roommate's sister, but I'm hoping to keep things reasonably simple so hosting duties will be kept to a minimum - the occasional refill/spill cleanup/etc

so another thing...this is a surprise thing, that will hopefully transition into a regular party. Has anyone tried this before? In my mind, I don't see any problems, but then again, I've never done it before.

oh, another thing re: music....would it be weird to mix genres? like some cut copy followed by some gaga followed by some older r&b joints (i.e. koffee brown)