apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Lighting, followed by the right temperature followed by good company, followed IMMEDIATELY by cute bartenders and caterwaiters.

And a floor plan that lets you do "laps."

And possibly a cute caterwaiter that lets you do "laps."

THE most important element to a good party is assembling a great/interesting/well-mixed crowd of people. If you do that well, the party will be a smash regardless. If you do it poorly, it really won't matter how great everything else is.

I agree with Bryan, it's about the people - how the host handles a party and most specifically the people at the party - from invite list, introductions, last call - is the key to success.

You can serve inexpensive red wine, triskets and cheese whiz for twelve in a 20 x 50 room with no music and everyday lighting -- and have a truely great party that everyone will remember if the company is good.

I takes a bit more planning when having 50 - 60 people in my 550 sf apartment and some of the ideas from this site were very helpful for my first couple of parties.

But, I do think it is important to remember it is about your friends have a good time - not about creating a party a professional caterer would put on.

i would have to agree w patrick
LIGHTING is the most important ingredient for any party, or dinner. any restaurant architect/designer worth their salt, knows this..
not many budding restaurant designers here i guess

the survey indicates that food is most important thing for a party.
food is not as important as ambience.

drinks - if you're drunk enough, lighting doesn't matter!

I would have to go with crowdedness. It's all about the crowd - if you have good people there it is hard to have a bad party. Lots of friends but enough people that don't know eachother that people will do a little mingling and meet cool new people as well as seeing old friends. And then food I would say was the next priority. Good food can help things along for sure, but even parties with just snacks and drinks are fine with the right crowd.

For me:

1) music
2) lighting
3) drinks
4) food
5) ability to keep my heels ON :)

holly

MUSIC! So many parties have the potential to be good and actually get people dancing (which is way harder than people think) but the music sucks because the main person throwing the party likes rock over hip hop, which is fine. However, people don't really dance to rock, they dance to hip-hop. So just turn on the hip-hop and watch your party get better by the minute.

However, after that you need to really get people drunk as hell.

Booze and music, the rest happens on its own.

You guys make good points but the survey says "After guests," meaning, assuming you have a great crowd, what's most important after that?

The band leader at my wedding taught me some interesting points about the flow and energy of an evening. The songs during dinner were not the same as the songs immediately after, and the songs at the end of the night signaled the end of the night. I decided not to micro-manage; I just let him read the crowd and choose accordingly. People danced ALL night.

My photographer also made the same points. When the family leaves during the reception or cocktail hour to take dozens of family portraits, it totally kills the energy of the party. I have applied these principles to every other party I've thrown since.

It's a skill to know when to roll out certain "events," such as toasts, dessert, gift exchange, etc. If you have them too early people will think it's time to go home. If you wait too long, people get bored and leave. I think music (starting off light and progressively getting more party oriented, and then tapering off to late night loungey music) really helps the most. I like to throw in a cheesy track every now and then, which is just fun and people can be silly. Who doesn't love a Journey track? Just one.

I just went to a corporate party with a great DJ, but he ended with an upbeat hip hop track, and then said goodbye, the lights were turned on and we were basically kicked out. It was like being doused in cold water. With some simple direction it could have winded down much more elegantly.

wound down?

After having just attended a lavish holiday party thrown by good friends, I have to say I've learned that crowdedness is a real dealbreaker for me. The people were wonderful, the food and drinks plentiful and delicious, the music great, but I could barely move around, much less circulate and visit with all the friends I knew were in there... somewhere. Maybe it's because I'm on the small side, but I find overly dense crowds offputting. I ended up leaving, regretfully, after two hours because I just couldn't handle it any longer.

I've been reading these party posts and wondering exactly who people are inviting to their parties - if I have a party I invite my friends - they have been to my house before, know where everything is and feel at home there - I don't need to show them where the food is or make introductions

What kind of guests are people inviting that haven't been to their house before? (ignoring a house-warming party in a new place of course)

Oh and

"However, people don't really dance to rock, they dance to hip-hop."

If I put hip-hop on at a party my friends were at they would have me sectioned thinking I had gone out of my mind!!