Anyone have a good guide on throwing a party for young teens?

Question

I'm going into the ninth grade this year, and I wanted to throw a party for about 30-40 people from my eighth grade class before school starts.

But I've never really planned anything this big, and since I'm not close friends with a lot of the people, I'm not sure if they would come.

Does anyone have a good website guide to throwing a big party that includes some ideas for getting more people to show up? (: If so, that would be great! I'd mostly like it to be a pool/hanging out type party. sooo, yeah. (:

Answer 1

Make sure your invitations are fun.  If I get a boring invitation I will think the party will be boring so I won't go.  And the invitation needs to make people think 'whoa this will be an awesome party.'

Most teens won't turn down an invitation to a party, especially if there friends are going.  (So take in consideration about friends.)

Make sure you have music (either an ipod&speakers, good stero, or maybe even a dj).  Also, have enough differents snacks and  drinks for everyone.

Sorry but I don't know any good sites on 'getting people to come to a party'.  Those site will tell you about what you need to have for your pool party

Answer 2

For great great themes, ideas and products... simply visit:

http://www.partystuffonline.co.uk

Answer 3

I don't know of any websites, but I do agree that the invite has to be fun, make it colorful!  Once they're there, as long as you have good food and music, and their friends are there, they are going to stay!

Being you have a pool, get some inflatable beach balls and scatter them into the ball.  Just like 3 or 4 at the most.  

Get an inflatable boat and fill it with ice and then add your drinks to it.  Water, juices, soda, etc.  You can then have it at the side of the pool for the swimmers.  Here's another things, you CAN float it in the pool, BUT if they throw the caps in the pool, they WILL break the filters and that's NOT what you want!!  Believe me!!  If you do put the boat in there, you're going to be yelling at people and reminding them and I doubt you want that.  All they would have to do is put the tops back in the boat.

Get some lounge chairs and some waterproof cushions and put them around the pool area so when you're not swimming it becomes a place to hang out and relax.

Being the party's going into the evening, hang some paper lantern lights or get some clear, stringed Christmas lights and hang them all around the party area!  From the pool to the yard, through the trees, everywhere!  It will add such a NICE and festive look, instead of having overhead blaring lights of outdoor lights, these will give the look of twinkling lights and they will look SO pretty!!

You can then set up an ice cream bar sometime during the party.  Get chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream and some toppings. Sprinkles, chocolate syrup, caramel sauce, whipped cream, and marachino cherries and have everyone make their own sundaes.  You can get the plastice sundae glasses at the dollar store or the waffle cone bowls at the grocery store.

You can set up a volleyball net in the yard so if anyone wants to play it's there.

You can do a bbq with hamburgers and hot dogs and have some sides like salads and make sure to have snacks and chips, etc. Just make sure that if there are any vegetarians you accomodate them and not just with corn.  There are veggie burgers you can pick up and there are big mushrooms that can be grilled, I can't think of the name right now, but they are size of a burger patty and they can be grilled and put on a bun.  You can also do lettuce and tomato for toppings for the burgers.

For drinks do soda, water, lemonade, and iced tea.

As for getting other people there, invite your closest friends and if they're friends with someone that you're not as close with, tell them to bring them along.  Be careful with this method though because you'll have friends bringing friends who are bringing thier friends and you'll have a party with a 100 people before you know it and then you're the bad guy when you can't have them all.  I would make sure to tell your closest friends to bring ONE person and to make sure that ONE person knows they can NOT bring anyone, they are the guest.  If there is someone that they want to bring just to run it by you first so you stick with the amount that you're allowed to have.

This way you become friends with other people by asking them to bring a friend of theirs.  Or what you can do is if you have certain people in mind that you would like to ask just send them an invite and wait.  If they are friends with some of your friends and they know those friends are going, they are likely to go too.  In high school people sometimes wait for others to make the first move and other times, it doesn't work out, but there are other people waiting to be your friend that you're not even aware of!  Just invite the people that you would like to have and enjoy your party NO matter what! Your REAL friends are going to be there and that's what counts! You also have to remember that you're still going to make friends with people that you may not even be inviting when school starts, there's others out there that may want to be friends with you and you may not know it until the start of school, so enjoy the guests that DO show and have fun with them!!

Anyway, getting back to your party!  The things you're going to need are paper goods like plates, napkins, forks, spoons, knives, etc.  Tablecloths, get some balloons in your favorite colors and white to accent and cluster them around the corners and areas to make it look festive and like a party!  Then you have the clear, stringed, lights for when the lights go down.  You're also going to need things like salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, etc, condiments, etc, that all depends on the food you're serving, if you're doing tacos you need different things, etc.

You're going to need coolers with ice for the drinks and you're going to need cups for the drinks, and you're going to need soda in a few different flavors like Coke and Pepsi, Sprite, and another, and then Lemonade and Iced Tea and lots of water!  Make sure to have lots of ice!!

For doing your invites, you can make them or buy them.  You can do something like a message in a bottle, do something that goes with your theme.  Being it's a pool party/summer party you want something fun.  If you do the message in a bottle, it's going to cost a lot more to mail.  You can print out the invite on colorful paper and then put some sand and seashells in a bottle and then put them all in a slim bottle from the craftstore and then write out the info of the person you're mailing it to and then your return address and then tape that to the outside of the bottle.  Don't forget to cork the bottle and find a way to seal it. Then mail it, that would make a cool way to invite them!

OR

You can do invites in the shape of a beach ball and a flip flop.  If you can hand deliver them there are more options but I'm sure you would rather mail them.

Do a search online for invites and stationary, there are GREAT places out there and you can order some fun ones and then just write them up when they come in!

You can even ask some of your friends to help you and ask them to brainstorm with you on what kind of invites you can send that would make it fun.  Ask them if they have any ideas and ask your mom too.  If you go to any crafts store there are stickers by Jolee's Boutique and they're 3D with fabric, etc and they have SO many that are summer, pool, and swimming themed! You can buy a few packs and use the pieces on your invites.  There's even ones of Mickey, and friends swimming and scuba diving in 3D, the are amazing, you have to see them in person, they are made of real wire, fabric, sand, etc.  They're in the scrapbooking section, You may find some inspiration there too!

I hope some of these ideas help and that you have a GREAT party!!!