can anyone help me plan MY FIRST GROWN UP PARTY IN YEARS, PLEASE?

[noonar]

OK, its a house warming/ birthday celebration for me. havent had a party since my student days, and am now mid thirties

i havent got a clue about a theme.

do you think its enough to just provide quality food and drink and music and leave people to mingle...or will people expect something else?

ideas so far include:

• cocktails made by my brother who works in a v swanky cocktail bar.
• 70s theme
• tapas provided by lovely local restaurant
• singstar karaoke ( i know, i know... but its so much fun when drunk- if totally unsophisticated)

obviously it wouldnt work having all of the above at one party, but could maybe used one of the above as a starting point.

please give me some ideas as i'm starting to feel a bit sick every time i think about it.

tia xx

Cocktails sound lovely (and you could all wear glam frocks to match - much better than 70s theme)

so effie, do i say 'you are invited to my cocktail party'?

how do i make it cocktail partyish, other than drinks and canapes? wouldnt people find it a pressure to dress up?

how about Karaoke n cocktails- i love a bit of cheesy alliteration- lol!

What about a 20s theme? Flapper dresses, cocktails...

now thats a bit too sophisticated. people might feel they need to learn to dance properly!

what about party games?

Cocktails and casino? You can buy a casino set form Argos or the like, give out chips as guests arrive, then award a bottle of fizz to guest who has most chips by a certein time? We did this over Christmas and it was great! Everyone got dressed up, we had Pulp Fiction soundtrack type music and I think everyone enjoyed it...I did! If you're interested I'll send you the canape and coctail recipes we used.

namechange, i really like that idea. what did the casino set include?

Sory, delayed reply! It included a little roulette wheel & green felt mat that you put the chips on to bet (I'm sure there's a technical term for it but I haven't a clue) and cards and instructions for lots of poker, pontoon etc games, plus other counter-things for other games (you can tell I was drinking, I mean, mixing the cocktails rather than being croupier!).

We bought an extra box of poker chips and shared them out amongst guests.

Ours was over Chrsitmas so we had festive-ish drinks - home-made Baileys, a champagne based-cocktail, a really strong one called 'Shrunken Head' with Drambuie & Southern Comfort & Guiness, a pomegranate non-alcoholic one and Snowballs! Canape-wise we had smoked-salmon & cream cheese blinis, chicken satay, Thai king prawn skewers, mini spring rolls, bhajis etc & passed them round on silver trays. You could do some lovely summery drinks & food.

With everyone dressed up sparkly, it was fun and memorable (even if I do say so myself, ha!)

sounds great! we have def decided on the theme, now. casino and cocktails it is. great idea. thanks. may do a new thread asking for ideas for silly, sociable games on a casino theme...dont want the guys sitting round playing poker all night- lol!

Marvellous, have fun!