With the exception of last year, our family has hosted a Halloween Bash each year. I think this year marks our 4^th Halloween party.

Last year, our family was ill and another family that we invite annually was also battling sickness, so we cancelled. It was sad for us all, but we planned to celebrate this year.

In this short 3-part series, I breakdown our Halloween Bash by time:

Part 1: Preparing 2 weeks prior to our Halloween Bash

Part 2: Finalizing the week of the Halloween Bash

Part 3: Executing the evening of the Halloween Bash

Part 1: Preparing 2 weeks prior to Halloween Bash

In preparation for our Halloween party, I start with the food and the invitations.

Selecting the Menu

Knowing what I plan to serve helps me determine the number of people to invite. Since our party occurs in the evening, I plan a dinner menu. After contemplating the many choices, I settled on making two pans of lasagna, a large salad, homemade French bread, and a dessert.

Creating the Invitation

With the menu planned, Paul created our invitation. Using the chosen date and time, he updated the information on the invitation sent in prior years. Using the same template year after year saves time and energy. 😉

Choosing the Invitees

Repeating our Halloween Bash with our friends is part of the tradition. We try to invite the same families year after year. Since they are all good friends, I choose to e-mail the invitations.

Knowing that our celebration was planned, each of them was waiting for the e-mail and responded back promptly. I think we were all ready to get together.  🙂

By selecting the menu, creating the invitation, and choosing the invitees, we had our Halloween Bash prepared two weeks prior to our party. All three tasks took less than one hour to complete.

In using time wisely, our Halloween Bash is progressing along. Next week, I’ll share the details of party week. Happy planning!

Question: How soon do you begin planning a repeat party?