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Consultant Party Planning Basics

We have been talking so much about the joy of being a consultant, and I have one of our most joyful consultants joining me today. Her name's michelle snyder she has been a consultant for twenty two years with close to my heart, and it is an amazing example of true artistry and the type of person who enjoys really celebrating the relationship. She is an amazing team leader. She is an artist like none other and is so dedicated to this company and all that it stands for she's a perfect representative, and she is the party planning queen. So michelle, come on in way want to share all of your beautiful ideas today she has made this in beautiful table escape and she's going to teach us a lot about hosting parties and a lot of that she does through with her teams. But the's tips and techniques are perfect for anyone who's throwing a party, whether it's a birthday party, any kind of theme you're going to learn so much from michelle today, so I want to turn it over to you and get started on thi...

s thank you. I am so excited thie same parties is something that is truly energizing and joyful for me, so we are just gonna go we've got places to go and really excited about what I have to share with you, but as I was thinking about the things we've been talking about with all the different profiles and close to my heart products and things that we use, I found that I don't quite fit in one little category and as we kind of talk about things here, I blend them all and having all of those resource is right there in my tool box of sorts to pull from is set just such a fun thing and lets me dio a huge variety of things, so we're going to share a lot of different types of party themes and I was kind of thinking back about weight did this when did this can we say obsession? E and its trade should be honest, I does that all the little details of love, the magic and when did all that start and I actually have a scrap pick from that I got when I was in fifth grade and that kind of started all of those things and it has the little skis, black square corners, you know, it's kraft colored pages and but what I have found is that in addition tio scrapbooking and preserving the story being able to share the story I love helping to create the story and it's creating memorable moments and shared experiences with the people I do life with and that's what really creates the passion for me with themed parties and those shared experiences something that I've been doing for years and kind of started I wanted to just share a little bit with you um where some of that began for me I have two children they are actually grown and now an adult doing their thing but this is back in the day when they were too so this is my daughter's second birthdays crayola colored graham beam and my son's second birthday and we had the m and m's going all bright colors and and all of those things and because both thie creating the story and telling the story is important to me I wanted to also show you both so these were the kind of the parties but then these are sure so fun so it's the memory making and the memory keeping and putting both of those elements together which close to my heart makes it really easy to d'oh so I can be preparing the party and putting those pieces together but also keeping in mind how I'm going to tell the story later after it's over so the's air my back in the day pages these are from the eighties ok some back of the day pages from the cradle a party but we haven't stopped there and these are pages from my sense twenty seventh birthday are being raised about lucky or what twenty seven and your mom still throws you and another amazing birthday party I think I'm liking one because yeah totally let me so if you look here these air and this is my daughter and son and daughter in law they even hubert me enough where the paper masks and geo paying and close my heart just makes it so easy these air actual actually papers from one of those fundamental packs because everything coordinates it makes it simple to put my party pieces together but also my pages together it's it's quick and easy so avengers at twenty seven you know we have a lot of fun things going on there with different party themes along the way but we share our lives with a lot of different people so we worked with different people in my case I work with an amazing team of consultants love working with my team and my customers and I especially enjoy bringing some of those themes and party things into what we dio and so each month my team and I get together for a kind of a gathering training time and a little bit of a celebration and this is a picture in the keynote of one of our monthly get togethers and each month has a different theme that kind of coordinates with an annual theme and at the same time that we are making the memories together we're also keeping the memories in our scrapbooks so there's a photo of us that are annual close my heart convention this last summer and each year we get together they come from all over the country thirty six different states and come together one time a year and have a great big party and celebration and then we can scrapbook so these are actually studio j pages when your team can use the same file and they're both because she's done the work for them do you love her team name is it's so perfect there the creative heart and look at their matching shirts michelle thinks of it all they have like so much fun on that team and studio j just makes it quick and easy way weaken design once and send it share it and everybody can print and add to their albums to tell their close to my heart story so themes and party planning kind of go everywhere for me but the most important thing is the people and the celebrating the relationships and so that's kind of what everything is coming out of today as we're talking and I know it this all looks like this must take forever I must just spend way too much time but I want to be the first to tell you time is one of those things I'm often running short on anybody else out there like that that's true but all of us best made plans right and you just get up you get going and things just take off time can be something that gets in the way of planning a party or putting events together and budget and all of these different elements and that could create a little stress and you should be stress free when you're planning a party right because it all should be fun so what I want to share with you today is how to eliminate the problem how to get rid of the tie some of those time crunch things and some of the budget and how to and what am I going to dio by sharing four simple steps and they are steps that I kind of go through every time no matter what the venue is whether it's the family get together or a team get together or something in my community four steps and then how close to my heart products help me put it all together that toolbox of resource is that close to my heart gives me I can't wait tio let's talk a little bit about the steps first one is simply choosing a theme and is that coming up there were no alright selecting a theme themes are everywhere they really can come from anything and I am one of those people that we kind of made reference to that walks through the stores and justice kind of looking at patterns and textures and things that are around points of inspiration is what I call them what we refer to them as and a theme can come out of something that is a particular I'm a time period or goes with something in particular but it kind of helps me tohave a point of reference so by choosing a theme for that particular event then I know all of the elements where they're going kind of unifies all of those elements and it gives me some direction in my planning the types of things that I want to include and not include you know we could get carried away with the party planning thing there's just so many fun possibilities but including I only include the things that helped me with that objective so um once you have kind of chosen a theme that's it's best for your event the next thing is to look for key elements that will help you pull that team together elements like that might be color or texture or particular icons and shapes that coordinate with that that theme that kind of pull all of those things together and then once you kind of chosen those colors than patterns and textures you wanted to repeat them through everything and and it doesn't need to be a lot it's kind of a little sprinkling a little bit here a little bit there but the same types of elements so that it all is visually um feels good probably experience I experienced visual overload so if you're happened to you is there's just so much going on that it doesn't create that relaxed experience you're trying tio attend to too many different days you want the elements to be competing so just sprinkle a little here a little there of the same types of things once you've kind of selected those colors and elements you're going to confess sittard the guest experience this is one of the most important parts for me what do I want the people who are coming to experience when they're together in this place that guest experience everything that happens from the beginning to the end the beginning sometimes we think that's like when they walk in the front door or when they come into this space which is an important thing but the actual beginning to any then it is the invitation the thing that happens before they get there so close to my heart makes it easy for me teo include all of those elements and think through what do I want my guest to experience the reason why that matters to me is that it's all about honoring that person I want them to feel good about being in this space and that the moments we shared together the time everybody's taking time out from whatever they do right to choose to come together in those moments and so we want this to be a good thing we're making memories and keeping memories and the shared experience this is give us a story to tell it's those little things even like I'm going to dinner last night it's amazing to me, how nearly every time you gather together with friends that comes up, do you remember when that thing happened? Or do you remember when so and so did this, or we went to that place? We're always remembering those shared experiences, so creating them adds value to the people that you're you're inviting, you're sharing that moment with so guess experiences would include everything from what they hear, what they see, what they're tasting. So it all you did, all of those senses kind of coming together, so thinking about what they experience as they come in, and then there's that that's, well thing and a little, not big on the budget, we can have so many different things going on, but you wanted to be a positive experience for yourself in the planning as well as everybody attending the budget is important, but it doesn't need to be a limitation. I have a small party planning budget, typically, but what I have found since those creole live birthday parties right over the last twenty some years is that if I invest in just a couple of key elements, a couple of key party pieces I can reuse, recycle, repurpose, and then you're getting more bang for your buck, right is going a little bit farther, and so I I will be sharing some of those types of things. What some of those key pieces are for me as we talk a little bit more about it. But that is one way that helps me. Teo. Kind of keep track of my budget. Just investing in a few things. And then I can pull in my close to my heart. Resource is and have it all. Just blend together.