(Our most recent party band was put together by Sam McNally (keyboards) and featured the stunning vocals of Diana Rouvas)
I realised as I cleared hundreds of empty bottles the morning after, that we had arranged five parties in just over 3 years. Clearly we do like a party. So what have we learned?
Four of the five we self catered but by this I mean we bought and planned the food, and had a chef do the execution. It turns out he is a chef - Stanley the party chef, I call him. Originally I put a gig on Airtasker, and he popped up. That was our first party, and he has been running kitchen on all but one since.
We let him hire his own helper / server. For 50 people, it is the two of them. For 70 you need a third. Stanley knows what to do, so we don't tell him. He comes in an hour before the people, we show him what we have, and he goes from there.
Food for 70: we spend about $750, broken down this is fresh seafood (in summer);$250 worth of prawns and oysters. Stanley peels the prawns.
We do frozen finger food that is heated, he knows to serve everything at finger food temperature, not straight out of the oven. We allow about 18 packets, two per variety. Fresh fruit (strawberries, pineapple, melon) goes well, as does a couple of large boxes of mixed chocolates. Several trays of tiny ice cream cones from the deli. If it's winter, we leave out the seafood and substitute some noodle cups.
Cheeses, dips, chips, and plenty of sauces, herbs and garnishes. Plan to pay $100 an hour for chef + 1, or $150 for the three of them. For a day time party, we get a female greeter at the door, for night time, 2 x professional security. You give them a good briefing about who is coming, who might not be on the list (like, they know our names), and the neighbour status.
Because we like to hire a band, the night party is better if you letterbox people within a few blocks, and also drop in to the local Police station and word them up. Daytime we don't think that is necessary, but we tell the most immediate neighbours in case anyone is working shifts or has a new baby that is trying to sleep.
A home party is usually BYO, but we do buy a case of French Champagne, which runs at about $25 a bottle from a boutique wineshop. Ask around to get the best value.
We buy soft-drink (Lemon squash, Coke, Coke Zero, Lemonaid), some soda water, a slab of bottled water (actually get two since we ran out), a bottle of fresh OJ, and a base load of wine and canned beer (mainly for us). Cans are easier to deal with afterwards. 12 bags of ice and you are off and running!
The guest list and RSVP management is hard since many people don't RSVP in the prescribed manner. We've used an online web based system that was pretty good, and we've used Facebook events which is getting better. We still have a handful of friends who don't use Facebook, so we follow them up. We have two lists - reliable friends and 'others'. Of the former, around 70% will turn up. Of the latter, around 15%. If you have 70 confirmed, 10 will not show, and another 10 will roll up without an RSVP.
Our biggest party was our wedding, where we hired a town hall, a caterer, a bunch of bands, and did the rest. I begged, stole and borrowed lights, audio and drapes. My friends at ATS gave me a truck and driver as a wedding present. I paid for some loaders in and out, rather than rely on freinds - although some did help out!
The caterer comes at you different if it's a wedding. That's why I told them it was a birthday! They have 'packages' and you can usually customise these but inevitably they charge per head. For 200 people we paid about 13,000 which included bar staff and glass hire - but no drinks. They always try to sell you a drinks package. NEVER BUY THAT!
If it's a licensed venue, demand drinks on consumption. Unless you are Irish, or related to a bunch of serious drinkers, you'll never come near the package price if you stick with drinks on consumption. Because this was a hall, I was free to go buy my own. Here's what I know:
You can never have too much champagne. I got a box of ultra nice, $60 a bottle, and three boxes at $25 a bottle. And we ran out. 3 boxes of good Chardonnay, 2 Semillon Blanc, 3 boxes of different red wine, 10 slabs of beer (we ran out), and a lot of soft, water, and juice. 25 bags of ice and a van to go get it all PLUS you need to allocate the time and deliver it into the loving hands of the caterer's bar dudes who also need to bring tubs for the ice.
The technical production can cost a lot, that's what my mates all do for a living after all! Doing it myself (with help from some mates) was a no brainer - and the kindness of the people who loaned the gear is well noted and remembered. But I would not expect delivery, that's why we got the truck.
Finally the band(s). You have to pay musicians, (because you should) and if you don't they will naturally take a paying gig in preference to yours. How much you pay is up to you, I would not pay less than $400 per player, on a 'mates rate' basis. A regular commercial gig usually runs at more than that if they are professionals. If there is a singer you REALLY want then you pay them more.
They usually require that you provide the sound and lights, so you need to manage expectations since some bands may want more foldback than you had in mind! As to lights, I'm all for static and tasteful lighting. If you want a light show, then you gotta find the gear and the operator.
I'm lucky one of my best mates is also an outstanding sound engineer who owns his own little PA.I usually supplement it with a few bits that I can borrow.
Hiring a band from an agency means you are dealing with a seasoned hustler who will hustle you out of as much money as possible! It's what they do. In my case I know enough first class musicians, and I get one to arrange a band. That way they pull in those they know and like. You discuss the general style you want, and leave them to it. I never review a song list or demand anything. If they know what you want and what you don't want, everyone wins.
Stay on them for details though, I like to know who they have playing and give them very specific times and directions. Balmain Town Hall was not sufficient address, two of them were sitting in the Town Hall Hotel calling me.
Several weddings ago I had a wedding DJ that was bundled with the reception venue. In that case I got VERY involved because I really, badly, did not want the regular horrors they serve up. Sure enough the dope had all the bad stuff lined up - Nutbush, Time Warp and other vomitous horrors that were nuked before they aired.
Be ready for contingencies - power failure is a show stopper - what would you do? I am super fussy about knowing all the power circuits, where the breakers are, and getting spare circuits.
One of our local pubs has a function room and they got a panicked call at 5pm one Saturday because a road crash outside another venue had brought down power lines. The caterer had everything ready for reheat. There was no way to change venue, so the hirer lost a lot of money and had a weird night.
If you've empowered the musicians, briefed the door greeters, properly chosen the catering crew, and got all your drinks on ice, then you should be relaxed and happy. That's when we open that first champagne.
As for guests, I'm lucky to have some step kids so we get a good representation of young guys to balance out our age groups!
Next day you swear you'll never do it again as you pull it all down and try to deal with the mess.
Costs? $40,000 for a wedding for 200. $4,000 for a party at home, with a band and 70 people. (Based on paying nothing for technical production!)
