Party Planning 101:

Regardless of the size of your celebration, you must get properly organized. Build yourself a Bar/Bat Mitzvah or Wedding organizer using a large (two inch or larger) three-ring binder and use it as follows:

• Insert section dividers for major areas such as Reception, Invitations, Hotels, Transportation, Guest List, Decorations, Photography and Videography, Entertainment, etc. Keep all your worksheets, brochures, call records, quotations, bills and receipts together for easy reference.
• Use a master budget form to track over all expenses.
• Use punched envelopes to hold receipts.
• Ask the facility for a floor or table layout, keep handy for reference.
• On the front of each section, list everything you want or need. Check them off when they have been finalized.
• Make a section for the synagogue that has your list of honors and alliyot, communication from the synagogue, copies of prayers to recite, gifts or donations to the synagogue, etc.
• Leave a section for candle lighting poems or thoughts, notes for speeches, favorite music, sketches or examples of decorations, ideas for a sign-in-book, and other personal notes.
• Collect invitations you receive to help with wording.
• Anything else that makes your life easier.

Believe it or not, these pages make a great memento or scrapbook of the occasion, something you can’t do as easily with a folder on your computer desktop.