I'm going to try to organize this post in the order of how I actually plan for my parties. In reality, this is a very messy process and I use my yellow legal pads with bright blue ink and it is so much fun to scribble and cross out items.
First things first: It's called my Super *Dip* Bowl Party because I am only serving dips. It should be great fun, and it gives me a chance to try a bunch of new dip recipes. Of course, I am one of those horrible people who doesn't make trial dishes, so my first attempts are what I serve. There have been parties, of course, where an item had to be dropped from the menu at the last minute because the recipe failed. Or, like last Halloween, when my husband and I were in the kitchen frantically trying to deal with gluten-free pizza dough to create hot dog mummies while guests began arriving. (In the end we had to use flour and left some hot dogs unwrapped so our gluten-free friend could still have a hot dog. It was quite pathetic on our parts.)
I don't ever have my menu set completely in stone until my last grocery trip, but right now I have a pretty solid list of dips. The dips that I think I am going to try to make (and I will post more about them later) are:
- Buffalo Chicken Dip
- Layered Mexican Dip
- Sriracha Street Corn Dip
- Salsa (Either regular or mango salsa - have not decided)
- Cilantro Jalapeno Dip
- Onion Dip
- White Bean Dip
- Tzatziki Dip
- Spinach Dip
- Brownie Batter Dip
- Cannoli Dip
After I get a rough idea for the menu, I start on the invitations. Invitations set the tone for the party. I only sent out an e-vite for this party because this is more of a casual party. I used this one from Paperless Post. I like using Paperless Post because you can schedule when the cards will be sent. I like to send invites out in the day so people have all day to think about them, but I like to send greeting cards out in the afternoon as a pick-me-up during the afternoon slump. Of course, for more formal invites and greeting cards, it is necessary to use post.
I like to organize parties way in advance so that I can make changes in the planning process as necessary. I invited 16 people to this party, but I think the highest possible amount of guests would be 14. Thus, I plan for 14 guests. Then, I don't have to worry about everyone's RSVP's. Realistically, RSVP's are just not reliable these days.
Next, I plan the games. Parties need games. At least, my parties need games, because I find it awkward to carry on conversations for too long. Also, I really don't care about the football game. Since I am inviting people over for the Puppy Bowl, this gives me some time to explain some ongoing games that should last throughout the party.
- Super Bowl Predictions: Of course, you always need to have some sort of prediction or fun betting game. I have traditionally created my own, but this year, I found a cool template on Celebrations. (For the record, I absolutely love Celebrations. Here is their guide for the Super Bowl.)
- Super Bowl Trivia: I loooooove trivia. I try to create my own trivia games all the time. But again, I don't care as much about the football. So I used Celebrations for this, too.
- Commercial Break BINGO: I like Bingo because anyone can play. For every party or event I attend, I always have a Bingo prepared. I got the idea for Commercial Break Bingo from Rachael Ray, but her templates had a space for the E-Trade talking baby commercials, which no longer air. So I made my own, which you can download here. There are 15 cards, which means up to 15 people can play without duplicating the cards. I usually try to have prizes for games like these, but this bingo is unique and fun enough that no one needs to be enticed by a prize.
Download this BINGO game here. - Ad Ratings: This is going to double as a game AND the party favor. We will all be rating the commercials in our heads anyways, so I decided to make rating signs using this template. I just printed out the design, and glued it onto a stick with colored card stock on the other side. Here is the result:
Games are the most important part of the party. People always remember how a party makes them feel. They may remember the food, the decor, and the favors, but they will always remember how they felt and how much fun they had.
Lastly, I prepare the decorations. Money is tight here, so for decorations, I pretty much always use the 97 cent table cloths from Wal Mart, green for this, of course, and then I simply created a football garland from cardboard, white acrylic paint, and cooking twine. Simple, but when I take a picture on game day of the green table cloth with the simple garland and the fabulous dips, you'll see how festive it looks.
And that is really all that is needed for a great Super Bowl party set up. It doesn't completely come together until game day, so by then I will post pictures and more details about how everything turned out. I will also go over the dip recipes I am using. But, for now, this is it!
Thanks for reading my first post, y'all!
