You can have a party tent wedding all year around unless you live in the snow.

Party Tent Advantages

• Party tents are often a cheaper alternative to other wedding venues. Especially because you can serve your own food and alcohol.
• You can get party tents in many different shapes, types and sizes. The can even form an L-shape to fit into tricky or tight areas.
• The tent can hold a pleasant temperature even down to sub-zero temperatures at night
• If the weather is bad you can close it out
• If the weather is good you can open up and let the surrounding in
• The surroundings can be used as party of the decorations. The tent can be opened or you can have a tent with windows. Some tents even have a clear or removable roof so you can view the stars.

Inspiration
Colors can do a lot to a party tent wedding, especially warm colors. See the article wedding by color for inspiration.

Inner lining
You can choose to have inner lining in the tent for a warmer look. It looks nice, but it’s also more expensive. A more basic tent without inner lining is cheaper and more functional. It can look good for a wedding aiming to be simple in style.
When it comes to what kind of tent is suitable for your wedding, it’s best to talk to an experienced party tent rental place. They will be able to share their experience and provide advise. Choose the vendor you feel is the most trustworthy.

With or without poles?
It is quite important to decide if you want a tent with or without poles. This will affect how you decorate the tent. The advantage of a pole-less tent is that you get better use of space and no poles will block the view.
Tents with poles are slightly cheaper. If you choose a tent with poles it is important that they are decorated as they are often worn. Just wrap some flowers, leafs and white fabric around them. There are no rules here so just experiment and see what works.

Floor
There are several floor options as well:
- Carpets (can have a warming effect)
- Turf (cheap and fun)
- Wooden floor (expensive but great)
- No floor (can be suitable for an informal event on an even surface)

All in all a party tent is a flexible, personal and very good alternative to other party venues.

Photos: squidoo.com

Name a star in honor of the recipient
On the website StarRegistry.com you can name a star and get a certificate and start map as evidence. For a wedding couple you can name a star couple in their honor.

If you can’t think of a good name, you can leave it to the recipient to name it.

Like adopting a star
When you name a star it’s not the same as “owning” it. The scientific community will not recognize the name either as the service is only offered by a private company. It’s a bit like “adopting” a star. The company regularly release the book “Your place in Cosmos” where they list all the starts they have named.

International Start Registry have full money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied.

They have been in business for 2 years and have named over a million stars! It is clearly a popular gift, but still has something very unique about it!

OzFind Australian Web Directory

1. Plan everything about the party as early as possible
This is important because details can make a huge difference at your party. Use lists to write down all your ideas and think through the whole party. How do you picture the party? What kind of atmosphere would you like to create?

While the details are very important, get the bigger issues in order first. The details will probably change many times while you plan the party.

Create the party atmosphere
You can create a fun atmosphere by using colorful, fun or interesting decorations, scents or music. Scented candles or boiling water with cinnamon and citrus fruits will fill the venue with a great aroma. Have suitable music playing in the background when the guests arrive.

Creative lighting can also set the mood. For example, for smaller parties you can use colored light globes and for bigger events you can make sure the venue has proper mood lighting.

3. Create the magic
The decorations can help create that over the top magic party atmosphere. For example, use black colors. Yes - black. Especially black table cloths with strong colored flowers as centre pieces - imagine the effect it will have!

What makes a night really special is having many different distractions and surprises. Try to vary the music, think about the different stages of the party and build the atmosphere.

This video gives some great pointers on how to entertain in a memorable and low-stress way. Including easy and impressive summer recipies.

Looks great doesn’t it?

Specifying your wine theme

Do you whish to be sepcific about what sort of wine tasting party you want? You can have themes like Blindfold Tasting, All Whites or The French Connection etc. Your theme will obviously determine what wines you serve. Your local bottle shop can probebly be helpful in selecting wines to go with your chosen theme. You should have at least 5 different types of wine to taste.

Invitations

For a more informal wine tasting party, send invitations using electronic invitations from somewhere like evite.com. For a more formal gathering, send printed invitations with a graphic of a bottle of wine and a cheese platter.

Wine Appreciation 101

White wines are to be served chilled and red wine should be served at room temperature.

Here are a few points to remember when pouring the wine:

• Serve about 10 samples from each bottle
• If you are mixing white and red wines, serve the whites before the reds and the dry before the sweet. pale red wines are served in between red and white
• Fill the glass about one third full. This is mainly to avoid spilling, but also in order to allow for samples from different wines

Examining the wine
When tasting, the first thing you do is looking at the wine and examining it. Look at the color and clarity of the wine. Younger wines are often clearer than older wines.

Smelling the wine
After examining the wine, you smell it. Swirl the wine around in the glass to release the aroma. Take a good smell and try to tell the different fragrances apart. This gets easier with more practice.

Tasting the wine
Finally, you taste the wine. Sip it and roll it around using your tongue. This is important as different parts of the tongue registers different tastes. Can you taste the dryness / fruitiness / sweetness etc.?

Remember to have lots of room temperature water available.

Selecting Food

The food should follow the theme of the party. For example, if your theme is French wine you can have French cheese to go with it.

Since wine is the main focus of the party, keep the food to cheese, fruit, crackers, bread etc. Make sure the food compliments the wine.

After the main tasting you can serve chocolate desserts with a nice dessert wine or coffee.

Spice it up

It’s a good idea to spice up the party with a competition and a prize for the winner. This is especially fun if your theme is Blindfold Tasting.

This party theme is a lot of fun, and it might just become a regular thing amongst you friends!

Invitations
You should either send out some really special invitations by mail, or you might as well use an electronig invitation service like evite.com.
Here’s a recipie for unique invitations: Send little pieces of wood. You can write Caribbean Party as a heading and write the time and place below. You can even make a little hole in one side so the guests can wear it as a neclace.

Outfits
colourfull, wonderfull summer clothes!

Music
- Cd with natural tropical sounds like waves and birds
- Reggae and steel drum music. See what you can find on iTunes or myspace

Decorations
- As many exotic plants and flowers you can get your hands on, even fake palm trees if possible
- Chells and tropical fish figures
- Wooden plates, natural string as napking rings and drink glasses in excotic shapes and colours
- Centrepieces can be made out of fruits, coco nuts, sand, chells etc.
-Have cigars laying by the bar
- Play an exotic surfing or diving movie on a flatscreen or a projector
- If possible, create a cosy hammock sitting area

Food
Caribbean food tastes fabulous! You can make excotic foods like banana bread, mango, chutney, grilled chicken and salmon. Have drinks with excotic names and lots of rum.
You can for example serve drinks in a pineaple “shell” with straws
Here are some recipies:
http://www.nevis1.com/
http://www.caribcon.com/

Activities
Conga is a great way to get everyone out on the dance floor after dinner. The dance is actually from South-America, but it’s also used in the Caribbean. You form a long line where everyone holds each others shoulders. You shuffle forwards rytmically and kick to the side just before the fourth beat.

Limbo is a dance from the Caribbean island Trinidad. The dancers have to lean back as the shufle forward in order to get under a stick without touching it. the stick is lowerd each round until a winner is announced.

Entertainment
if you want live music, get a Reggea or Steel Drum band. Be careful to check their demo tapes beforehand!

20s party, or gangsta party, are amongst te coolest you can have - if done well.

Photo: Marc Baker

Attire
At 20′ parties it is a must that the outfits are inspired from the 20’s. The best outfit could be awarded.

Flappers were big from the late 1920’s. A flapper woman had short sleek hair, a short and shapeless shift dress, wore make up and applied it in public, smoked with a long cigarette holder and exposed her limbs. They also wore cloche hats throughout the twenties. A cloche hat told everyone that you had short hair. It was only possible to get a close fitting cloche on the skull if the hair was cropped short and flat. The cloche hat affected body posture as it was pulled well over the eyes which meant young women held their heads at a specific angle in order to see where they were going. Foreheads were unfashionable in the 20s.

The men wore suits with west and a hat. The most common suit types were “Charlie Chaplin”, “gangster” and “gentleman”. The Charlie Chaplin style includes a bowling hat, the gangster hat is a bit like the modern version we see on Justin Timberlake now days, while the gentleman would use a tophat.

The Party
the twenties consisted of loud Jazz music, total ban of alcohol in the States and gangsters. 20s parties are all about cool clothes, elegance and style. Lots of dancing, but it is always the men asking the women for a dance.

Decorate the venue like a Jazz club. Print and hang up black and white pictures of celebreties from the 20s. It will set a great 1920′ atmosphere. a dance floor is a must! You can even play a silent movie or some black and white movie from the 20’s in the background - on a projector or LCD screen.

Inspiration?

Dance
It is always fun to teach your guests something new, and a 20’s party is a good excuse to do just that. Dances like East-Coast Swing or Charleston (see youTube video below) have pretty simple steps and is suitable for different styles of music. If you have guests who love to dance, you can even arrange to have a dance competition where the winner is announces “20’s rocker of the year” or something..

Gambling
Gambling was forbidden in the states in the 20’s, and this created a marked for gangsters like Al Capone. Feel free to have some decks of cards laying around for poker and black jack.

Music
Jazz orchestra were very popular in the 20’s. Louis Armstrong and Chicago Jazz were amongst the biggest. Other known names in theis genre are Boogie Woogie, Fats Waller, James P johnson

Get a live Jazz band or create a playlist with music from this decade. You can also get more modern versions of this styles of music. Have a look at myspeac.com for example.

A lot of the music from the twenties can be a bti too low key for a party. Here are the best up-beat party songs from the 20’s:
Charleston
Sweet Georgia Brown
When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along
Varsity Drag
Ain’t We Got Fun?
Makin’ Whoopee
Button Up Your Overcoat
He’s So Unusual (Helen Kane eller Cyndi Lauper)
Button Up Your Overcoat
Singin’ in the Rain (Cliff Edwards)
Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love (Louis Armstrong)
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans
Yes!
We Have no Bananas
Let’s Misbehave (Helen Kane eller Irving Aaronson)

I chose a helen Marina weding dress on my big day. Isn’t is great? My husband preferes shapely, elegant dresses, so I had to look around for a long time before I found a dress with less than 5 huge layers of skirts.

Helen Marina is a great designer, and it is obvious that it is a high quality dress. When I was going to buy the dress I quickly realized that you can bargain for wedding dresses. In fact, when I bought this one, the lady in the store started barganing for me. She told me the price was $2 000, but when I told her I had to think about it she quickly changed the price to $1 600. Including the shoes.

A great thing about this dress is that you actually can dye it. This means that I can dye it blue or something for a later occation and use it again. It’s such a classy dress.

But the most important part about this wedding dress is that my husband loved it! He still talks about it, and when we go to weddings he tells me nothing can measure up to the wedding dress I had. I like that

This dress looks particularly nice with loose hair and a summer hat. If you are getting married on a beach it’s perfect! With the hat you won’t get sun in your eyes either. I love my own wedding dress, but this one is just yummi!