Organise a Fancy Dress Party

A Fancy dress or costume party is always great fun to organise and to attend - and it doesn't have to be reserved for specific times of year - Halloween, for example. With fancy dress shops and hire companies providing a myriad of outfits and accessories all year round, a fancy dress party is easy to organise and guarantees a brilliant night's partying!

Why Have Fancy Dress?

As well as being the obvious choice for certain parties - Halloween costumes on the 31st of October, for instance, fancy dress helps to break down barriers – despite being 'dressed up' people feel more confident and less aware of how they look – no agonising over the right length of cocktail dress for example, or if everyone else will be in suits. Fancy dress also provides people with a talking point and acts as a good ice breaker for mixed groups of people who may not know each other.

Planning Your Party

When planning a fancy dress party the key to a smooth event and happy guests is to send the invites out early – this is especially important if all your attendees are local and will be tracking down that must have outfit from the same shop. Giving people time to decide what to wear and prepare their costume is crucial.

Also consider the implications of going for a themed fancy dress – your guests might find your chosen idea impossible to work around if it is too specific or way out. Consider too the ages and numbers of your guests – for example, your Granny might not want to strut her stuff in a Moulin Rouge costume, and anything that involves 'big' outfits and accessories (astronaut costumes for example) might cause space issues.

Fancy Dress for Children

Children adore dressing up and fancy dress parties are an excellent choice of event for them – again, make it as inclusive as possible by choosing a popular theme that everyone can easily get into the spirit of. Pirates and princesses, Disney characters and fairy tales all go down well, and the associated costumes are easy to create, buy or hire.

Or provide a huge basket of dressing up clothes and remnants of fabric for the children to delve into upon arrival and have plenty of card, glue and bits and bobs on hand for them to make their own simple accessories such as hats, eye patches and swords. Plan your games around dressing up – how many clothes can they get on in one minute, for example, or dressing another child whilst blindfolded, and make 'fancy dress' the recurring theme for your whole party.

Practicalities of Fancy Dress

As fun as fancy dress is, the practical side of hosting a costume party must always be considered when you are in the planning stages: do you have hire shops close by, will people be able to source costumes easily, is the venue suitable for a fancy dress party, is the occasion suitable for fancy dress, would the idea of dressing up result in some invitees turning down the invite?

Plan, prepare, take your guests' ages and needs into account, and don't be too vague or specific on themes and your party is sure to be a huge hit!