Top Party Advice

On this site you’ll find all the party ideas and expert advice you’ll ever need to create and host a memorable party that your guests will talk about for years to come.

How do I know? Because I’ve hosted a LOT of extraordinary parties and I’m still receiving compliments for them a decade afterwards!

My name is Barbie Young and I’m sharing with you right here all my enthusiasm and creative expertise for hosting unique and memorable parties.

BarbieYoung, Queen of Parties

No matter what sort of party you’re having, from children’s parties to costume parties and weddings, I can help you make it a HUGE success.

You can spend a lot of money or work to a tight budget, but either way, I’ll give you the options and advice you’ll be looking for.

People often ask me why I don’t hire my services as an event coordinator. The reason is that I get very excited about my events and put in extreme amounts of energy and commitment. I couldn’t possibly sustain those energy levels for extended periods. However, by utilizing my other passion, writing, I can transfer all my experience and knowledge over to you and still have my sanity intact.

Can’t find what you want here? Contact me and let me know and I’ll get the answers to you in a flash.  Parties are my passion.

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Food for a summer party? Here’s a great selection of refreshing ideas!

Coming soon!

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Every party needs finger food to make guests feel relaxed from the moment they arrive. Here’s great selection of easy recipes of both hot and cold finger food.

Coming soon!

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Want party lighting?

Lighting for a party is a very important component in setting the mood. If you want guests to dance you have to realize that they won’t dance under fluerescent lights. Think coloured lights. Think fairy lights, festoon lights, flashing lights and professional lights.

For a party that goes off with a bang you want at least one professional lighting system. These are cheaper than you think and create an incredible atmosphere. If you’ve ever been to a nightclub or disco you’ll remember the huge lights that hung from the celing and flashed to the beat of the music. You can hire smaller versions that work just as well for your party as the nightclub lighting.

Gobo Flower Effect

I often hire a Goblin or a Gobo lightbox  which have multi coloured lamps which rotate and change to the beat of the music. The latest lights have LED lights, so the power cost is low and so is the risk of overheating. You simply attach the lightbox to an overhead beam or gutter, choose the lighting effect you want, and turn it on.

For other lighting around the venue I give a bit of thought to the theme I want the lighting effects to enhance. For Halloween I’d have low wattage coloured globes in lamps aimed up at ghostly props. Red lights give an eerie effect and yellow ones give off much less light than a regular bulb so create a scary mood.

For a luau I’d string up garlands of festoon lighting and light a dozen bamboo flares. For a Christmas party have lots of fairy lights and replace the blue and yellow globes in the festoon sets with red and green to make the whole string just two colours. For an engagement party, try stringing up fairy lights in the shape of a heart.

Get creative and put some effort into this important aspect of your party. Whatever the theme, your guests will be wowed.

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Halloween party coming up? I love Halloween parties! This is my favourite party theme and I have lots of experience in this area. Amaze your guests with unique props and ideas that nobody else has. I’ll show you my ideas and fire up your imagination so you’ll be coming up with some ideas of your own. There’s nothing so rewarding as receiving compliments from party guests about your party props. Pretty soon you’ll see that preparing your Halloween theme isn’t very hard and it doesn’t have to break the budget.

More coming soon!

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Great Christmas parties are very easy to create! I have some great ideas for creating memorable Christmas Parties. I have years of experience in Christmas themes. My son, Vincent, once won second place -  out of all entries in the city of Brisbane – for the Christmas Lights competition.

Coming soon!

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Top party themes are the ones that are EASY. Most guests don’t want to go to too much trouble or expense with their party costume. I’ve had so many costume parties it’s hard to remember them all, but I’m going to give you HEAPS of ideas and options for a memorable and unique party.

Coming soon!

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Having a children’s party can be daunting. Kids have boundless energy that needs to be reigned in. Organise the kids at your childrens party with these old and new games.  There are fun kids games and educational games. The kids will be amused and you can stop stressing!

More coming!

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The best party advice regarding food is the old navy term – KISS. Keep It Simple, Stupid. You want party food that is easy to serve, not food that needs to be served immediately once you’ve prepared it.

Plan, plan, plan. All your preparation is best done before the party, not while your guests are begging you to relax and join them. All my best party food ideas are…

coming soon!

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