The Importance of a Playlist

For me, music is a massively important part of my life. For many of my friends this is also the case, and so whenever I am planning an event I will always, always, plan a playlist to go with it. I am actually quite annoying with it, as I get massive rage-eyes if someone tries to skip a track or play their own music. Sure it's irritating to some (most), but I know best on this one. One of my most-fondly remembered playlists is the one I created for a friend's wedding. They had decided to not have an overly fancy day, and for the reception had hired a local restaurant. As they weren't having a DJ or band I offered to make them a couple of playlists (one for during dinner and one for after) and they both went down a storm - the dinner one in particular. The difficulty with this was that it needed to be about five hours long, and so I added favourite songs of both of them, some non-cheesy love songs, as well as a few nostalgic numbers to suit the various ages of the guests. After the couple's first dance I got the second playlist started - starting with Kiss by Prince this definitely got the party going!

I am of the opinion that the music played can make or break a party, and so here are a few of the stories behind some of my favourite playlists (with handy spotify links!)

Christmas

I am not a fan of Christmas music. I think it really stems back from when I used to work in a hotel events team and so for a solid 6-weeks every year we would hear the same songs night after night after night. So, for me, a Christmas playlist is less about those instantly recognisable cheese-filled numbers and more about classics, covers and Croce (Jim - a family favourite). I also had to include my actual favourite Christmas song - The Power of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (yes, it counts). I made this for Christmas last year, but it will definitely be making a reappearance this time around!

Hen Do

Earlier this year I planned (and pulled off!) a hen-do in Stratford-Upon-Avon for my oldest friend. The whole weekend was a great success, but one of the things that people have mentioned to me since is how much they loved the playlist over the weekend. The main reason I created this was because we were having dinner in the house on the Saturday night and so would need some background music, but I actually loved it so much that I chucked it on at a couple of other points throughout the weekend. As a hen-do is all about celebrating the bride-to-be's single life, most of the songs I put on the playlist where ones that we used to listen to in our bedrooms when we were teenagers, with a couple of more modern ones. The hen loved it, especially as lots of the songs were ones we hadn't listened to in years. This is one I have downloaded to my phone so can listen to while I'm power-walking around!

Baby Shower

For a baby shower I organised last year I created a game of baby bingo. For this I put together a playlist of songs with the word baby in the title (foregoing a few - I'm looking at you, Baby Got Back). The bingo turned out to be a huge amount of fun, and the playlist was just the right level of classics and cheese to continue to be our soundtrack for the rest of the afternoon.

Love Songs

For my friend's wedding I made her a little playlist of love songs for her and hubby to listen to afterwards. I tried to pick songs that were a bit different (again leaning towards our teenage indie tendencies!) but still utterly utterly lovely, and I think I got it just about right with the ones I chose. Maybe I'll use this one at my own wedding if that day ever arises!

Anyone else with me on this one?

Planning the Perfect Hen Do

Planning a hen do can be tricky; it's hard to find the balance between recognising all the traditional elements of a hen do without it venturing into the land of tack. I recently planned a hen do, and here are my 4 top tips for trying to plan the perfect one...

Get Inside Your Hen's Brain

I was lucky with the recent hen do as I had known the bride-to-be since we were bubbas. However, it isn't always this easy and there will usually be people there that have known the hen at various stages of her life. Even though the bride has chosen you to do all the big arranging, don't be afraid to ask for help or advice from everyone else. She will have asked you not just because she thinks you'll arrange something awesome, but also because she isn't worried about you getting on with all her other friends, even if you've not met them before. If you think it would be nice to have something to remind her of her teenage years when you didn't know her, then just ask those who did. The best types of hen dos are always those that have managed to reflect the hen from all the best moments of her life.

Know Your Audience

Although the main purpose of a hen do is to ensure the bride-to-be has an amazing time, you have to also keep in mind who else is going to be attending. If you know the mother of the bride is going to feel uncomfortable drinking through a penis straw then you also know that this is only going to make the bride-to-be uncomfortable too. There are always ways to tone down (or up!) the activities you want to do without it meaning nobody has any fun - on our recent hen do we played Mr and Mrs but stuck to the 'first kiss' questions rather than the 'first hump' questions. Another important one is to remember if there are going to be any under-18s attending (pesky sisters!) - nobody is going to feel more awkward than you if you lead everyone to a bar only to find that not everyone can get in.

Personalise, Personalise, Personalise

The best hen dos are always the ones where the bride-to-be feels like the entire thing, non-stop, from start to finish has revolved around her. The smallest of touches can make this happen - whether it's putting together the best photos of her with all the other attendees, making a playlist of all her favourite songs or bringing a couple of her favourite films in case a pyjama party beckons - and will absolutely make her feel like the queen bee of the event.

Think Outside the Box

When I questioned my friend about the type of thing she wanted to do on her hen do she gave the very standard response - afternoon tea, exploring the town, dinner... All these things are popular hen do activities because they are brilliant things to do, however this doesn't mean that there's no room for a bit of imagination. We did afternoon tea on a river cruise, explored the area by geocaching and had caterers at the cottage rather than going out for dinner. None of these ideas are particularly revolutionary (let's not flatter ourselves here) but were all just different enough to the norm to make it feel like it was a personalised hen do that still ticked all the boxes of things she'd loved on other hen dos she'd been on.

Generally though, the best advice is always just going to be to relax! You've been chosen to organise it for a reason - just keep this in mind and everything will go swimmingly.

30th Wedding Anniversary

Not too long ago it was my parents' 30th wedding anniversary. Generally my mum and dad are the types to let these sorts of occasions pass without a fuss but, what with this being one of their first anniversary milestones I felt like an adult for, this time I felt it was right to make a fuss!

My initial requirements for the event were relatively simple:

* Family Only (plus, and importantly, affordable for all family members)

* Restaurant

* Nothing Embarrassing (my Mum is not a centre-of-attention sort!) but still Personalised

Cosy yet extravagant is, I guess, a way you could look to describe the type of thing I was going for!

My family have always been an eating-out type of family. Birthdays are always marked with a trip to a nice restaurant, and so for this it was really always going to be the case that this would all centre round a nice meal. I wanted to be able to make it really clear that we were celebrating a special occasion but without it being obvious to any other diners, and so the search was then on for a suitable restaurant with a private dining room, that would suit a group of 10. In London there are countless restaurants that fit this criteria, ranging from casual to fine dining, so the trick was really to find somewhere that would suit the wide range of tastes and ages in our group. Some of my favourite restaurants in town offer private rooms (Bam-Bou; The Delaunay; Balthazar) but I eventually settled on The 10 Cases, in Covent Garden.

The 10 Cases is so-called because of the wine - they only ever have 10 cases of the wines on their list, and once they're gone they're really, really, gone. The idea behind this is that it means that the wine list will continually stay fresh, in-season, on-trend and interesting - and knowing my family this was right up their street! At the time, and I mention this as I think their menu offerings have changed since, The 10 Cases offered a menu of three options, though they were keen to mention when I initially spoke to them that they would be happy to amend the menu if we needed to cater for any allergies or discuss any preferences with me. The menu choices are only chosen a couple of days in advance, depending on the ingredients available. Although I hadn't visited it myself, all of the reviews I had read of it were positive, and with those in mind I felt they qualified me enough to take the risk and make a booking!

The great thing about The 10 Cases is the fact that you can hire their private dining room (which seats 6 - 14 people) for no charge, and with no minimum spend. We were able to have the room for the entire evening, and I was able to pop in as soon as they started setting up for the evening. We decorated the table with photos from their wedding day (as well as the obligatory 'congratulations' confetti, of course) and then everyone lay in wait until the big arrival. I had a quick chat to our waitress and then my boyfriend and I went to where my mum and dad were due to meet us (they were under the impression it would just be the four of us for dinner), while my sister took control of the ipod dock.

We got to the restaurant and headed downstairs (after some brilliant acting by our waitress pretending to be clueless...) where they were greeted by the dulcet tones of everyone else. They absolutely loved the evening - they loved the fact that we were in a lovely restaurant with awesome food (which it definitely was) but it still felt like a cosy family meal. We all had three courses, a 'few' wines and even some champagne, and it came out at £50 per head.

Ticks all round!

www.10cases.co.uk