This is why I’m crazy

As you know I am throwing my husband a Trailer Trash themed party with our friends for his 35th birthday today.  Even though our guests costumes will likely provide most of the decor, I have been tirelessly plotting away trying to figure out ways to give this party fun personal touches.  So I thought I would show with you my planning process.  To most bloggers or event planners this will probably seem pretty standard but I’m thinking to the everyday gal I am going to seem totally OCD crazy.

When I start planning a party I do a quick brainstorm (or “data dump” as my boss Mike would call it).  So here it is…kinda scary huh?!

Then I have to organize all of those ideas and figure out where to put them, so I create zones – Food Area, Table, Photo Ops, Front door, etc. and it starts to look like 4 pages of this:

My art skills are amazing, right?!

Once I have all the areas defined I go through a make a supply list so I can start shopping.

Obviously I am a SUPER visual person. Making lists like this helps me not to feel overwhelmed plus nothing beats the satisfaction I get when I get to cross something off! Oooo it feels good! After the supply list I make an action list of things that need to get done and on what days, this helps with delegating to the husband:

As you can see I now have a small binders worth off paperwork just for our little backyard birthday party. This is why I’m crazy.  I can’t wait to show you all the finished product!