How to Not Suck at Throwing a Party

People will tell you that you need all sorts of things to throw a successful party. Don’t let them fool you. Party poopers are just trying to put you down so that their party is better than yours.

The oft-told myth is that you need a guest list (with, of course, a complimentary selection of your favourites – no awkward exes allowed!), a table full of treats, music/entertainment, and a venue.

The truth is that all you really need is one thing.
Cake.
Or at the very least a fluffy, sticky, sweet dessert-like thing that simulates cake. Artificial flavouring allowed.

Okay fine, maybe you also need a venue. I mean you do need somewhere to put the cake after all. But I mean if you have hands (or are very good at balancing things on your head), then really you don’t even need that.

But people, music, a main course?
Think about it.
Cake can take a party of one and turn it into… A party. Because cake is that good at being cake.
Because cake is not just cake. The cake IS the party.

As someone who goes to dinner parties mostly for the cake, I can tell you that this is true.

If I go to a party and there is no cake, it’s not a party – it’s a gathering of sad people waiting for a cake that is not to be.

You can get everything right – the place, the people, the playlist. You could even have an acrobat swinging from the ceiling. But if there’s no cake, you’re going to have at least a few disgruntled guests.

Okay, in all seriousness now.
The point I’m trying to make is not that you should just sit back, do nothing, and expect to be everyone’s favourite host. What I am trying to say is that you shouldn’t stress the small stuff. Yes, I know, you want everything to be perfect. At DDIY, we help people organise dinner parties, birthday parties, anniversaries – so we get it. And yes, we’ve pulled off some pretty amazing events. But ultimately people don’t really care about the little name cards on their plates. The details are nice, but you don’t necessarily need them to make sure everyone has a great time. You plan everything down to whether the flowers match the wallpaper and then when things don’t go exactly as planned you panic like there’s no tomorrow. When you don’t need to, because honestly no one cares.

Frankly, I still think it’s all about the cake.

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