Our reader Rayann recently wrote to GirlfriendCelebrations with a challenge: "I’ve decided to have an Accessory Swap with our Women’s Group. Ninety-one invites were mailed out. I am desperately looking for suggestions, ideas, games, etc., for the evening; organization is key, and ideas in regards to this…will help tremendously." That got us to thinking–with summer weather and outdoor spaces, many of you are having large-scale parties this season. Read on to see the solutions we crafted especially for Rayann–but think about how you can apply them to your own big bash!

"Rayann,

Thanks for visiting GirlfriendCelebrations.com. Wow–91 invitees
is a lot of girlfriends. You are one lucky girl! You’ve probably
already read our article on Accessory Swaps, right? We’ve been
thinking of some other ideas that may help you.

• First of all, create stations for each type of accessory –e.g., all evening bags in one spot, all large handbags in another. Have guests deposit their goods in the appropriate spots upon arriving. This will make it easier for your friends to browse.
• Add some order to the chaos by asking guests to take only as many items as they brought. To keep track, you can hand out numbers or give each guest a safety pin with buttons threaded onto it.  Each guest gets a button for each item they brought to swap. They can take an item for each button, or give away their buttons so that someone else can take more.
• A group this size would be perfect for a speaker–consider asking everyone to pitch in toward the cost of an image consultant. If this is a business group, have the consultant focus on business attire;  if it’s a mommies’ group, have them focus on casual wear.
• Buy a bolt of red fabric, unroll it down the center of your space and voila, you have a red carpet, reasonably priced.  After each guest finds their favorite pieces, have them take a walk on the red carpet.
• Assign a girlfriend or hire a photographer to capture each girlfriend’s red carpet strut! Or hook up the video camera so you can all view the live proceedings!
• For an icebreaker, take the glossy fashion advice pages of well-known fashion magazines and cut them in twos or even fours and mix them up. (Make the cuts unique for each page–e.g. jagged, wavy, etc.)  Then as guests arrive, give them a piece of the magazine page and tell them to look for the guest who has the missing piece or piece(s) to make a complete page. That will get them mingling.
• Have an easel or easels set up throughout the room for your guests to write down their fashion tips or fashion don’ts.  After the party, type out the fashion advice to send along with their picture to the guests that came to the party.
• Be sure to have *plenty* of mirrors on hand.
• Name tags are a must for a party this size.
• Finally, keep food and drink simple. Remember that your decor, food and drink are not the main focus of the party. Your girlfriends are coming to swap and have fun with you and each other.
• For tips on food and drink for a large crowd, including per-person guidelines, see this page from Food Network. http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/et_pa_entertaining_crowd/0,1972,FOOD_9856,00.html

With all that said, your party sounds like a great time–we wish we
could be there! We hope our advice has been helpful. Please let us
know how it goes.

Sincerely,

Dawn and Tina"