“Party Like a Rock Star” Author Shares Tips for Memorable Entertaining

Bottoms up! Signature cocktails can add a stylish touch to your party, according to Jes Gordon.

With our own soiree just around the corner, we’ve been pondering how to make it stand out from the holiday blur. So we consulted Jes Gordon, an NYC- and L.A.-based event planner who has created fetes for the likes of Madonna, Barbra Streisand and J. Lo. It made us feel better, frankly, that even these remarkable women need help making their bashes unique. Gordon’s new book, Party Like a Rock Star: A Celebrity Party Planner’s Tips and Tricks for Throwing an Unforgettable Bash (GPP Life, 2009), is full of wisdom on topics ranging from booking a venue to menu planning to cleaning up afterward. With our location and menu covered, we asked for other quick and quirky details to make our party a hit. Here are the pro’s best tips:

Serve a specialty drink. It could be seasonal beer, but we like the idea of getting a bit fancier. “Look for a concoction that alludes to something special about you — a drink that ties into your personality, décor, party theme or even somewhere pivotal you’ve lived,” she recommends. For inspiration, we browsed drinkrecipesbar.com and quickly found a few interesting possibilities: the Café De Paris cocktail, California Dream and Mary Pickford.

Think outside of all red-and-green. “Holiday colors now just mean festive,” says Gordon. Her advice: Skip red and green and play off something we have or a color we love. Deep jewel tones such as amethyst work, as well as copper, amber and natural gold. We went for amber, since it’s warm and festive and we have some accessories in this color. Gordon advises hitting stores such as Target, Pier 1 Imports or Cost Plus World Market for inexpensive amber glassware. “You get a lot of bang for your buck with colored glassware. It’s functional, decorative and, of course, can be reused.”

Make your ending sweet. Gordon recently hosted a party with a 6-foot-high cupcake Christmas tree. The cupcakes were put in small takeout boxes and given to guests as parting gifts. Since our carpentry skills aren’t up to building a custom cake stand, though, we’ll simply borrow the concept by using tiered stands on decorated tables. Another great idea for a future soiree: Set up a candy bar. Fill various jars with your favorite treats or candies that match a color theme, then offer guests gusseted bags (available at uline.com) or small takeout containers so they can fill them with sweets before they leave.

For more ideas, check out Colin Cowie’s column in VIVmag‘s latest issue. And tell us: What do you do to make sure your holiday parties sing?

Photo credit: Jill Chen

Tags: Barbra Streisand, Café De, Celebrity Party, Christmas, Colin Cowie, Dream, event planner, Jes Gordon, Jill Chen, Los Angeles, Madonna, Mary Pickford, Paris, Pier 1 Imports Inc., Planner, The Chronicles of Amber