Simple Home Gatherings

Getting Through Life One Party at a Time

Planning a Community Fall Festival

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Autumn means fall festival time! Earlier this year I took on the role of Chairman of the Social Committee for our communities home owners association. Naturally this has been a learning experience…I’ve learned how useless most committee meetings are and have subsequently moved most of our “meetings” to an email or text forum. I’ve learned that some people join committee’s just to say they are on one, to seem like they’re active in the community, but don’t help much at all. And I’ve learned that sometimes it’s just easier to do things myself. Do I sound jaded? I’ve only been doing this for less than a year and I think I might already be jaded! LOL!

Ok, I’ve gotten the gripes out…onto the actual fall festival planning and ultimately the party!

Brain Storming your Fall Festival…

Here’s a quick list of ideas to get you thinking about what you might want to set up for your communities fall festival:

  • inflatable bounce house
  • D.J.
  • Face painting
  • large inflatable slide
  • Pony rides
  • Petting zoo
  • Catered food
  • Pot luck buffet
  • Apple bobbing
  • Classic games (like sack races or tug-o-war)
  • Photo booth
  • Crafts
  • Prize games
  • Informational booths (such as scout recruiting or local community officials)
  • Karoke
  • Contest (like a chili cook-off or an eating competition)
  • Wine or Beer tasting

Hopefully you can see that the ideas are endless. Your options are only limited by the size of your venue, the number of volunteers you can wrangle up and your budget.

Let the planning begin!

Our Venue: a large 2 acre plot. Mostly flat and grassy, very little shade

Timing: Early October before it gets too cold (we decided on the first Saturday in October from 2-5 pm)

Food: Pot luck style buffet. Each family brought either a side dish, a salad or a dessert. BYOB (bring your own beverage, although we did provide ice tea)

Entertainment:

  1. D.J.– we used Thumbtack, an awesome online source for all sorts of entertainers. Put in your dates and what you are looking for and you’ll hear back from available vendors. The DJ we hired was super fun and engaging.
  2. Bounce House– If you are local (maryland/DC metro) think about using Bouncy-Rentals. I’ve used them several times now and have always had great service at a good price. This time around I found the cutest jack-o-lantern themed bouncer…so cute!
  3. Pony Rides– We hired a local company to bring out two ponies and several handlers. Our venue is huge so space to walk the ponies around wasn’t an issue.
  4. Photo Booth– Oh my gosh, this was a HUGE hit! When I was pricing out photo booth rentals, I was finding prices between $500-600 for 3 hours. But then I found Booth by Mail. They ship to you (a day or two ahead of your party date) all you need to set up an easy to use camera system. Everything is included…camera (an iPad on a tripod) with extra lighting, a wireless printer, backdrop with supports, hand held props and enough photo paper and ink to print 100 photos (with 6 little pictures on each). Our guests LOVED this and it was so easy to set up and use. My husband and I had it up and running in less than 20 minutes. Best of all? The price…Everything, including shipping both ways came to only $290!
  5. Face Painting– The same local group that provided the ponies hooked us up with a face painter. I was skeptical when this tiny, little old lady, showed up with a tiny table and stools, but she rocked! Each guest could flip through a binder to choose a design to be painting on either their face or hand. She took her time and it was clear that she adored doing what she was doing and in turn the kids thought she was great. She had a steady stream of “customers” the entire time. We set the photo booth up right next to her so people could take their pictures as soon as their faces were done. This made for some great photos!
  6. Games– We put out the classic east coast game, corn-hole (google it if you aren’t familiar…it sounds naughty but it’s not, I promise!) as well as a huge checker board with big pieces. Both games were hits.

Ultimately we decided against crafts as it would have required volunteers to man the various stations and we didn’t seem to have any takers. Originally we had planned to have a chili cook-off contest, but there wasn’t enough interest. boo. 🙁 Maybe next year!

Our communities first (hopefully annual!) fall festival was a big success. Even with all the stress of the planning, it was rewarding to see it all come together. I’m looking forward to making it even bigger next year…a big slide…wine tasting…the possibilities are endless!

 

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