Birthday Planning Checklist

__Date:__ 12.12.2024
__Time:__ 05:00 PM
__Planner:__ Steve Vaugh
__Birthday Of:__ Mark Vaugh

## Pre-Planning
- Venue - Choose a venue that is closer to most people on the guest list and can accommodate them.
- Guest List - Build a list of guests who can show up including parents of children who go to Mark’s school, sports camp, and his old baseball team. Also add people from Steve and Maggie’s friends and coworkers who might be interested.
- Invitations - Design invitations that can appeal to everyone and not just kids and mail it to people who you won’t be able to personally meet anytime soon. 
- Theme - Choose a theme that is appropriate and interesting to Mark. Cricket or Baseball should be on the top of the list and get decorations based on the theme.
- F&B - Serve baseball game snacks instead of regular birthday snacks and have a Yankee Stadium style birthday cake.
- Entertainment - Arrange for speakers and compile Mark’s favorite tracks and also plan a game of Trivia based on Baseball and Cricket.  

## Day of the Event
- Setup - Start setting up the venue at around 3:00PM and ensure that the food and beverages arrive not later than 30 minutes before the party. 
- Guest Arrival -  Put out a lawn sign to help guests find the home and have Daniel to greet incoming guests at the door. 
- Coordinate - Ensure that everyone in charge of activities is doing his/her job and make sure that you have a 15-minute buffer between events.

## After the Party
- Thank Guests - After the event, thank the guests for showing up and share a small handwritten thank you note to tell them how much this means to you. 
- Clean Up - Put the kids to bed and then clean up the house and have large garbage bags handy to dispose of the trash. 
- Expense Tracking - Create an excel spreadsheet to track the expenses and check if all the things that were paid for were utilized, else raise a dispute for a refund.