Party Tip Tuesday with Dazzle Expressions

Welcome to Party Tip Tuesday! Today we’re featuring Renee (right photo below) and Tara (left photo below) of Dazzle Expressions. They design adorable party invitations, matching party decor, holiday cards and more! You can check out their cute designs in their Etsy shop. With over 500 designs and products in their shop, you’re sure to find something for your next party. Today they’ll be sharing more information about Dazzle Expressions along with some excellent tips for planning a fabulous party on a budget.

1) How do you describe “Dazzle Expressions”?

Dazzle Expressions designs invitations and matching party decor for all events and parties. We specialize in birthdays and baby showers. All of our items are printable. By that we mean we typically do not do any of the printing or assembling. We design the invitation, e-mail it to the customer and then they can print as many as they’d like wherever they’d like. It really ends up being an affordable way to have a cute and personalized invitation. Same with the party decor, you can just print it all out from home or a printing place and assemble at home.

2) When did you first realize your passion for party designing?

I’ve always had a passion for artsy and creative things, such as scrapbooking, making my own decor and I love party planning. I planned this huge 25th Anniversary party for my parents when I was 21 and after that I knew it was something I wanted to do more often. After I had my son I was looking for birth announcements and couldn’t settle on a design so I thought, hey I can just make my own, so I did. And that is how it all started. I started designing more things, then it turned into birthday invitations and then decor to match the invites. It’s such a big pet peeve of mine to have party decor that doesn’t match! I also just happened to marry a guy that had a big sister that had a passion for the same things and I was so excited when we decided to work together. Tara and I live a couple states away from each other, but I couldn’t ask for a better business partner!

3) Where do you look for party design inspiration?

We look all over for design inspiration! I usually just do some research on what is in “style” or what kids love these days. Modern and chevron items are really popular now, so we’ve been incorporating that a lot. I also just simply ask my friends and past customers what they’d like to see. That way we can design for our customers needs. I’m not sure we have a method of brainstorming ideas, but I do have this list of about 100 things I plan to design, someday in the near future. Every time I get an idea I jot it down so I don’t forget.

4) For parents who are planning a party on a budget, do you have any budget saving tips to share?

A.  Plan your party during a time of day when you won’t be expected to serve a full meal (10am, 2pm) then just serve small snacks or cake and ice cream, food can be a budget killer!

B. Don’t splurge on a fancy theme cake, make some simple cupcakes and use cupcake wraps and cupcake toppers to dress them up

C. Use a few key theme pieces in your decor (birthday banner, cupcake toppers, favor tags) and buy inexpensive solid color plastic tablecloths, plates, napkins, cups in your theme colors…those themed party ware items can be very expensive and go right in the trash!

D. Party favors can really add to your budget and to be honest, most parents throw those cheap party fillers away as soon as they get home (I know I do) so consider having a small candy or sticker “buffet” and let kids fill a bag for themselves….cheap and consumable!

E. If your party guests are tech savvy and you are working on a tight budget, consider emailing or texting your invites out.  That’s the great thing about our invites, they are digital so you can take the file we send you and save it on your phone or tablet and email or text it out.

5) What are some of the most unique ways that you’ve seen customers use your printable designs?

One customer made a chandelier out of the 2″ party circles…there were probably 100 of them used! It was gorgeous, I wish I had a photo…a true creative mind!

All photos featured here are courtesy of Dazzle Expressions.

We’d like to send a big Thank You to Renee and Tara of Dazzle Expressions for being featured in this Party Tip Tuesday! Be sure to check out Dazzle Expressions on Facebook to keep updated on their latest designs and party inspiration. Quite often, they post freebies on their wall so you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled for that!

Do you have party related questions that you’d like me to ask an expert? Do you have a favorite expert that you’d love to see featured? Please contact me to let me know!

For more birthday party ideas, head over to our Birthday Party page. If you’re looking for adorable party supplies, check out one of my favorites – Birthday in a Box and save 10% off on all orders over $50 – Use code BDAY10 (a Moms & Munchkins affiliate code).

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