There are a number of really good reasons why you would choose to have a joint party, not just with Bounceagogo, but at home, in a church hall or with any other party provider/venue. These reasons could be there are two or a group of children who are friends from school, club or NCT group that have similar birth dates. It can also spread the cost; two families could also just be great friends with kids who have similar ages/birth dates. But we think at Bounceagogo that the simplest reason for having joint party is that it is just a really fun thing to do. About a 3rd of the parties we do each weekend at Bounceagogo across our venues are ‘A Successful Joint party’. And in part this is because they are just a really fun thing to do.
With the above said, we now have at least a couple of thousand parties delivered over the past nearly five years so we have come up with a few pointers that will make your joint party at Bounceagogo (or wherever you go/use) not just good, but brilliant.
Taking the Lead
When putting a party together with a friend/s the default approach is to with a sense of partnership. After all, you are friends. In so many situations having a sense of democracy when organising and events seems like a good idea. However, all be it counter intuitive the democratic approach is not the one one to take. Out of the group of friends one person should take lead. Our experience at Bounceagogo is that when we have had joint parties arrive at one of our venues for a party when the democratic approach has been taken, no one takes the lead. As a group nothing is decided upon, its difficult (certainly for Bounceagogo staff) without a single point of contact to get the party to run based on what everyone wants from the party. It can become slightly confused and although still good fun is very occasionally not hitting the status of ‘Brilliant’. Someone taking the lead in organisation is the single biggest positive step that can be take to make sure things are brilliant.
Information, Dissemination, Feedback
Who ever is taking the lead must communicate with the other parent/s what has been discussed and agreed with your party provider. Our advice is not to leave it until the day (or even worse when you are at the party) to pass on this information. Everyone is anxious in the days building up to the party and the lead letting everyone know what has been discussed with the venue or provider is a vital means of relieving some of this anxiety for all involved. Any questions that come up from this discussion can then be fed back to the venue/provider to ensure that needs can be met and expectations managed.
Reference
If you are going to split the payments between the parents, use the same payment reference. I suppose this is mainly for us here at Bounceagogo. All our payment for parties are made via Bank Transfer and if joint parties start using different payment references it becomes difficult to tell who has paid what. Using the same reference means the avoidance of calls from us or any other provider in an attempt to track down/tie up payments and then creating any anxiety for you good parents.
Sing Happy Birthday Once
Sing Happy Birthday once but bring both cakes out at the same time. Choosing to sing Happy Birthday 2, 3 or more times for all the birthday children individually may sound like a good idea in principle sounds like a good idea, giving every child their special moment. However, in practice one child has to first, second etc. As such it tends to come off as child one is really special, child 2, still special but just a fraction not quite as special as child one and so on. As all of these precious children are all as special as each other our experience suggests that all the cakes come out at once and the Happy Birthday is sung just the once.
To Conclude
The above is just a few points and by no mean exhaustive list of all that you need to pull of ‘A Successful Joint Party’ with Bounceagogo or any other venue or party provider. The biggest take home however is to have someone to take the lead with the organisation. Once you have that share the information from the venue/provider so you can as a group figure out how you are going to go forward. But without doubt, only sing Happy Birthday once!