Z.A.
Oh boy...I've been to so many of these :) My dad was an officer in the navy ( so I grew up with promotion parties, change of command parties, hail and farewell parties, bday parties, wakes, fleets returned parties, deployment parties, "shhh...no one is supposed to know" parties, and "OMG, has nothing really happened this month? Let's celebrate the calm" party parties. Most of these affairs were at our house because my dad was usually the OIC. (Of course, some of the hail and farewells were posh affairs at the admiral's house, but mostly they were bbq or buffet affairs at our house. And I THEN was enlisted usmc, which brought the parties into a whole different arena, (because none of us had houses to host at...so we'd get a block of rooms at a hotel, in an empty wing in the back) but the trimmings were the same.
Number 1 rule: Unlike any other party, you don't have to worry at all, because military types can turn ANYTHING into a party. So, hug yourself, you just got super lucky. (I did private event planning for awhile after I got out...and then several years later returned to seattle...the sooooo non-military town. After living military, it's dumbfounding to realize how much work and planning goes into most people's parties...and then how many fall flat anyway, because the guests were ho-hum. I have NEVER been to a military party where things fell flat.
Since it's cold outside, I'm guessing it's not a bbq (any half decent weather, always feel free to take the thing outside and hotdog/hamburger time), so I'm going to outline for a buffet type party. I'm also guessing around 30-50 people (15-25 officers and their wives/girlfriends plus possible some children), and that the entire party is at your house, and not just starting off there. If it's starting off at your house, cut everything in half. I'm also assuming hubby has been promoted below O-5. For O5/6/7 you can still do the "low key"/relaxed affair OR you can do the whole champagne/canapes thing. Anything below O5 though, keep it casual, or you run the risk of upstaging his bosses parties (and more importantly their wives). Officer-land, as I'm sure your aware, has tricky politics. When in doubt, go less posh, not more...except for balls and gowns!!
Easy Simple Outline:
- Alcohol (and by this we mean beer, and lots of it, in addition to MAYBE a few alternatives)
- Soda
- Easy Food (and lots of it)
- Music
- A place for cigars and cigarettes (and the occasional pipe) to be smoked and extinguished outside
- A "kids" room
- Decorations
- A really really big garbage can (or convert a laundry x-stand to hold big black bags)
- A rug cleaner (or treat yourself to having the rugs done) for the day AFTER the party
- Flyer/Warning for the neighbors
Alcohol:
Most military guys will bring a six pack or a bottle or two of wine with them to any party. Double check with your hubby though, that this is common in his unit. Then also go buy several half racks. Bud & Bud light are the most common (lotsa farmboys sign up, and microbrews are not to their taste). Toss in one or two half racks of NW beer. Bottles are best, and you don't need to provide glasses. CLEARLY mark the giant recycling place. In fact, if you could move your recycling bin to just outside the back door...that would be best. Just leave the lid open. A bottle or two of scotch is NICE (especially if there are upper echelon types coming) but you really don't want a hard alcohol military party in your house. Trust me. If you end up with leftover beer...just stash it in the pantry or garage for the next party. Usually though, very little is left over. Easiest way to serve it is in bottles in a big cooler on the kitchen floor or out the back door, with a sign that says "Beer" taped to the top. It's worth it to tie a bottle opener to the handle.
Soda:
While there MAY be a recovering alcoholic or two in every unit, this is more about the DDs and the fact that most people tend to pace their drinking with food and soda. A few cases usually covers that base. Standard coke, diet coke, sprite, mtn dew. Coke is a lot easier than coffee and coffee cups...but if you're feeling like having coffee onhand, starbucks has those big dispensers you can borrow. Easiest way to serve is in a cooler marked soda, right next to the beer cooler.
Easy Food & Lots of It:
Think superbowl. Chickenwings, potato salad, caesar salad, garlic bread, sausage hotdogs, macaroni salad, cookies, brownies. Chicken wings were my mom's favorite standby, because she could make them up & cook them the day before (on cookie sheets) then just toss in the oven to warm and serve at room temp in giant bowls. This was before costco, but costco would be a good bet. She usually made up 1 cookie sheet FULL of wings for every 10 expected guests. (Occasionally a party would turn out small...she just ziplocked the cooked leftovers and put them in the freezer). This translates to a couple hundred chicken wings. You can make teriyaki wings by marinating them in teriyaki sauce (or save a ton making your own with soy sauce, with ginger, honey, and sesame oil). Buffalo wings are even easier...you cook them plain, then toss in a bowl with sauce.
Also think paper plates & plastic silverware. The best way to serve a casual military party is buffet style. Plates, silverware, napkins at one end...wall of food...garbage can at the other end.
Music:
Let your husband pick.
Cigars & Cigarettes:
Even if you own an ashtray, it's worth picking up a tin flowerpot/bucket. If you're feeling perky, fill it halfway with sand or dirt. Leave it outside, by wherever you've designated a smoking area. It's theoretical that no one in your hubby's unit smokes, but it's unlikely. Very very unlikely. People who run the risk of being blown up next week tend to care less about catching lung cancer in 30 years. If you don't designate an area and a place to put things, people will anyway...but you have no control over where they will, or what they'll do with them. If you have an absolute ban on smoking...people will just walk off your property and smoke on the street/in front of your neighbors, and butts will end up in the gutters and your neighbor's yards.
A kid's room:
This is one of those optional things. My parents always had one, some of the enlisted parties I went to had one, most of the officer parties (but not all) had one. The TV gets moved into it, along with Disney type movies. Sleeping bags. Sometimes the kids' room had their own little mini-buffet, more commonly, kids just filled up their plates and took them upstairs/downstairs...essentially the room the furthest away from the party, to have their own little movie party. Video games usually ended badly, because not everyone can play, and it involves sharing and taking turns. Which, as we all know, doesn't always happen even when an adult is present, much less when all the adults are occupied.
Decorations:
Totally unnecessary. Since it's fall you can grab a few haybales and cornstalks to have by the front door (and then leave them up until Thanksgiving ... yay for multitasking!), or put up some white Xmas lights outside for party lighting...But aside from starting out clean you don't need to do a durn thing to decorate for the party. You'll want as many flat surfaces clear, for people to set their drinks/plates as they're talking, as possible.
A really big garbage can:
You can buy one, rent one, transform a laundry hamper into one...or just resign yourself to emptying a kitchen sized one about 5 times during the night, and run the risk of overflow. Place it at the end of the buffet (aka dining table), so people don't have to be told where to find it. If you have your recycling bin out back, and the big garbage can to take outside at the end of the night, and used throwaway plates/utensils...the only cleanup you have to do at then end of the party is to put away leftovers. Huzzah for ziplock.
A rug cleaner :
Read; for the day after. If it's stashed in your house somewhere before the party, then first thing in the morning you shampoo the carpets, wash the floors...and presto...your home is your own again. Typically an hour's worth of work, and SO worth it.
Flyer/Warning for the neighbors :
If you live on base, it's super easy, because everyone knows what you're talking about when you say a promotion party, they know that they don't happen that frequently, and that promotions are happy (and often loud) affairs. If you're off base though, make sure you're clear that "after ONLY x number of years as ___fill in rank here___" your husband has just been promoted/meritoriously promoted/whatever (civillian promotions can happen 4 or 5 times a year, this is not USUALLY what happens in the military), many people will be there, that you'll have the music off by whatever time the law in your are decrees/ and that you'll be handling traffic to the best of your ability. Even if you're, say, only planning on having the party until 10pm and the law says midnight...give yourself extra wiggle room by having it be the legal limit. That way people will be expecting noise late, and any earlier ending is a pleasant surprise. :) Whether to make it an invitation or merely a warning is up to you. It depended on where we were stationed what our flyer said. Even day of notice is better than no notice at all, but 24 hours minimum is best. Just stick the flyer in their mailbox or on their front step.
Okay...I THINK I covered everything.
Have fun, have a great time, and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS...knew I forgot something. You might also designate a bedroom & bed (probably yours) as a place to stash coats and purses. This was really common practice, and verr verr useful. It also gives you something to do with the first few guest who arrive (the nickle tour), and gives you a small cadre of people who know where everything is, and then the word spreads and it saves you a ton of trouble.
