How would you throw a party?

How do I throw a cheap party and still have fun?

• I have this idea for a party, I want to make it a fundraiser birthday party for my 16th birthday. Instead of me asking for gifts, I plan to ask for donations for Relay For Life. I want to throw this party to have fun for my birthday while raising money for Relay For Life. I want to know how I can throw a party cheap and still have fun. I want to use pink plates/napkins/plastic ware and purchase pink balloons, I found this site that sells breast cancer theme party supplies. Some of the prices are as follows: 16 lunch napkins (pink ribbon on them) - $2.27 24 pink latex balloons - $3.42 3 rolls of pink curling ribbon (75 feet each) - $1.95 48 pink ribbon baking cups - $5.85 Solid color plates and cutlery: 24 candy pink lunch plates - $4.39 24 baby pink forks - $3.08 20 white plastic dessert plates - $1.35 As far as all the food, music, activities, etc, I don't know what to do. Anyone have some ideas that will save me some money on throwing this party?

• Answer:

  What a great idea to have a charity for a sweet-sixteen! That is so cool of you! What my family always does for parties is tell all my guests to make their best dish, potluck style in a certain category like appetizer, sweet/salty, soft drinks ect. Everyone brings a piece of the meal and it's usually very fun to sample everyone's cooking. Not only can everybody show off their culinary prowess, but dividing up the labor is very economic too.