... After looking around, I decided to try Partybox because it seemed to have the best range overall.
WHAT DO THEY SELL?
They offer party products for adult parties as well as children. The website is organised into categories: themes and tablewear; party essentials (invitations, thank yous ... Read review
Advantages: Everything you need for your party Disadvantages: The cost can mount up if you are not careful
...around, I decided to try Partybox because it seemed to have the best range overall.
WHAT DO THEY SELL?
They offer party products for adult parties as well as children. The website is organised into categories: themes and tablewear; party essentials (invitations, thank yous etc); decorations; party bag fillers and gifts; party games and play; and dress up.
Some of the children’s party themes such as Finding Nemo ... ...wrapped in a soggy napkin. Partybox have a range of little gifts, sweets and stickers for party bags, ranging in price from about 18p each up to gifts suitable for prizes which cost between £3-£6. The gifts are all organised into categories by cost and also by type (for example, stickers or magic tricks). Again, I appreciated being able to mix and match items so that I could make up different bags for boys and girls and for older or younger guests. ... more
With my daughter’ fifth birthday approaching, I have been running around trying to organise her party. My first plan was to invite a few friends to tea, but she demanded to ‘go somewhere’. The next option was a soft play centre like Wacky Warehouse, but I didn’t feel that it would make her day special. In the end, we compromised by going for the party package at our local leisure centre, where we will have the use of a bouncy castle for the first hour and a reasonably large room where we can play party games and serve food for a second hour. So the next job was to buy tablewear, party bags (loot bags) for the children to take home and any decorations for the room where they will be eating. Rather than spend hours trudging around town trying to buy everything, I decided to look online to see what I could find.
PARTY SUPPLIES WEBSITES I came across several party supplies websites, some of which offered complete party packages covering everything from invitations through to party bags. I had already bought invitations, and with a mix of boys and girls to cater for it was very important to me to be able to mix and match to buy exactly what I needed. After looking around, I decided to try Partybox because it seemed to have the best range overall.
WHAT DO THEY SELL? They offer party products for adult parties as well as children. The website is organised into categories: themes and tablewear; party essentials (invitations, thank yous etc); decorations; party bag fillers and gifts; party games and play; and dress up.
Some of the children’s party themes such as Finding Nemo are unisex, but others such as Disney Princesses or Football are more obviously aimed at boys or girls. There are lots of different themes, some featuring movie or television characters, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find one that your child will like. For adults, the themes include Hen and Stag parties, Valentines Day and a Scottish theme. They also have a wide range of items in plain colours, which is great if you want to mix some cheaper items in with the themed ones, or go for a more sophisticated colour scheme for an adult party.
They do have an excellent range of products and I don’t feel I can do justice to it here. So if you are thinking of having a party, go and have a look, you might be surprised at the things you can find!
WHAT TO CHOOSE? I chose a tablecloth with Tinkerbell, my daughter’s favourite character (now discontinued). I didn’t want to go overboard on the fairy theme because the guests included both boys and girls so I chose lavender plates for girls and purple plates for boys, with lavender and purple balloons and a mix of Tinkerbell and purple party bags. I appreciated being able to chose exact quantities of each item, rather than being forced to buy packs of maybe six or eight at a time.
Things have changed since my day, and children now expect to have a party bag full of little goodies and sweets as well as the traditional bit of cake wrapped in a soggy napkin. Partybox have a range of little gifts, sweets and stickers for party bags, ranging in price from about 18p each up to gifts suitable for prizes which cost between £3-£6. The gifts are all organised into categories by cost and also by type (for example, stickers or magic tricks). Again, I appreciated being able to mix and match items so that I could make up different bags for boys and girls and for older or younger guests. I was pleased to be able to buy something a little bit different rather than the usual bits and pieces from the stores on our local High Street.
SHOPPING Shopping was easy. Clicking on the icon for a theme brings up a list of items for that theme, plus any similar items (eg the mystical unicorn theme also includes enchanted fairy party boxes). You enter the number of items required (this can be done for several items simultaneously) and hit ‘add’ to add them to your shopping trolley. There is no automatic confirmation message, but you can look at the trolley to check what you’ve ordered. A nice touch is that the total of the order in your trolley is shown at the bottom of the window, so you can keep an eye on what you are spending as you go along.
When looking at the list of items, you can click on the icon for a particular item to bring up a new window with details of that item, and it can also be added to your trolley from that window.
It is easy to view the contents of your trolley, and from there you can amend quantities or delete items. I spent ages trying to juggle exactly what to include in my shopping basket in order to try to keep the cost reasonable. Although many of the items for sale cost less than £1 each, when you are ordering 15 items at a time the total soon mounts up. Navigation around the site could be improved, and I found myself using the back button on the browser quite frequently.
PLACING THE ORDER When you have decided to place your order, you are asked for your contact details. You then have the option of printing out the order page and sending it to Partybox with a cheque, or paying online. I opted to pay online, which was handled via Worldpay. I received two confirmation e-mails, one from Worldpay confirming payment and the other from Partybox confirming receipt of my order.
CUSTOMER SERVICE About half an hour after placing my order, the phone rang with a query from Partybox because I had forgotten to give my full address. Another phonecall came the next day because the Tinkerbell loot bags were sold out – we agreed to replace them with another colour.
In both cases, the members of staff I spoke to were very pleasant and helpful. It would have been slightly better if the website had been designed to avoid these problems in the first place, but it was easy to sort them out.
POSTAGE AND PACKING Postage and packing in the UK costs £3.25 for delivery within four to five days. If you are in a hurry, there is the option for delivery within two working days for a cost of £7.00.
I had plenty of time, so I was happy to go for the standard delivery option. I placed my order on Monday lunchtime, and the package arrived on Wednesday morning by City Link courier. Everything was included, in good condition. I was very pleased with the quality of the things that arrived. I was a bit surprised to realise that Partybox had obviously split larger packets to get the exact quantity I had ordered.
... AND WHAT IS A PARTYBOX ANYWAY? Just in case you are wondering, a partybox is a square cardboard box with handles, which you can use for serving food at a children’s party. If you have ever ordered a Happy Meal or anything similar from a fast food restaurant, you will have the idea!
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS I was very pleased with Partybox, and I would definitely use them again. Ordering online made the whole shopping experience less stressful, I was happy with the response from Partybox, my order arrived promptly and everything included was good quality.
And now all I have to do is write the invitations, think of some party games, order a cake, buy the food ….. Wish me luck everyone!
