1st bday party @Park in Irvine & other ?'s.....

Daisy166

I thought I'd check here to see if any of you have had your DC's 1st bday party at a park in Irvine.  There are soo many parks so I thought this might be a good idea for my DS since we live in a small condo. 
I believe you have to rent the picnic table/canopy area in advance? How far in advance should I do this (bday in April).  Is there a cost?  Was dealing with the city a POA or easy?  Can you have alcohol? Our party will be primarily an adult party (approx 20 people), I have zero friends or family with kids.

Any other tips for party planning? 

Good place to order invites/supplies? 

Food recs?

Thanks so much, I appreciate it   Sorry for all the questions.

cstw

Not sure about Irvine but in Newport Beach, so long as you are a resident you just contact the Dep't of Parks and Rec in advance to reserve as many tables as you want. I think it's around $40 and the city provides you with the license and paperwork, which is helpful in case you show up and there are a lot of people there. They said no booze for our last event so we just went low profile with cups and no bottles/cans. We also went in advance to look for outlets so we could plug in the Ipod speakers and have music and then just took the table closest. It was really fun! Depending on what you want to eat, that place Clayton Shirley's BBQ on MacArthur is good for a large group.

bridetobe0jb

We had about 50pp.  We got a taco guy to come so I didn't have to worry about keeping things hot, etc.  The biggest thing I underestimated was the amount of time to set up.  Even with help I didn't get all of the decor up because it took so long to unload everything, pickup balloons, pickup cake, etc.  

I had mine at Northwood Community Park.  It was my third choice park. https://www.ci.irvine.ca.us/depts/cs/commparks/cparks/cparks_northwood.asp    . 

My first choice was Bill Barber but they were having a 500pp Tae Kwon Do Event on that day.  My 2nd choice was Cedar Creek in Tustin, but they were already booked.   https://www.tustinca.org/departments/parksrec/parks/cedargrove.html

The problem with Irvine is they charge by the hour and you pay for set up and clean up.  So as a resident I paid $33 hour for 5 hours (and they charge 1.5 times if you underestimate your time frame and stay over your requested time frame).  So I paid $165 FOR A PARK!  And I was ripping the tablecloths out from under people to clean up in time.  I would suggest looking outside the city.  Had I picked a Tustin park - it was a flat $150 as a non-resident for the day.  But the park I wanted was booked.

https://www.ci.irvine.ca.us/depts/cs/facilityresv/facility_policies_n_fees.asp 

 Also things to ask:  What events will be taking place at the park on that day.  When I was hunting around parks it was quiet and I didn't think anything of it months before the date.  I didn't know it was soccer season and my guests would have trouble with parking!

 

 

 

bridetobe0jb

Oh yea in terms of dealing with Irvine.  Read thru their rules in my link above.  It was $200 deposit - I got that back easily and in a decent time frame.  Trying to get an alcohol permit was a nightmare...we worked it out in other ways. 

The park representatives at Northwood were so nice and helped me to bend some rules a bit regarding bouncers, etc.  Also, they let me use their fridge for the cake (which I wouldn't have been able to do at Bill Barber, etc). 

bride4ironman

We had ours at Cedar Grove Park in Tustin.  I called to reserve the canopy area, but it was already reserved.  So we set up a tent on the grassy area (had about 40 guests) with tables and chairs (rented from our friend who owns a party rental company).  I got food from Ono Hawaiian BBQ at the District and everyone really liked it, especially the beef shortribs.  I used those disposable servers from Party City to keep the food warm and tubs of ice to keep bottled water, juice boxes and sodas cold.  It did take quite some time to set up and tear down--beware!  But the kids had fun and enjoyed the pinata and decorate-your-own-cupcake station!