*Celebrity party planners for Diddy, Jay-Z, Kanye, Mariah, etc. can earn between $250,000-$2 million per year. This brand of party planner is known as: Party Planner extraordinariness.
DIDDY’S PARTY SECRETS (BEHIND THE VELVET ROPE):
Stepping onto P Diddy’s yacht moored off the South of France is like stepping into another dimension. High heels removed – he won’t countenance any scuff marks on his plush cream carpets – guests are greeted by dazzling blue spotlights on the $33 million Maraya.
The mirrored walls make the boat seem unnervingly large. The guests (Beyoncé, Jay-Z, some random friends of Jessica Simpson) lounge on cream leather sofas. Up on deck outside, Naomi Campbell is bursting into tears. The ten-man crew, deed in pristine black, cater to their guests’ every whim.
On the top deck, a huge projector screen looms over the main dance floor, which vibrates to the strains of Diddy’s eclectic music passions – everything from Sinatra to Snoop Dogg. A heaving bar at the back of the 54m yacht dispenses a steady supply of champagne and vodka cocktails.
Inside one of the several private rooms, Lindsay Lohan is dressing for the evening. The cream throw pillows scattered around are emblazoned with P Diddy’s initials – SJC, which stands for Sean John Combs – and given that he has gone through more aliases than James Bond (Puff Daddy, Puffy, Sean John, Sean John Combs and Sean Puffy Combs to name but several), the seamstress must have been busy.
Resplendent in a sharp suit with black-trimmed lapels, which blends in seamlessly with the neutral decor of his surroundings, aviator sunglasses perched firmly on his nose despite the late hour, the man himself looks magnificent.
P. Diddy’s Cannes film festival parties are legendary – like all his parties. Oscar winner Jamie Foxx is adamant that ‘Diddy throws the best party you’ll ever see in your entire life. About 12, 14 years ago, I couldn’t get into the party, and then Diddy swept past me like this Cristal-Bentley tsunami. He’s a legend.’
And even though every day’s a party day for Diddy, the past few weeks in particular have been especially frenetic.
As well as his countless Cannes outings, Diddy recently hosted a lavish $2 million bash at the Californian mansion of billionaire Ron Burkle to celebrate receiving a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
And you wonder why this is the man Live came to when we wanted to find out how to host the perfect party.
Settling into one of his plush sofas, P Diddy takes calls intermittently on his BlackBerry – and then begins to explain why his parties are so memorable…
The top five ingredients for the perfect party are the people, the music, the amenities, the food and drink, and the lighting. It sounds easy enough, but it really isn’t.
You need to keep playing around with those elements to get them just right. For a great vibe you need to pay attention to every detail. You can’t put a price on a good party, but it costs a lot to throw a great one, which is why I often have mine paid for by sponsors.
The most expensive party I ever threw cost $2 million and was for my birthday. It was a black-tie affair with a huge orchestra. I’ve been organizing parties all my life. I like to come up with the concepts and I even draw sketches so that everyone has a clear idea of what I’m looking for.
Themes are a great idea for a party, because they help make them more exciting and bring everyone together.
The key is to get everyone to feel relaxed and open to enjoying themselves. I once threw a Black and White Ball [based on Truman Capote's legendary masked ball of 1966] and I have my special White Party every year, where guests have to dress in white.
Wearing white is not only sexy; it means everyone is unified both visually and emotionally. It puts everyone on the same level. At my ‘Harlem To Hollywood’ party [the Walk of Fame bash], the guests – including Victoria Beckham, Paris and Nicky Hilton, Jamie Foxx, Eva Longoria and actor Derek Luke [who plays Diddy in a forthcoming biopic of rap artist The Notorious B.I.G.] – played croquet on the lawn.
It’s important for every party to have something interesting and unusual the guests can get involved in – it helps get people together and makes the event more memorable.
I liked the idea of croquet because it’s a very Gatsby-type activity and I take pride in being a Gatsby figure.
But I’ve had all sorts of different activities before. I’ve had masquerade balls, and I’ve hired performers from Cirque du Soleil.
Something fun and entertaining ensures that your parties get talked about for a long time after they’ve ended.
I’ve thrown parties where there has been everyone from presidents to Michael Jackson to David Beckham to my relatives – even people from my ‘hood.
It’s important to invite a good range of people with varied interests – good conversationalists and dancers especially – and then just mix them up.
The best parties go on forever, because you don’t want them to stop. I’ve had times when I’ve started partying in New York and taken a jet to Miami to finish off, or started in Paris and then flown to London, or started in Ibiza and then jetted off to Sardinia.
Every year, me and a small, secret crew of people fly off to Ibiza for a week’s partying. It’s a mixed group – we call ourselves the Breakfast Club – and generally I’d say the best ratio for any party is two women to every one man.
No details must be overlooked – and that includes the invitations. I’ve done video invitations, musical messages – I’ve even sent out ones that have been drawn in glass and etched in black marble.
I threw my first party when I was 18, and back then when I was organizing huge parties I’d send out around 3,000 flyers.
Nowadays I think my best parties are the ones that are small and intimate, and if there are only about 20 people then it’s easier to focus on producing a really great and unusual invitation.
Normally I give people only about four or five days’ notice to weed out potential gate-crashers.
On the night of the party I like to lay on transportation for my guests – generally a classic black Cadillac with absolutely no alcohol in the back. It’s best to wait until they get to the venue before they start drinking.
For my Harlem To Hollywood party I laid on private jets, bringing people from Russia, London, Paris, New York and Africa.
I love the British and their sense of style – it’s very chic and clean and elegant and timeless to me. I love David Beckham’s style, and also the style of the Beatles when they were in their prime.
One day I will invite Prince William and Prince Harry. I met them at last year’s Concert for Diana and they told me they were fans of mine. They were great, down-to-earth people and I’d definitely feel comfortable inviting them to one of my parties now.
I have my own particular ritual for getting ready, which takes about two hours, but before I settle on an outfit, I like to try on lots of different ones, and I’ll have a long bath beforehand.
I may change twice in an evening and I’ll always have a spare outfit on hand if something happens to the one I’m wearing.
The dress code for the Hollywood party was ’sexy formal’, and I loved the outfit I eventually wore, which was a vintage white tuxedo jacket. I had a real ‘black Sinatra’ look going on.
Otherwise, I like to wear things from my Sean John line.
My clothing line is like fashion Viagra. While I’m getting ready I like to relax with a drink – vodka and lemonade – and listen to my music, usually some James Brown.
Then I’ll have a manicure and pedicure – and yes, I wax as well. Grooming’s very important and men owe it to women to make sure they’re well groomed.
I wax my privates. I’ll also wear my fragrance, Unforgivable Black. You can tell a lot by a man’s fragrance, and either you have good taste or you can smell like your grandfather. In everything I do, I visualize myself either putting clothes on or taking them off.
I feel like I have a certain type of energy when I walk into a room, and I feel it comes across to people, too. The right time to make an entrance is an hour to an hour-and-a-half into the party.
Sometimes you’ll go to a formal gathering where the time is very structured, and that’s fine, but I think the best parties are the ones that evolve from their own momentum and that start at 5am and finish days later. Those parties test your commitment and staying power and separate the weak from the strong.
I have a whole list of DJs that I use, but my top three are DJ Kiss, DJ D-Nice and DJ Cassidy – they can get any party going. But I can do my bit, too, if I need to make sure that everybody’s having a good time. I’m there to host the party and I’ll do it by any means necessary.
The best music to get a party going? You play any Michael Jackson and people are going to get up and dance – especially Rock With You – and you play Biggie and they’ll dance, too. The best songs to smooch to? Marvin Gaye, definitely. Here, My Dear or Distant Lover.
It’s a free bar, of course – you don’t need to bring your credit card or any cash when you’re partying with me.
I‘ll have plenty of Cîroc vodka on hand. That definitely helps to make the party, because it’s the smoothest vodka and that translates to people acting smooth.
Everyone thinks I drink champagne all the time, and there’ll always be some there – probably a Veuve, the best there is.
I’ve had tons of things happen at my parties, but I’ve never had a girl jump out of a cake – though it’s on my list of things to do. At one of my parties I did have a naked lady taking a champagne bath in the middle of the room.
Even the best party can have a lull, and when that happens I take care of things. If your party’s going through a slow patch, one of the best things to do is propose a toast – it peps people up instantly.
Sometimes you just have to let the guests know how fortunate they all are. Occasionally I’ve jumped up and sung New York, New York, which I consider to be one of my theme songs.
I send my guests away with a goodie bag – the best one had diamond watches. I also like to give away jewelry if possible. If any guests have too much to drink, I provide a car service to get them home safely.
One of the best parties I ever threw started out with 20 people and ended up with me and a lady, dancing to James Brown as we watched our shadows flickering against the wall. Your readers’ mouths would drop to the floor if they knew who. But that’s why I throw the best parties. When you get around me, you lose your inhibitions and let it go. And that’s what a great party is all about.
Source: Daily Mail
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