Throw A New Year's Eve Party To Remember

With only a few days before 2007, event planner extraordinaire Colin Cowie has thrown his signature mix of style and spirit into a New Year's Eve party that you and your friends won't forget.

He offered his how-to guide on The Early Show Tuesday.

This year, make your New Year's Eve party uber-glamorous by creating a gold and black color scheme. It's reminiscent of the old Hollywood and invite your guests to wear their most glamorous outfits.

Before we even get to the elements of creating the perfect New Year's Eve party, there are a few tips that people need to know.

First, most people invite their guests too early on New Year's Eve. This is not a night to start dinner at 8 p.m., because then you'll find yourself with hours to spare before the big moment, and you don't want to get tired or bored before midnight! Timing is very important, and the right way to do it is to serve dinner at 9 p.m.

This way, you're finishing up dinner between 11-11:30 p.m. That gives you just enough time to fill your glasses, put on your New Year's Eve party hats, go around and have each person make a wish for each other and for the planet, and — voila!

A terrific touch at the stroke of midnight is to turn down the lights and blow confetti.

Everyone wants to celebrate New Year's Eve, but many people think it's very expensive to have a glamorous New Year's Eve party at home for friends and family. But you can have a fabulous party that seems like a million bucks without spending a lot.

One option is to invite your guests (six couples, for example) and make it a potluck evening. One couple brings the champagne, one the appetizer, one the dessert, one the main course, one the wine, and so on. This way, you have a delicious, grand dinner party without having to spend a fortune on it. If you don't want to do potluck — if people don't want to actually cook or bring food — you can get everyone to split the expense of having it all ordered in. This is a way to give yourself a blowout evening with caviar and champagne without breaking the bank.

Once you've figured out how to feed your guests, it's time to focus on the ambiance and your décor. We suggest glam gold and taupe as the backdrop color scheme, because they are great colors to showcase other colors.

Gold is glamorous and elegant, and works perfectly for a New Year's Eve party. As for tabletop decor, do not use fresh flowers. People may be surprised to hear this, but flowers are almost at their most expensive levels around New Year's, almost as much as Valentine's Day. So, if you want to keep costs down, don't spend on flowers; instead, think outside the box.

Our centerpiece is made up of three different elements that are all simple and affordable, but look spectacular. In the center is a golf leaf tray filled with water, with floating candles in it. And on each side we have a gold cylinder packed abundantly with gold branches. They are birch branches painted gold.

It's so simple, but can really make a dramatic statement. And if you're so inclined, you can also recycle your holiday ornaments as part of the table décor: Either hang the ornaments from the gold branches, or attach them at the top of the cylinder just at the base of the branches. Either way offers another layer of texture.

The best part of all is that for this year's New Year's party, all the work has been done for you.

Go to the Web site to can get the timeline, shopping list, cocktail recipes and menu to have everything you need for the best party!