What makes a party memorable in your mind?
A recent survey found that most of us define a “party” as involving 10 or more people. Meanwhile, 32% of people attend parties in hopes of meeting someone special while 25% of us are motivated by parties that involve games or trivia.
If you’re hosting an event — big or small, themed or casual — no doubt you want everyone to be excited about it. How can you ensure you’re a terrific party host?
Here are five tips for hosting parties that everyone will love.
1. Send Out Invites
To build anticipation for your party, you have to make it feel like a real event. Sending someone a text message that says, “Wanna come over next Friday?” hardly creates any anticipation.
Instead, make your guests feel special (before they even arrive) by sending out custom invitations. Use an online invitation maker to create a beautiful digital invite, or go one step further and send hard copies in the mail.
2. Set Event Expectations
In your invite, make it clear what kind of party you’re hosting. Will everyone be sitting around to chat and relax, or will it be an action-packed night full of games and contests?
This is also the time to let attendees know if they should dress up, wear a costume, bring a gift, or contribute any food or drinks. And if the party is a surprise for a certain someone, be sure to make that clear so no one accidentally spoils the fun!
3. Plan the Party Menu
Do yourself a favor and save your kitchen experiments for another time. Even if you’ve been dying to try a new recipe, the night you’re hosting a party is not the ideal time to do so.
Instead, stick with tried-and-true recipes that you already know are crowd-pleasers. If you tend to stress out before hosting an event, consider ordering food or picking up something already made, like a cheese and charcuterie board.
Bonus tip: When you send out the invites, ask your guests to let you know in advance about any food allergies or dietary requirements.
4. Go Easy on Decorations
If you’re hosting a themed party and you want to go all-out with the decorations, knock yourself out.
Otherwise, it’s best to keep things simple. Put a bouquet of flowers in a vase, light a few candles, and hang some balloons or a row of string lights. Remember, people are coming over to socialize and enjoy themselves, not to critique your decorating skills.
5. Enjoy Yourself
Hosting parties is a lot of fun, but it’s easy to forget the most important part — connecting with your guests.
No one will care whether you had time to mop the floor or hang streamers from the ceiling. And no one will care if you meant to make three desserts but you only had time to make one.
The best party hosts know it’s all about making people feel comfortable and welcome in their homes, so that should be your biggest priority for the night.
Successfully Hosting Parties in 2022
To be the ultimate party host, you need the best party hosting tips. Bookmark this article and refer back to it the next time you’re hosting an event — it’s sure to be one to remember!
Hosting parties isn’t the only topic on the table today. Stay right here and keep browsing our blog for more great advice for the whole family.
