Hosting a party or a get together can be a little stressful, especially if you are having one at home and you are responsible for everything, from cooking the food to managing the entertainment. But with proper planning and a few simple ideas, hosting a party can actually become a hassle free and a fun thing to do on a weekend. Here we share a few tips to make hosting a party easier and exciting, just the way it should be.
Start planning early
It would be a shame to have most of your guests arrive and still be preparing most of the food or have the house in a mess. So, it is better to plan early when it comes to matters like this. Email or message the invitees a few days or, if you are feeling particularly professional, a week prior to the party – this gives them time to clear their schedules. If you are hosting a game night, let them know it’s a game night so they know what to expect.
Whether it’s decorating, setting the table, or preparing foods that can sit overnight in the fridge, getting things done ahead of time is key to a successful party. Creating the right ambiance for your party takes time, so tackle decor a couple of days before the main day. Also, get some help if necessary. You can invite a friend a few hours prior to come help you with the food or set up the table or lay out the glasses and tableware. If you plan early, you will not feel the pressure when the guests start arriving. Plan everything in detail so that you don’t have to fret about when people actually start coming over.
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Organize the guest list
The key to having a successful get together is knowing your guests. First of all, if you are hosting a party at home, always keep the guest list short. Second, know what kind of people to invite. It you are inviting your work friends, it is better to keep the party itself work related. For instance, if you invite your family and a few of your work friends, you might have your work friends huddled in one corner without really mingling and that might kill the overall vibe of the party. To make a party work you have to make sure everyone is having a good time. And we have all had the experience of sitting quietly at a party because the only one person you do know has gone to the loo or is talking to someone else. Checking the guest list and inviting people accordingly helps to make the gathering a fun one.
Make a good playlist
A good playlist can work wonders for a party. It helps sets the mood of the party, gets people into a calmer, cooler mood. It is always good to keep the songs light hearted and simple, ones that are termed classics and that everyone knows and can lip sync to. It’s a good idea to keep the music loud as your guests are arriving as it gets the party flowing. It can be lowered when everyone has arrived and is busy chatting up and eating and, again, turned up in the end. This way, the party will feel busy and cheery instead of feeling slow and monotonous.
Keep the menu simple
Sure, serving complicated delicate dishes is one way to make a statement at your party. But when people are at
a get-together, it’s the interaction between them, like meeting up with an old friend or hearing an anecdote about someone’s travels that is most important. So it’s okay to keep the food simple and conventional. Nothing makes people feel more at ease than a drink in their hand and food nearby. Have a self-serve potato chips or popcorn bar for people to snack on. Also,
don’t keep yourself too busy in the kitchen or with food because, as a host, it is important for you to be present around the people you have invited. Before dinner, it’s also great to circle around some snacks and drinks and make sure the guests aren’t feeling too hungry.
Host a game night
The concept of game night has yet to find a place in Nepal. But having a game night is ideal when you have invited a limited number of people at home and need something to keep them all engaged for a length of time. The classics are charades and Pictionary but there are a lot of other games that can you can choose from too. We suggest Mafia, Uno, Jenga and Never Have I Ever. These, we can guarantee, are really fun and enjoyable. The main purpose of game night is to have people giggling and laughing the entire time, so if you feel like a game is getting dull or repetitive, go ahead and change the game or, better yet, tweak the rules to keep things fresh.
