Having friends and relatives over for a party is a great way to celebrate a birthday or other special occasion, but it can also be a somewhat daunting prospect. It’s easy enough to come up with the idea and start inviting people, but when you begin to make a list of all the preparation and planning involved, you may start to wonder what you’ve let yourself in for!
If you find preparing for parties exhausting, or you’ve never organized one in your home before, don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be as stressful as you fear. There are many ways of easing the burden and still having a fantastic party that everyone will enjoy. These are some of the best ways to host a great party with the minimum of fuss.
Catering
One of the most important aspects of hosting a party is providing delicious food for your guests. A buffet or barbecue where guests can help themselves is normally the way to go – extravagant sit-down meals are best reserved for dinner parties rather than casual get-togethers.
You can buy in all the food ready made if you wish and you could create a respectable spread with shop-bought items, but you can’t beat home-made food for at least a few of the dishes.
If the prospect of making piles of sandwiches and cooking batches of cakes doesn’t appeal, or your time is limited, why not consider hiring a professional company to provide the catering for lunch? You’ll get top quality food at a reasonable price, and relieve yourself of all the time and effort involved in food preparation.
Preparing your home
You want your home to look as clean and tidy as possible if you’re having a lot of people over, which means a fair few hours spent cleaning and clearing up. If you’re particularly houseproud you’ll want to have a spring clean so your home is spotless, and if it looks stylish and well-decorated even better. Unless you need the work doing anyway, getting a decorator in might be a bit excessive, but hiring a cleaning company to give your home a top to toe clean isn’t a bad idea.
Have a think about where people can leave their coats, whether any rooms should be off-limits, for example a home office, and what to do with any pets, especially if you have friends who are averse or allergic to animals, or pets that are nervous of strangers. Do you need to move any breakable ornaments, or make more seating available for your guests?
If you’re hoping to use the garden, which is always a good idea if the weather is up to it, have you got seats or sitting areas for everyone? Do you have outdoor cabinets for keeping drinks, glasses, and snacks? Also, what will the parking arrangements be – if there’s not much room at or near your home, where should you direct your guests to leave their cars safely?
Parties are so much fun, but if you feel exhausted from all your hosting duties, it takes the shine off the event. Make sure you get to enjoy the festivities as much as everyone else by organizing your party carefully and using outside services to help you throw a party everyone will remember.
