Hosting your friends and family for a formal dinner or a casual BBQ should be a fun affair. Organising a get together of your loved ones for food and relaxation is a way to show them you care, with the added benefit of being able to have the food/drink etc. exactly as you like it! However, when life gets busy you don’t want hosting an event to bring you any additional stress or take up too much of your valuable time. For this reason it is helpful to have some handy tips and tricks that make hosting simple and easy, whilst still impressing your invited guests. And guess what? You are in luck, because that is exactly what we have for you;
- Easy Appetisers – Have you joined the slow cooker revolution yet? If not we recommend it! Cooking in a slow cooker is an easy way to create dishes that look like you have been slaving over a hot stove for hours, and they are usually an energy efficient method of cooking too. Having an easy “go to” rotel dip recipe or shredded BBQ beef recipe that you can serve multiple ways/with multiple foods will take one stress off your plate (pun intended).
- Perfect Playlists – Spotify has thousands of playlists for various events, so you don’t need to spend time curating the music for your event. Search for “dinner party”, “backyard BBQ”, “cocktail party” etc. and you will be sure to find a playlist that suits the atmosphere you are looking for. If the playlist isn’t as long as you need you can set your Spotify to continue playing similar music to keep the vibe going.
- Hot or Cold – There is nothing worse than midway through a party realising that you and your guests are slowly melting, or that arms are crossed and jackets being put on to keep the chills away. Think about the likely temperature and if you need to plan to cool or heat up your guests to keep the party going. Perhaps you need to turn the AC on/open the windows in advance, or strategically place blankets around the seating areas.
- Fun Factor – Every host wants their guests to remember their event positively, and an easy differentiator is a “fun factor”. For extravagant events maybe that is hiring dancers or a band, for a low key backyard party it could be some photo booth props or some garden games set up for the kids and the kids-at-heart. If you regularly host events then invest in items that can be used in multiple gatherings, garden games in particular are great for this, as they are relatively inexpensive and they encourage people to play together. Finding these natural ways to encourage mingling and socialising are a winner for any host.
- Check the Checklist – Spend some time creating a simple checklist in your phone of the various standard tasks you need to complete before the event. For example, sending invites, organising the food, planning the entertainment etc. You can then easily refer back to this each time to ensure that in the rush of everyday life that you haven’t forgotten any basics.
No matter what, remember that hosting an event should be fun; not just for those you invite but for you too!
