Have this Party: A Modern Cocktail Party! (Entertaining: Radvent journal Day 17)

Posted on 17. Dec, 2010 by Princess Lasertron in inspiration, radvent

Friends visiting for our casual cocktail party last week

Peek into my life and check out the photos from a modern cocktail party we had last week and read some of my best tips for hosting a fun impromptu gathering of your own! Today’s Radvent theme is entertaining, and I’m excited to show you how much I love to entertain friends and hopefully inspire you to fold the laundry on your couch and invite some pals over to fill your space with friendship and laughter.

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Write out some ideas for a party that you will host in the next four weeks

★ Who will you invite? ★ What will you do? ★ Where will it be? ★ What will you serve? ★ How will you decorate? ★

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A few weeks ago I decided that my house was a little messy, the holiday season was ramping up, and I was itching to redecorate, mix up some cocktails, and hang some lights! One of my resolutions this season was to do more entertaining, so I dove right in, e-mailed a group of friends to see if everyone was available that weekend, and created a fun little invitation to hand-deliver to them.

I drew Mr. Lasertron and I in some swinging sixties getups, scanned the image, and used MS Paint to add color and text–nothing fancy or high-tech at all. You can download a .pdf of the invitation graphic without text by clicking here! You can change the colors if you’d like, add your own text, and print them off sized to fit on the front of your own envelopes!

Then I printed off the images and added a really fun detail by securing a thread of tiny silver beads around the girl’s neck with tape on the backside of the invite, as well as two little cufflink beads for the gentleman. Next I just affixed the invitations to the front of an envelope, and stuffed the envelope with a handful of balloons. Putting the invitation on the outside of an envelope leaves room to put goodies inside–it’s one of my favorite ways to give guests a little taste of what’s to come.

For the party, I blew up about 100 fuchsia, silver, and gold balloons and made a wonderful sea of floaty little bubbles. Alice really liked them.

We saved money by borrowing some decor and supplies from my mom. If you have a close relative or friend, they can be a great resource for new inspiration when it comes to party decorating. My mom had some silver beaded chargers that looked awesome on our snack table, black tabletop christmas trees, cocktail shakers and an ice bucket, and some beautiful monogrammed vintage coasters that she let me use for our party. They were free to borrow for the night and inspired me to make a really impressive little setup.

To my borrowed decor items I added some cute figurines and knickknacks, white fairy lights, tons of balloons, and my favorite fancy barware.

Mr. Lasertron drew a picture of “party mountain” on our side table painted with chalkboard paint.

The first guest to show up was Alice’s next door friend. Then it was a baby party for a little while. Then the other grownups came. People slowly started filtering through the door and the party began and just beautifully unfolded!

I was really stressed out about not having time to trim my tree, so I set out a bucket of decorations and my be-cocktail’d friends hung up some garlands and ornaments! Nobody cared, of course–no one said “Why isn’t your tree decorated???” Everyone saw it as a fun activity and we had a great time trimming my little tree!

I was also frustrated about my cluttered, visually unappealing bookshelf. I thought, “I wish I could just put a sheet over it and ignore it!” Then I thought…why don’t I put a sheet over it and not ignore it? Then the idea for a photo backdrop was born! We used my Instax camera and took fun instant pictures all night long!

The night of our party was also the first big snowstorm of the year here in Omaha, and over half of my guests had to cancel and weren’t able to come, in addition to our babysitter! We were looking forward to a gigantic party with lots of booze and no baby, and I had a lot of anxiety about the change of plans. I had to get real with myself and remember that everyone coming really cared about me, they weren’t going to be disappointed, and we were going to have fun no matter what. The drinks flowed, the conversation was wonderful, new friends were introduced, and the small intimate group created a cozy night inside from the cold. Baby and all.

Our bar was stocked with all of my favorite basics–Russian Standard vodka, Maker’s Mark, Tanqueray, and Bacardi–as well as some fun mixers–cranberry soda, ginger ale, pomegranate juice, apple cider, grapefruit juice…all of the good stuff to make boozy and non-alcoholic drinks alike. But the star of the show was our homemade cream soda, as seen recently on the Martha Stewart Show of course!

Our favorite ways to drink it were with ginger ale and cranberry, or with vodka and seltzer!

So hey! You can do anything in four weeks–can you commit to hosting a little get-together and bringing your friends together sometime within the month? Yes you can! Start with the fun part–write some ideas in your journal. What kind of party do you want to have? Make a list. Make a guest list. Make a list of fun decorations you could make or snacks you could prepare. If you are like me and love making lists, this is the easy and fun party. Daydream. Fantasize. You can do this part easily.

What I always do next is send an e-mail to those on my guest list and ask them if they are available on the night of my party. If it’s a super fancy event I create and send paper invitations, but I honestly haven’t ever had a party so fancy that I didn’t shoot the idea past my friends first. That’s what I love about the modern party planner–when you’re inviting friends, they won’t care if you don’t do everything according to Miss Manners. It takes a lot of pressure off!

There were a few panic moments and I want to share with you how I handled them and got over it with flying colors–you can do this too!
…A huge snowstorm caused over half of my guests and babysitter to cancel. The people who came really wanted to be there and we did some major damage on the drink table!
…I panicked because I didn’t think I had enough food to share since I didn’t have time to go to the store or cook anything. But I looked in my kitchen and asked myself what I would want to eat. That’s how we ended up with a platter of various Girl Scout cookies, a tray of cut-up peanut butter and apple butter sandwiches, chips and guacamole, and a big bowl of popcorn. Several of my guests brought food as well to add to the spread and nobody went hungry!
…I didn’t have time to fold and put away all of the laundry that had been living on our couch. So I threw it in the baby’s room and shut the door. Whatever.
…I was very worried that the cider wouldn’t stay hot, but it was all gone by the end of the night and no one cared.

In the end I was able to apply one of my most reassuring mantras to all of my anxiety and party planning worries–“Nobody cares but you.” It’s not a negative thing to think–it is relieving because it’s just a reminder that usually the thing you are stressing about is not going to make or break the entire event. No one is going to notice any of the little details you feel are a bit imperfect.

I can’t wait for next month’s party and I can’t wait to read about all of your parties in the next month! Just try it! Start by journaling some plans! Will you invite people over for a movie night? Pizza-making party? Book swap? Cheese tasting? Or do you want to crank it up to 10 right out of the gate and hold the New Years Eve party they’ll be talking about for weeks? Whatever you do, don’t kill yourself over it, remind yourself that everyone will want to come and everyone will have fun, and don’t forget to make it pretty.

xo
meg

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Click on the thumbnail below to download a printable .pdf of today’s radvent journaling prompt! Or check out the graphic on Flickr.

Are you writing your own radvent responses in your journal or blog? Feel free to share the link–they are awesome sources of inspiration for everyone!

Tags: cocktails, party, radvent, radvent 2010