How To Throw A Grown Up House Party

Guest Post

As we grow older, we’re always in search for ways to revive our youth. It seems that the door to this ʽsecond childhoodʼ lies in our kids, but they also grow older and eventually leave the family nest. What to do next? Well, when we were kids, and our parents left for a weekend we’d throw a house party. Why not do the same now when kids are the ones leaving?
Throwing a grown-up house party doesn’t differ much from throwing it as a kid. Don’t think you’re not able to party hard anymore – you are, but this time with style. Now that you have enough partying experience you won’t end up in jail or die from cleaning the next day. You’re in control, and finally, you’re mature enough to realize what that means. All the details are in your hands, so let’s see how to handle them the right way.

Who And When

First, you need to make sure people will come. A Facebook event is not a guarantee, so you should create your own digital invites. If you design them yourself, you’ll be able to present the vibe of the party and evade all the misfits, establishing a clear headcount. If you don’t want people showing up 3 hours later wasted from the other 2 parties they’ve already been to, you’ll need to personalize your invites a bit further – providing different start and end times based on the punctuality of the receiver.
Even with this method, you can end up with a pretty mixed crowd, so the first invites should be sent to friends who are able to take on the ʽsafety rolesʼ. All you need is a close friends trio – a neat freak, a bouncer, and a sworn non-alcoholic. That way all the other guests will use coasters, they won’t get too crazy, and no one will knock forever because everyone’s too drunk to hear it.
In the end, you don’t want surprise guests in police uniforms, so your closest neighbors should be on the list. Even if you warn them the music will be a bit louder, they could still call the police. So the best solution is to trap them on the dance floor.

Balance Your Food And Drinks

Photo by Patrick Schöpflin on Unsplash

Maturity is not a farewell to alcohol. In some cases, it is quite the opposite – a warm welcome. If there’s a diversity in your guests, there’s also a need for a variety of your booze. And you always have people who can’t resist mixing it. You can refer to drink calculator, but drunken escapades also depend on what your guests have or haven’t eaten. Staying fairly sober in a room full of alcohol requires frequent bites.
You may decide to cook ʽhonest mealsʼ, but this is a double mistake. First, people will have, and they’ve come to dance and chat, so many will just skip that part. Second, those who go to house parties just to be fed well will fall asleep on the couch with their tummies full. Before you reconsider simple bowls of crisps, think of the lower resistance to alcohol that comes with age. Tapas Market catering will get you out of this situation in no time, and get you out of that damn kitchen. The diversity of food will make every bite filling, and everyone will be able to grab it standing up. It makes you shout ʽcheers!ʼ with confidence, doesn’t it?

Have Fun

Photo by Jernej Graj on Unsplash

This sounds like an obvious one, but it may be the trickiest. You’re a host, and a burden on your shoulders could stay there the whole night. Have you prepared the right music? It’s the soul of the party, so you’re in constant fear that your party might end up soulless. The solution is to realize it’s all in your head and just let it go. If people don’t like the tracks on the playlist merely give them access to Youtube.

Now that the dance floor is full you feel the urge to document it all, and you could end up having a phone glued to your hand without uttering a single word to your friends. But keep in mind that they also have phones and an ability to make much more spontaneous pics and videos.

At some point, you might feel the urge to start collecting every cigarette but, dirty plate, and empty glass you come across in the odd places. But not if you’ve placed ashtrays, trashcans, and recycle bins in strategic locations, right?
As you can see, actually planning the house party before throwing it is not that difficult. You need to think who do you want and who do you need to come, make sure bites are as easy to pick up as the glasses and allow yourself to be spontaneous.
Chloe Smith is a cycling enthusiast and a part-time writer always willing to share tidbits of advice. She believes that passion, courage and, above all, knowledge breed success. When she’s not working, she’s probably somewhere cuddled up with a good book, and a cup of lemongrass tea (or more honestly binge-watching the newest Netflix hit show).