Tips From Home Builders in Colorado About How to Host Like a Pro
Hosting an event is always a great excuse to get together with friends and family as you celebrate a special occasion, holiday, or big life accomplishment. Baby showers, weddings, and sporting events like the Super Bowl are all great reasons to host an event at your new house.
As an event host, you may be feeling the pressure to come up with something creative and memorable. Throwing an event can be difficult if you’ve never done it before, which is why we wanted to share a few tips on how to make hosting duties more manageable for you and more memorable for your guests.
Create a Theme Around the “Why?”
Kick things off by asking, “Why are we having a party?” Did you just get engaged? Did one of your kids just graduate high school? Is this a house-warming party so you can show off your new house?
Once you get to the bottom of the “why?” you can move on to the “what?”
“What,” as in, “what’s the theme?” All great events need a theme to get people in the right headspace. Just imagine a Halloween party without jack-o-lanterns, spooky lighting, and candy. It wouldn’t work.
Once you nail down your theme, you can start building out the composition of your event using décor and other party supplies. Fortunately, stuff like balloons and decorations are usually pretty cheap. Try to stick with a color scheme of no more than three different colors for consistency.
Give Out Door Prizes to Early Arrivals
We all have those friends that are never on time, despite their best efforts. Some people just don’t have the punctuality gene in them.
However, one way to give your not-so-timely friends a polite nudge is by offering door prizes to the guests that show up on time. It can be something easy like an inexpensive bottle of wine or gift cards. This little piece of positive reinforcement may be just the trick to getting your habitually late friends through the door on time for once.
Figure out the Food (and Mess) Ahead of Time
Food can really make or break a party. Although some event hosts may be tempted to show off their culinary skills, you don’t want to be that person that’s stuck in the kitchen all night instead of socializing.
Our suggestion? You can either arrange some form of catering or get all of your apps and small bites arranged ahead of time. Ideally, you want your guests to be able to self-serve and continue circulating around the event. Charcuterie boards, sliders, flatbreads, crostini, small pastries, and spring rolls are all great because they offer variety and feature items that are easy to eat while standing.
Make sure you get decent quality plates that can support the weight of food and that can be easily disposed of. You don’t want to wind up with a mess of dirty dishes at the end of the night.
Make a Game Out of It
Chances are that your guests won’t all know each other. When different friend groups come together, it can be easy for them to talk to the people they already know as opposed to venturing outside of their circle.
One surefire way to get everyone interacting is through party games. This is where you, as an event host, get to be really creative. Getting-to-know-you games like “Two Truths and a Lie” are fantastic for breaking the ice. There are also card games like “What Do You Meme?” and “Apples to Apples” that are perfect for small groups of people. You can also get people talking by assigning your guests a character card at the very beginning of the party that everyone can see but them. When people interact, they can try to glean clues of who their character might be.
A Few Logistical Tips and Rules to Consider
Many people don’t consider all the unknown variables of throwing an event until they’re in the middle of throwing it. Here are a few things to consider when throwing an event to help things go smoother:
- Make sure you have parking nearby for your guests; if parking is going to be an issue, suggest that they call a rideshare service like Uber or Lyft to drop them off
- Make sure that you put up signs in the home for places your guests can and cannot go; if you don’t want people walking into your bedroom, a simple “do not enter” sign taped to the door should suffice
- Post the wi-fi login credentials and password on signage in the home somewhere; otherwise, you’re going to be getting asked about it all night
- Secure any valuables or breakables you want kept safe; people have accidents all the time, so do yourself a favor and put away all your vases and decorative glassware
- Have a designated area or room for coats, purses, and personal items
- Set the thermostat a few degrees cooler than normal; the more people you have in your home, the more the temperature is going to rise
Ready to Team Up with the Best Home Builders in Colorado? Contact Oakwood Homes Today!
Now that you know how to host a party in your home, the only thing that’s left is to secure the home of your dreams to host in. Although you may believe it’s going to cost a pretty penny to buy a home in Colorado, Oakwood Homes is in the business of making new home ownership possible for the average buyer. We are one of the few home builders in Colorado that builds energy efficient homes starting in the high $300,000 range.
If you’ve been searching “new build homes near me” or similar terms, look no further than Oakwood Homes. The best way to get started is by exploring our homes so you can see the kind of prior work that we’ve completed for homeowners in Colorado. You can also jump right to setting up an appointment with us. The Oakwood Homes team is here to answer your questions and help you out with the pre-qualification process. We look forward to working with you on building your brand-new home.