Hi all! I’m SO excited to share today’s post with you. Last week we shot Galentine’s Day in the park and had so much fun prepping and seeing our vision come to life. It reminded me of Alice in Wonderland and everything looked a million times more amazing than I could have imagined. I absolutely love planning parties, it makes me so happy to create something beautiful that all my friends can enjoy. I also just love bringing my friends together to celebrate something special.
I’m taking you through the planning process to help you get inspired and plan the most perfect Galentine’s Day for you and your girls.
Contents
Pick a color palette
This is the most important piece for planning any party. You want everything to be cohesive and look like it goes together. When we first started planning we decided we wanted gold, blush, deep purple and grey tones. And then locked down one piece at a time. We started with the table settings, including flatware and linens, since they are the main focus point and bring together everything on the table.
have a dessert table
Who doesn’t love dessert? These baked goodies by Anam at AnAmazingAppettie were absolutely perfect and almost too beautiful to eat. She baked the cupcakes, cookies and a cheesecake which matched the other decor perfectly. At every party I host I always have a dessert table and it’s always such a hit.
make a signature drink
We enjoyed some bubbly for this since it was outdoors and carrying a pitcher of drink wouldn’t have been easy. When I’m hosting parties at my house I always have a signature drink. For Galentine’s day I found some pretty pink drinks that are right on theme – I keep this list from Brit + Co handy and have a made a few of these cocktails for my parties. The two favorites I’ve tried are the Blood Orange French 75 and the Watermelon Margarita. Another fun thing I do is freeze fruit in ice trays – it’s such a cute touch.
keep it intimate
There are some parties you’ll host and you can invite your entire friend group, think Friendsgiving and Christmas/Holiday parties. But for Galentine’s Day I think narrowing it to a group of your BFFs is best. A lot of work goes into planning a party, especially one with so much detail. I’ve noticed that once you start to add more than 15 people to a party, everything starts to become a little more stressful. We hosted a Friendsgiving in 2016 and invited about 40 people and it was so much fun, but I was too stressed and feel like I didn’t get to fully enjoy it. Last year we kept it to 12 of our besties and It was so much less stressful and we had more time to do little things like create goodies bags and write out personal menus and name cards.
flowers on flowers
Fresh, vibrant flowers are always a must. Whether I’m having friends over for dinner or hosting a party, there are always fresh blooms involved. Bouquets can really change the feel of a room. All of our flowers were done by the incredibly talented Hayley at Calla Hill Floral.
have fun
Planning a party is a lot of work, but SO rewarding! Keep it fun and try to enjoy the process. I think sometimes when you’re the one planning the party it’s hard to see the final product without nitpicking things. I’m always the one at our parties like “Move the napkins a little bit to the right” or “Do you think people will notice that our serving spoons don’t match?” Try not to be that person 😉
I hope this helps you plan the best Galentine’s Celebration with your ladies.
Thanks for reading!
All rental details below:
Linen: Napa Valley Linens
Votives + Vases: One True Love Vintage
Flatware + Chairs: Abbey Party Rents SF
Floral Arrangements: Calla Hill Floral
Desserts: AnAmazingAppettie
Photography: Chanda Dawson
