My husband and I love to entertain in our home, but it can at times be overwhelming. In our particular area, the parking spots are extremely limited, which often makes inviting people over daunting. Not to mention, our house is around 1,000 square feet, so there’s not much wiggle room! I wanted to share some of our ideas though, so it may make entertaining in your own home easier for you too!
Our best friends, Justin and Blair, are used to coming over to our pint-sized house. We have spent countless evenings sitting around our dinner table or living room chatting, debating, crying, laughing, and wrangling hyper children. Since they’re accustomed to our no-frills approach to entertaining, we wanted to make it a slightly more gussied up event.
I know of people who have evenings dedicated to all sorts of things: movie/show previewing (Sing-A-Long movie parties sound like a blast to me!), murder-mystery dinner parties, game night, and the list goes on and on. We decided set a date for an evening where we just sit around debating different topics. It may sound kind of silly, but it’s very fun with the right group of people!
For a debate night I would recommend: 1) doing this with people you know well, so everyone is assured the relationship won’t be changed by a heated disagreement of opinions. 2) Come up with debate topics in advance so everyone can gather their thoughts and arguments. For instance, our debate night ranged from our opinions on the guilt/innocence of several high-profile alleged criminals to whether we felt Tupac or Biggie Smalls was the better rapper. It’s really up to you and your group. 3) Yummy snacks and fun beverages to fuel you through the evening. 4) Keep it light, it is a party, after all!
Noah found this gavel and powdered wig off Amazon! I assure you, it spiced up the evening for everyone when the debates got under way.
I found “Be Brave” plaques to put under each person’s place cards to remind them to speak up and not feel intimidated. I think it worked, ha!
Don’t forget party fuel! This particular gang loves candy, so I decided to do a little sweets bar.
All hyped up on sugar, I think some people started to get into the full swing of Debate Night!
But the grown-ups wanted an adult sugary treat too! One of my favorite tricks to entertaining is always keep a fun bar cart. I grabbed this Freshies cocktail mix at my local Homegoods for a whopping $4.99. I love picking up these mixes which make bar tending so easy. All you do is follow the simple steps and you’re done. They have lots of fun options at Homegoods, but I think I’m partial to delicious lemon drop mixers.
Four simple ingredients.
Pour 2oz of white rum over ice.
Add 5oz of your mojito mix.
I added a splash of club soda as well.
Stir + garnish with a lime wedge and Voilà!
This is a horrible picture of me at the end of the night, no makeup, and in my comfy clothes. But we were both laughing about something and that’s the most important thing about entertaining. Making sure a good time was had by all!
And a good time was most certainly had by all, ha!
Disclaimer: This post in my own personal opinion and I was not compensated by any companies that may or may not be mentioned. Likewise, I was not compensated by any companies linked above.