Made a resolution to have people over more this year? Or to host a party or dinner party? I’m here to tell you it’s so much easier than you think.
I’m going to walk you through how we do Sunday Brunch and then I’ll provide a simple party planning checklist that you can use to plan and host your own get-together.
Theme, Date, Guest List
Over the last year, we’ve actually implemented a weekly Sunday brunch for our close friend group. It’s basically an open invitation to come hang out with friends, with no pressure to change out of yoga pants, arrive on time, or have bathed children.
Invitations
I try to send out an email every Friday to remind people or sometimes let them know we’re taking a week off. I let people know that an RSVP is helpful but not required so there’s no pressure to commit to coming. We’ve had up to fifteen people show up, but it’s usually just one or two people / couples / families.
The way we make this work is that we make sure we have enough food to feed a large group if needed, but we make food that we like, so if it doesn’t all get eaten during brunch, I’ve got leftovers and don’t need to plan meals for the next few days.
Entertainment
We never plan any special entertainment. If there are sports on, we’ll have the TV on. If the weather is nice, we’ll often end up outdoors, kicking around a soccer ball. If all else fails, watching toddlers playing with the cat’s toys or trying to play with the cat is usually pretty good entertainment.
Menu
For food, we pretty much just serve whatever we’re in the mood too. That means it could be a Thai inspired pork roast feast, waffles with all the fixin’s, grilled cheese sandwiches, or BYO cereal if we are feeling lazy.
Decor
If I happen to come across some pretty flowers when I’m out getting groceries, I might pick some up.
Drinks
We tend to always have a few beverage options on hand because that’s just how we roll, but guests often bring stuff to make mimosas or hot cocoa which is always a nice treat.
Dishes
Since this is a very casual affair, we just use our regular dishes to serve and eat with. We have a dishwasher so cleanup is a breeze. You could make it even easier and use disposable dishes if you have more money to spend and don’t care about the environment.
Timeline
We decide what we want to cook and I typically send out an email invitation on Friday (two days before brunch) but people generally know they can plan on brunch every Sunday.
We get groceries sometime between when we decide what to cook and when we need to start cooking. If it’s something that needs a ton of prep, we might actually start before Friday, but more often than not, we’re getting groceries on Saturday or even Sunday morning. This usually works out unless Andrew has to stop to pull some ladies out of their crashed car on his way home from the store.
Again, depending on how complicated the menu is and how many people we are expecting we may start prepping first thing in the morning or shortly before people show up, and we may have everything cooked and ready to eat before people arrive, or we may be cooking to order.
Planning Checklist
I hope this got you thinking about how easy it would be to host a gathering of your own. Here is a simple party planning checklist for you to use. If you can fill it out, you can host a party.
Leave a Reply