Being the Happy Host: Tips to Make the Day Run Smoothly

Let's say you are at a friend’s house, casually having your drink at hand, discussing topics of interest with friendly men and women. After a few laughs, and exchanges of personal experiences, you noticed that all of a sudden the mood changes and now all eyes are on you. For reasons clearly not picked up by you, you find yourself in the middle of agreeing to host a party with an innumerable number of guests. Amidst the panic, and fear you so carefully glossed over, you realize what you have just committed yourself to, and now you must carry it out. Oh yes, that word that strikes fear to so many of our hearts, the three syllable silencer, commitment! Now what are you going to do? Don’t panic, it’s ok because you’ve got a natural aptitude to making things happen, and you can do it… but here’s a few pointers just in case.
 
Make sure you have that list, and check it twice, but the part about finding out who’s naughty and nice is a sure way to learn about how your day will turn out. So what is that list all about? Well, this list is the most crucial first step any host/hostess can bank on for direction, guidance, and even trouble shooting.
 
On this list you’ll have to make sure you include some of the basic essentials, these are, the date, time, and location of your social event. So that means, first and foremost, you will need to have answers to these three fundamentals before you can even proceed to further planning.
 
Following which, should include a list of people that you expect will show up to your social, and for each guest that you’ve included on that list, make sure to anticipate a guest for that guest; so if your list contains 20 people, make sure you anticipate 40, just to be on the safe side. But who and how will you choose your guests? Some are obvious, this’ll your close and not so close friends and family perhaps, but then there are the acquaintances. Which one to include and which one to nix is definitely a rather difficult task, as the last thing you’d want to do is to come across selective and limiting. The happy host knows who on that list is welcome to the event, as well as those who may not be so welcome, so choose wisely. Sometimes, extending a very last-minute invitation may be the perfect solution. It will allow your other guests to know that you’ve still extended the invite to them, but you just did not have the opportunity to extend it sooner.

Trouble-shooting is something all good hosts/hostesses will consider in their planning. Things to take into consideration are; will there be a need for an emergency designated driver? Or what happens if party crashers (uninvited guests) show up? A good host/hostess will make every attempt to ensure that there wouldn’t be any uninvited surprises, but that’s definitely not always possible. Typically you have two options, one more realistic than the other. You can either limit or eliminate surprises that could occur on your event day, but since it’s near impossible to account for every factor that can go wrong, your best bet is to reduce and limit it as much of it as physically possible. So start thinking what all can go wrong and try to compensate for it.
 
Another thing to consider is will there be a theme to this event? Do you want a costume party, or just a casual friendly evening? This is a simple, but rather important question because it will determine whether or not your evening will require additional details such as decorations to set the stage, music to keep the theme alive, and food that will enhance the ambience.
 
So now that the majority of the planning is complete, the next thing to consider is the little but important things like selecting the appropriate decorations, music and food for your event. Be mindful that you’ll need something that fits the occasion, but will not come across as overdone.

Once you’ve planned and prepared, you will find yourself a happy host in whatever drama that comes your way.