- - ayiMori - -

Friends & Co.

This past weekend, my housemates and I decided to throw a end of semester slash holiday party for all of our friends. Along with that, my friend and I are in charge of throwing a holiday party for the Chemistry department at our school and a few weeks ago we had a pizza and beer night get together to celebrate some friends' birthdays.

While we had a lot of fun, there are some tips and other things that I'd like to share with you guys to help plan your own parties or any other get togethers!

Food
Getting food for people is always a really difficult thing, you're never sure how much to get for people, what type of food, or how much you even want to spend! As college kids, none of us have the means to throw a party without help from the guests. So we usually ask people to chip in a few dollars to help pay for food.

So my tips for you guys are...
- Never be afraid to ask people to chip in for food. The more people, the less money you should ask for.
- If you want to bake or prepare your own food, make it a party itself! We baked tons of treats the night before, and some of our friends came over, we opened some wine and all worked together.
- Food can be made, ordered, or catered. Never be afraid to grab some pizza, and if you need help figuring out how much, click here.
- Don't think you always need to have dinner food! Sometimes appetizers and other small things are okay.
- Never forget drinks! But remember that alcohol is expensive!


Music
Music is always nice to have in the background of get togethers, whether it be pop music or holiday music. Music can be fun to just have some noise floating around, or in the case of our party last week, it's fun to all just sit around together and occasionally sing a Christmas song.

With everyone having different tastes in music though, it can be hard to decide on one thing to play throughout the party. So here are some of my tips for music...
- Have a pre-made playlist. This way no one can mess with the music, and you don't have to go through the hassle of constantly choosing the next song. If you don't have time to make one, Pandora and Spotify will do it for you!
- If you're using an iPad or computer, keep it out of reach. With the music up on a mantel or tucked away, people won't have as much access to it, and the songs won't keep changing every so many minutes.
- Yes music is great, but don't have it too loud! You don't want to try and have a conversation with someone, but end up screaming in their ear because the music is too loud!
ter - keep it out of reach


Activities
Sometimes having friends over means a celebration, other times it just means hanging out. Not every get together has to have pre- planned ideas or activities, but for more specialized parties sometimes it is a good idea to have some ideas on hold, just in case there's a lull or in case people are getting restless.

A few of the fun things that we have done in the past are...
- White elephant or Secret Santa gift exchange
- Any card games, we're a fan of Cards Against Humanity
- Movies
- Nerf guns. I know this sounds weird, but a few of nights have totally ended up in people running around and chasing each other down with these foam toys.


Etc.
While there are so many things to think about for a party, it doesn't have to be stressful! You can plan or not plan as much as you want, it really comes down to your personality and the type of event you want to have. My suggestion would be though, also try to gauge how many people are coming. Whether this be through an invite list, or an email chain, it is a good idea to know how many guests there will be so you can plan accordingly for food and drinks, or anything else that will require quantity measurements.