Galentine’s Party Ideas

Courtney-

February is here! Love is in the air–or maybe not. I know that not all couples are hardcore Valentine’s Day celebrators. I love finding a way to celebrate any and everything, but my husband is different. And so I have learned, and am continuing to learn, how to compromise. One of the ways that I do that is celebrating this specific holiday, Valentine’s Day, with my girlfriends–a Galentine’s Party! There are so many women in my life that are important to me, and I love spending time with them all. I also love having others join in on our festivities! This will be my fourth year throwing my annual Galentine’s party and I want to share with you all the different ways that we have celebrated over the years. I’m going to share how I decorated, the food that was served, and the activities we did. I hope you can find some inspiration from this and can recreate and/or plan your own fun time to share with those closest to you!. 

Tea Party

I hosted this party on a Saturday morning. Usually I host my girl’s nights in the evenings so that the dads are home to be with the kids, but I thought that we could change it up this time. Having a tea party when it was dark outside seemed like an odd thought to me. I got the girls to dress up for this one as well–I even pulled out an old bridesmaid dress! We sat around a table of yummy finger food and sipped on tea while chatting and laughing away–a staple for my parties. 

Decor

Almost all of these decorations I have picked up from the thrift store over time. It’s the perfect place to gather linens and dishes that you can use for everyday use as well as parties! 

• Green tablecloth

• Lace doilies across the table

• Floral runner

• Pink napkins

• Teacups and saucers

Food

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  Tea biscuits with clotted cream and jam

• You can’t have a tea party without either biscuits or scones–so I made biscuits. I did a little research on how the ladies in England do it, and apparently topping your biscuit with clotted cream and jam is very important. Clotted cream is kind of like glorified whip cream. I did mine with cream cheese because we love it that way. I just found an easy recipe on Pinterest and followed that! 

• Stuffed mushrooms

• Little heart shaped sandwiches (I did turkey and lettuce, and turkey and cucumber. And it’s Valentine’s, so obviously heart-shaped)

• Butter tarts

• Fruit

• Pickles

• Mini cupcakes

• Heart shaped cookies (again, heart-shaped…duh!)

• Veggies and dip

• Salad skewers

  • Like a salad but make it a finger food! Greens, a cherry tomato, and fresh mozzarella cheese on a skewer. Then, dip it in a little olive oil and vinegar. 

• Homemade suckers

  • One lady brought a homemade sucker for each lady to take home. Obviously it was pink and was wrapped up in plastic and a cute pink ribbon

Activity

We had a bouquet bar! This was something that I had always seen on Pinterest and wanted to execute myself. I did get the ladies to bring a little bit of cash ($10) to help me out on this one. I priced out a few local florists to find where I could get the best bang for my buck. Greenery is usually cheaper than flowers so that’s where most of the bulk from our bouquets came from. Then I got a few different kinds and colours of flowers to add a pop of colour in each one. I also had a bunch of vases that I had thrifted overtime that the ladies could take home with them! Here are some of the greens/flowers that I got. I was trying to stretch my budget so I picked on the cheaper end so that I could get more for what I paid for! 

• mini carnations, baby’s breath, leather leaf fern, poms, salal, limonium

Pajama Pizza Party

Decor

For this party, I picked a few fun, inexpensive Valentine’s themed decorations:

• Pink/red napkins

• Foil heart garland

• Valentine’s themed hanging garland

Food

Heart shaped personal pizzas

• I made pizza dough and split it up into several smaller balls of dough for each lady. We had various toppings: pizza sauce, pepperoni, peppers, ham, pineapple, mushrooms, and cheese. We made our own personal pizzas, baked them, and enjoyed them together! 

• A couple ladies brought some treats for dessert. There were llama-shaped sugar cookies, biscotti, and some puff pastry goodies.

• We had some wine, as well as a pink punch!

Activity

Favourite things gift exchange

• I wanted to do something a little extra during this party. So I asked each of the ladies to bring one little gift of one of their favourite things. The max amount they were allowed to spend was $10. Then we did a left/right game and passed the gifts around and opened them up at the end! It was fun to see what the favourite things were! There was chocolate, handmade art, notebooks, other treats and stationary, etc.!

Valentine’s themed games

• We also played a few Valentine’s themed games while we sat and relaxed. I had descriptions for Rom Coms and the ladies had to guess the movie. I also had a list of descriptions of chocolate/candy and they had to guess the name of the treat. 

Red and Pink Fondue Party

Decor

• String of lights hung on the ceiling

  • I hosted this in my basement which allowed for easy hanging. We love these lights for outside in our backyard but they also get moved around to create a more cozy vibe for some of the parties I host 

• Red, white, pink balloon garland

• Table set up with:

  • Red tablecloth

  • Kraft paper runner down the middle

  • Heart-shaped napkins on white plates

  • Plastic champagne flutes

  • Homemade name tags

  • Hershey kisses spread out on the table

  • Greenery and a wooden bead garland hanging from the ceiling above where the table sat

• Fondue Table

  • White bed canopy with greenery wrapped around the hoop at the top

  • Foam hearts stuck all over the canopy

Food

Chocolate fondue

• I provided the chocolate fondue (chocolate mixed with butter/coconut oil and melted) and the ladies all brought something different to dip in the chocolate! We had:

• Strawberries

• Bananas

• Apples

• Oranges

• Graham crackers

• Pretzels

• Marshmallows

  
  

Activity

• Valentine’s themed word search, matching couples trivia

  • I had a couple papers at each ladies’ seat so that they could fill them out during the downtime in the evening. I just found a free printable online and printed them out. 

• Little lip balm to go home with

  • I bought a lip balm for each of the ladies as a little favour to take home. They were an assortment of flavours from Pure Anada.

• Vision/mood boards

  • I supplied markers and 8X11 pieces of paper. Then I printed and cut out pictures, verses, and quotes that I found were inspiring, uplifting, and made me feel happy. Then we each made our own collages that we could bring home to help encourage us. 

• Valentine’s themed pictionary

  
  

The whole idea of throwing a party to enjoy spending time together with those around you. It’s a perfect time to cultivate your relationship with the people you’re already close with in life as well as meet and learn more about others. I encourage you to invite new people sometimes! Ask your friends to invite one of their friends that’s out of your immediate circle. Some of the closer relationships I have now are because of my friends bringing other friends! 

This is also a big way that I fill my cup as a mother as well as encourage other moms. We all need a break sometimes and have the chance to be served and relax, and I really really love planning and spending time with my ladies. So this is a way that I can do that. And it’s okay if you’re different! Overtime, you’ll learn how it looks for you! I encourage you to go on Pinterest and see what you can find. That’s usually where I start when I need inspiration and then adjust it to what I want and what I have!

Also, I said earlier that I gather supplies from the thrift store over time. Whenever I go, I look in the decoration/party section. I’ve brought home balloons, streamers, banners, themed napkins, etc. It’s the perfect place to get supplies for a fraction of the price and keep them until you have a use for them! Often, people use their party supplies one time, so they’re usually in great condition and this way, you get more use out of them! 

When it comes to food, I know that can be overwhelming, but don’t let it scare you! I’ve listed above some really specific examples of things you can do, but there’s no problem in making it so much simpler! And don’t be afraid to ask others to contribute something as well! People are much more willing than you think sometimes! You are still an amazing host if others bring things and contribute! We’ve had glorious spreads of food for some parties but we’ve also just had chips and salsa and chocolate. Both were fun parties!

I hope that this can inspire you to throw your own girls night! Pay attention to our Instagram to see how we’re going to celebrate this year!