How to throw a Welcome Home Party
If your partner lives in another country or you have family and friends who are far away and suddenly decide to come visit, you should throw a welcome home party to make them happy and have an even better time with you. From OneHowTo we show you how to throw a welcome home party for your loved ones.
Guests and invitations
The first thing to do is notify all your mutual friends of your intentions to throw a party for that person, invite close friends that you know he/she will enjoy seeing.
You can use simple and formal invitations or be a bit more creative. Simply state the reason for the party, the date and the place of the event. Remember that this is a secret and should be a surprise for the guest of honour.
You should also make sure you get an answer so you know how many you're going to cater for.
Place
If you want something intimate you can have it at home, but if you're going to invite a lot of guests you can rent space for the celebrations. You can even book a restaurant or a ballroom to hold the celebration.
Drinks
To refresh the excited mouths and hydrate the bodies, there's nothing better than serving soft drinks, beer or punch with ice. One option is to use trays of different colours and have each one hold a different type of beverage like punch, alcohol, soft drinks, liquor, etc.
If you're brave you can put out various types of exotic cocktails like margaritas, caipirinhas, caipiroskas, mojitos, etc.
If you don't want to use too many glasses, make sure you create name tags so everyone has their own glass. Use stickers or get creative and decorate the glass in an exclusive way for each guest.
Food
If you go to a restaurant, choose the menu the guest of honour would like best.
But if you want to organise it at home, you can make snack foods like sandwiches with tomato, mozzarella and oregano, other types of sandwiches cut into triangles, pot pies, salads, rices, cheese sticks, crackers, croquettes, crisps, etc. Obviously adjust the menu to the liking of the guest of honour so that their welcome is fantastic in every way.
Another option is to choose a catering service to prepare food for the party according to the tastes of the guest of honour.
Decoration
It's always good to create a little atmosphere using balloons, streamers and a welcome banner.
Decorate everything with coloured napkins folded in an original way, garlands, flowers, candles, incense (not all of these together, that would be too much!). A good idea is to fill the walls with old photos of the guest with friends and family, to remember old memories.
You can even go for a themed party. If your friend has a particular theme or topic he or she likes, give the room that particular vibe. If you want an idea, how about a Hawaiian party?
Music
Play some music to set the mood even more. This depends on the mood you want for the party: fun, romantic, relaxing, etc.
You can choose songs that remind you of your special guest, those that will touch him/her and remind them of old times. You can ask friends to tell you songs that remind them of that person.
Prepare for the special guest
Are you throwing the party at the person's house, at yours or at a venue? Unless you are throwing the party at the person's house, you will probably need to lure the person to the venue.
Choose someone who the guest knows well so he/she can pick the special guest up under false pretenses.
The key for this to work is to find a good excuse such as: 'let's go to visit so and so', or 'I need to stop to go to the restroom' if your party is at a specific venue.
Also make sure all the guests are there before the special guest arrives at the party.
If you want to read similar articles to How to throw a Welcome Home Party, we recommend you visit our Weddings & Parties category.
