Erica’s Budget Friendly Game Night

Theme: Ladies Game Night

Budget: $50.00

Location: Home

Party Size: 10-20 People

I recently had the pleasure of assisting my friend Erica with a game night at her home. This venture was new to me in a couple different ways…

I haven’t hosted a game night for myself or any one else for that matter
I was working within someone else’s budget so I had to really be frugal
It was being hosted at a home I’d never been to so I didn’t really know the layout

With that being said the event was pretty successful! It taught me how to work within the constraints of a smaller budget while also allowing me to test my developing party planning skills on a “client”. I’m used to throwing my own gatherings so all the decor and food choices are those that I like. Having to appeal to someone else’s taste was new for me. However I have to say Erica was really easy to work with! She completely trusted my vision and let me have free reign over all of the decor.

So let’s start from the beginning, Erica called me after she’d heard about “Weekends With Winter” and enlisted me to assist her with planning her game night. We talked about her budget and the amount of people she was planning on inviting. From there I sent her a “mock up” of sorts with all of my idea’s from decor to food. Since we were planning a game night what quickly came to my mind were playing cards. When I think of playing cards I think black and red so immediately I had the idea of doing a black and red color theme and building off of that.My first stop was the Dollar Tree, I knew that they would have everything I needed and it would be within my budget. At the dollar tree I was able to snag all of the flatware, table cloths and even picked up some foam dice that I used as centerpieces. I’m a real sucker for paper straws in different colors so I picked up a couple of sets of those as well from Fresh and Easy to use as cute straws for guests to use and to add height to the buffet table.

We wanted to keep the food choices bite sized and easy to plate, so we wentwith appetizers instead of a heavy meal. She served pizza bites, chips, salsa and guacamole, a veggie and a fruit tray. I also wanted to do something a little different with the tablecloth for the actual food table so I used it as a runner instead. I have to say it really made a difference.

Because my host didn’t want to have too much left over candy in the house after the event, instead of doing a candy bar I made goodie bags for her guests. Seeing as game nights make me think of being a big ole kid again I put goldfish, fruit snacks, and assorted candy in the goodie bags for guests to take home thus leaving Erica with little to no candy to worry about.

Lesson’s Learned

In my blog I’d not only like to assist you with the things that went well but also give you some lessons learned along the way.

The Washi Tape Debacle

I had this cool idea to use washi tape on the plastic cups we’d be giving guests to drink from. I’m not a huge fan of plastic cups but I’d seen the idea on Pinterest and it looked so cute and I’d thought it a great way of dressing up plastic-ware.

The left is what they looked like on Pinterest, the right is what they looked like when I did them- AWFUL! LOL! In the picture to the left the cups are much smaller and the washi tape thinner, my cups were bigger and to accommodate the size I got a thicker roll of tape-BIG MISTAKE! It was really hard to place the tape around the cup as it wouldn’t line up straight and the tape kept bunching and wouldn’t lay flat. After I’d researched more about using washi tapes on cups I realized that the secret is to keep the cups small and the tape thin. A great idea I will definitely use for next time 🙂

Check Out Your Entertaining Space First- In PERSON

Erica sent me tons of pics so I thought I had a pretty good idea of the space I was working with for her party. WRONG, if I’d gone to her house at least a day before I’d have known she had a nice ceiling fan in her dining room and I could have used that to hang a couple of poofs I had left over from an Oscar party I did a few months ago. After having seen her cute apartment in person I instantly had all kinds of idea’s I could have implemented but not taking that time didn’t allow my creativity to flow as easily.

With that being said, I still have to say that “Erica’s Budget Friendly Game Night” was a hit! She was great to work with and I’m so proud that she trusted me with her event! Thank you Erica!

Game nights are really a great way to have friends over and have a good time without breaking the bank. Next time you host a party try some of my tips here and draw from your own experiences, it’s sure to be a success!

Until next time, cheers…