February is all about celebrating love + while we can appreciate a romantic valentine’s date night, we at The Event Company like to find any excuse to celebrate BIG.

Long are the days where Valentine’s Day is a holiday to only celebrate romance. We believe this holiday should encompass love in all its forms, including friendships! Our office’s Social Society (internal party planning committee) plans a Galentine’s Day party each year during the week of Valentine’s Day + it’s an incredible time to dress in pink + red, indulge in treats + drinks + celebrate what we love about each other!

The Event Company Galentine’s Day 2023

If you’re planning on hosting a Galentine’s Day party (i.e., Valentine’s for the gals) look no further! We know a thing or two about throwing a party! If you’re not planning on hosting a Galentine’s Day party, keep reading + we might just convince you…

Choosing a theme + activities

Your decor will likely be pink + red (duh)! But what else will you add to ‘wow’ your guests? We recommend planning a couple of surprises!

Our TEC Galentine’s Day last year was themed around giving to those you love. Our founder + CEO, Addie Graham-Kramer, surprised the team with matching clutches from Tory Burch, matching friendship bracelets + wrote each team member a personalized note. We followed that up by breaking out our markers + glue sticks for a cute card-making activity! Each team member made a few cards to gift to the people in their life they love! These surprises can be big or small — whatever you decide will make your party special.

Gifts for the team from Addie

Other activity ideas:

• Paint wine glasses
• Find a recipe for a Valentine’s Day cocktail + make it as a group
• DIY charcuterie boxes
• Have a treat-making contest

Spoiler alert: This year’s TEC Galentine’s Day party is murder mystery themed. Follow us on Instagram to see all of the killer details + surprises!

Curating the menu

Draw inspiration from your theme + activities when deciding on a menu. Is this going to be a brunch party, dinner party, or are you sticking with light snacks? Let’s be honest — this is most people’s favorite parts of a party, so choose carefully + remember, presentation is everything! The food + drink will likely be what people will take the most photos + videos of for their social media pages. Details are key here! Taking extra steps to make heart-shaped foods, a recipe for a pink drink + themed napkins will have people stopping their scroll on socials to take another look!

Menu ideas:

• Heart-shaped waffle station
• DIY heart-shaped pizzas
• Pink/red cocktails + mocktails
• Charcuterie boards
• Chocolate-covered strawberries or these viral chocolate strawberry cups!

Here’s a recipe for the pink drink our office loves!

Mix 1 can of coconut flavored La Croix with 1 packet of wild strawberry Crystal Light over ice in your favorite cup. Top it off with a splash of heavy whipping cream + garnish with dried strawberries.

Decorating + setting up

It’s easy to be drawn into all of the disposable decor that fill the front sections of big-box stores this time of year. Our advice is to limit these purchases, or skip them all together! If you do pick up a few themed decor items, choose items you can use next year, to save yourself time + money!

We recommend grabbing some stems from your local flower shop, using your food + drink stations as decor (hello charcuterie table) + creating photo opps to use as decor.

Picture via @chloerose.design on Instagram

More decor ideas:

• Create themed menus + name cards for your guests on Canva + print them out
• Champagne tower
• Use a blank wall to put up a backdrop for Instagram photos
• Tying ribbon around flowers, wine glasses, etc. Bows are having a huge moment right now!

Hand painted menus + name cards for a birthday party at The Event Company

Inviting your guests

You can make this as simple or as fancy as you’d like! A simple text or Facebook event page will do the trick, but if you want to take it up a notch, we love using Paperless Post for invites. This site has customizable invitation templates (some are free) + it allows you to invite your guests through text or email + send out reminders ahead of the big day! It’s easy + so aesthetically pleasing!

We hope this helps as you plan for your Instagram-worthy Galentine’s Day party! If you use any of these ideas, be sure to tag us on Instagram @TheEventCompanySD, so we can share your posts!