How to Throw a Chic Galentine’s Day Brunch

I absolutely love celebrating Galentine’s Day with some of my best girlfriends near Valentine’s Day, but event planning is not my forte. So I enlisted Jen from Girl Meets Party to share some tips on how to throw a successful Galentine’s Day Brunch. Girl Meets Party is a lifestyle blog run by Jen and Suree and they have the most adorable studio in downtown Chicago that I recently got to visit! They are party planner extraordinaires and also do social media consulting and will be helping me with a few blog related things. Without further ado here’s Jen. -Julia

If you ask me, Galentine’s Day is better than Valentine’s Day.  Being a now 30-something, I cherish time with my girlfriends. A few years ago, I hosted Girls Night In.  Since then, an annual Galentine’s Day Brunch has become my jam.  Throwing a soiree is easy once you know the formula.  

Set a stunning table

Do you have China?  Girlfriend, then it’s time to bust it out!  If anyone appreciates the work that goes into a beautiful table, it’s your girlfriends – especially for Galentine’s Day!  I love a fancy brunch and nothing says fancy like China.  For the plates, I love the Lenox Golden Waterfall plates.  They’re perfect for nearly any event as are the Kate Spade Larabee Dot Champagne glasses for mimosas and stemless wine glasses for water.  

I like to think about table design as though it’s an outfit.  The plate and utensils are the basic clothes. Every other component (glasses, napkins, place card, menu) is an accessory.  Each of the accessories really make the table come to life. Ideally, you want three or four ‘accessories’ per table design.  

Design the menu

Design the menu

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First things first, set a classy table with a paper menu.  I have a super simple menu template you can use on Girl Meets Party.  Then comes the meal.  Check with guests to see if anyone has any allergies or food aversions.  If anyone has a dietary restriction, plan the meal so they can eat at least half of what you  make.

In terms of setting the menu, I always recommend one meat main, one vegetarian main, one or two vegetables and something sweet.  For a brunch, I’d recommend a french toast casserole, an egg casserole with meat, breakfast potatoes or hash browns and some fruit.  

Create a game

Sure, the conversation will be flowing, but you can’t go wrong with a simple game.  Using paper from Paper Source embossing powder and the embossing heat tool, I created simple question cards.  They looked fancy, but honestly they were just printed off my home computer.  Make a list of 10-20 questions that apply to your friends to get the conversation going!

Plan a takeaway

I always love to give a small favor to guests to say thanks for coming.  If you’ve seen my parties, you know I love mini champagne labels.  They’re perfect as table decor and double as a favor.  I couldn’t have been more thrilled to design our ‘Love is Love’ mini champagne labels from Gardenia Labels – one of my favorite etsy designers.

So tell me, have you had a Galentine’s Day Event before? Will you have one this year? And don’t forget to visit Girl Meets Party for more party planning tips.