Best Ever Summer Party Hacks
Some of our favourite ever party hacks that’ll leave you wondering how you coped before.
Attach labels to guests’ drinks glasses.
No more drinks confusion. Parcel tags work brilliantly because there’s no sticky residue left on the glass. Fix the tags round the stems or the handles, leave a pen by the drinks table and wave goodbye to embarrassing, “I’m sorry but I think you’ve got my drink” moments.
Pre-scoop ice-cream and keep it in cupcake cases in the freezer.
Save yourself oodles of time and prevent that queue of eager ice-cream fans from building up by pre-scooping ice-cream before the party and storing it in cupcake cases in baking trays in the freezer. No more wrestling with rock hard tubs of ice-cream on the day, or worse, melted ice-cream dripping all down your arm!
Individual ice-cream scoops in cupcake cases, placed into the freezer.
Leave out sunscreen and insect repellent for guests to use.
Because we’ve all been at parties where we wish we’d brought some, but how many of us actually remember to pack it?
Put out containers for dirty plates, empty bottles and rubbish.
Signpost bins, baskets or buckets with ‘Dirty Plates’, ‘Empty Bottles’, ‘Non-Recyclable Rubbish’ and ‘Recyclable Rubbish’ and position at strategic places around the garden. Guests get to feel like they’re doing their bit to help, and you save yourself bags of time on the clean-up operation.
Use two skewers to cook kebabs.
Instead of putting your meat, fish and veggie kebabs on a single skewer, use two, an inch apart. That way you won’t get individual pieces of food flipping in all the wrong directions when you turn them over on the grill.
Tie a bottle opener to the drinks table.
Hang it from the table or drinks station with a piece of ribbon. No more hunting for bottle openers that have gone for a wander.
Set up a self-serve drinks station. Make it easy for guests to serves themselves. Place it in the shade, or fix up some awning over a table. Use water balloons or blocks of ice frozen in empty butter tubs to keep your drinks cool for longer. Guests don’t go thirsty and your time is freed up to mingle, cook, or dance on the tables if the mood takes you!
Place tea lights in washed out jam jars for instant high-romance evening lighting.
Inexpensive and pretty. This is a great outdoor party lighting solution. Just ask your friends to keep their empty jam jars for you in the weeks running up to the party.
Keep your party pest-free with natural repellents that double as pretty table decorations.
Cut lemons into halves, place them flesh up into miniature pretty bowls, and push cloves into the cut side of the lemon. They not only smell and look gorgeous, but are great at keeping the midgies away. Set out about 30 min before serving and keep food bug free in non-toxic style.
Spray paint a Twister board on the ground.
Bring out a game of Twister at any party and you’ve got guaranteed giggles. For a novel, even more fun, outdoor-friendly version of the game that all ages can enjoy, just spray paint red, blue, green and yellow circles using a simple stencil cut out of cardboard, in rows onto the grass. Voila, a Twister board that provides hours of entertainment.
Image of sun hat courtesy of 9comeback at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
