Thursday, November 24, 2016

Housewarming Party - 11.12.16

The perfect Velicaria & Paraoan selfie!
We threw our housewarming party on November 12, 2016. I picked that date for several reasons... It marked 2 months that we were in our new house and we were finally starting to feel settled in. 

I didn't want to create just a generic housewarming invitation. I wanted something that represented us. We're a Disney family, so I wanted to make sure that our invitation reflected that. I scoured through Pinterest and I couldn't find anything that screamed this is it. I eventually came up with this design:
I obviously edited some of the fields for this screen shot, but how cool would it have been if I really lived on a street called Disneyland Ave? Hehe. I was actually really surprised that I couldn't find any "Be Our Guest" themed housewarming invitations! I whipped this idea up using PowerPoint/Publisher and I love how it turned out. I hope to be proficient with using Photoshop someday.

When you go to a Filipino party, be sure to arrive with an empty stomach and be prepared to eat a lot of food. If you walk into a Filipino house and they offer you food, don't refuse. It's rude and anyways, you would have been missing out on yummy food! Haha. We didn't pick a food theme because I didn't want to be limited with our offerings. Plus, I wanted to make sure that everyone would leave with a happy tummy. My family provided most of what was on the menu:
  • Pancit
  • Lumpia
  • Japchae
  • Fried chicken
  • Pizza
  • Turkey sandwich rolls
  • Mongolian beef
  • Rice
  • Ribs
  • Chips
  • Shrimp platter
  • Kielbasa sausage, cheese, cracker platter
  • Bacon wrapped smokies
  • Fresh spring rolls, eggrolls, corn cake platter from Lahn Pad Thai
  • Fruit tray
  • Cheesecake bites
  • Cookies
  • Cupcakes
  • Mini muffins
  • Various Filipino desserts
We had tons of food! Thankfully we had a lot of guests throughout the day so we didn't have too many leftovers. We actually decided to host 2 parties on the same day. Our first party was from 12-3 pm and we invited family and coworkers to that one. Our evening party was for friends. I wanted to be mindful about parking (I'm so thankful that we have a decent sized driveway and we live in a cul-de-sac) and I wanted to make sure that we had time to mingle with each of our guests.

I looked at Pinterest for ideas of easy activities to do for a housewarming. I found a really neat idea to use a scavenger hunt, but all the ones I found were pretty generic. I decided to create one that had a little more flair. I loved the scavenger hunt idea because it basically served as a leisurely self-guided tour. That freed up our time so we could mingle with our guests that were eating or relaxing. As our guests were arriving, we asked if they wanted a personal tour or if they wanted to do the scavenger hunt. Most of them picked to do the scavenger hunt, and those that went on a hosted tour ended up wanting to do it too!
I made a sheet asking for our guests to write their addresses. It makes it easy for us for when we mail our our thank you cards and also of course for when we mail out our Christmas cards.

For favors, I wanted to give out something simple and something that everyone would love. So I settled on chocolate. I bought some yummy chocolates from Costco and I got the bags with ties from Michaels. The chocolates are so delicious! I had to force myself to stop eating them while I was putting together the favor bags, haha.

My only regret is that I wish that we took more pictures at our parties! It was such an awesome feeling to be surrounded by our loving family, closest friends, and costars (coworkers). I look forward to hosting more events at our place in the future. I hope you found some of my ideas helpful for when you host a housewarming event! :)

1 comment:

  1. Hope that painting brings even more warmth to your abode!!

    ReplyDelete

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