Let’s plan an easy galentine’s dinner party together: tips on an unfussy menu, fun movies that highlight female friendships and cute invitation designs.
No one needs an excuse to throw a dinner party, but galentine’s day makes me think, you know what, I do love being a woman, therefore I’ll celebrate the women in my life. The desire to be beautiful is inherently human, but women do seem to be magical creatures with a tendency toward making everything around them beautiful. What is sometimes viewed as frivolous or vain is actually quite essential to human nature: beauty adds value and meaning to our existence. And I’m talking about the effort to see beauty around us, not the superficial kind, of course.
Throwing a galentine’s dinner party might be a trivial way to celebrate female friendships, but it’s also fun and an effortless way to add some beauty to life. There’s something about having the girls over for some good food and a few of glasses of wine that makes the world feel soft and safe.
I think the point of having your friends over is to sit back and enjoy a casual evening. I believe it’s about an unfussy menu, make-ahead (or store-bought oops) appetizers and keeping it small and intimate.
For an impromptu (especially weeknight) dinner party, I’d say prepping amounts to chilling the rosé and getting a playlist ready to go. The party starts way before the actual dinner and everyone gets to participate.
This is not the kind of party where you spend days making grocery lists and find yourself taking numerous trips to your local store. This is just planning a fun, low-key get together. No stress or panic included.
Appetizers
I believe a lot of the fun starts in the kitchen, so as people start arriving, pour them a glass a wine and assign them a task. These are mostly extremely easy and mind-numbing tasks, so you can save all your brain power for the animated conversations you’ll sure be having.
By mind-numbing and easy, I obviously don’t mean boring food at all. For this particular dinner party, we did two types of crostini (which is basically just small slices of toasted bread and various toppings): prosciutto & goat cheese and caramelized onion & brie. I caramelized the onions ahead of time , then it was just a matter of assembling them. Anyone can do it.
While one of you is working on the crostini, someone else takes charge of the other appetizers (it’s important to have variety), and in this case, we did a trio of dips (guac, salsa, and refried beans) and they were all well…store bought. Surprisingly, the world didn’t end. I usually despise store-bought salsa and guacamole, but if you find a brand that actually tastes good, why not take advantage of it. But having said that, homemade guacamole is so easy and quick, you might consider that, too.
Main
For the main, I think you can never go wrong with roasted chicken. It’s very low effort and high reward. Chicken usually pairs well with most sides and it’s arguably a crowd pleaser. To make things a little bit more interesting, I’d suggesting making Mediterranean chicken. Serve alongside roasted potatoes and you’re all set.
Maybe you want to go for something even more low-key and in that case, I think doing a pizza night is always a good idea. Each guest gets to build their own pizza and you can fully commit to the theme by choosing cute toppings. Pinterest is a bottomless well of inspiration for that. In my mind, this pizza building activity is akin to sitting in a garden making flower crowns.
Desserts
And finally, do not neglect your dessert table! Maybe you don’t have a friend who can bring homemade chocolate bonbons, but you know what’s always easy and delicious? Chocolate-covered strawberries. Nothing tastes better than a romantic cliche.
By the way, the desserts are assembled while the appetizers are being put together. So, as one of the girls is busy dropping strawberries into a pool of chocolate, you can decorate the cake. Now, I won’t tell you to make a whole layer cake – although I do believe it elevates the celebration, but if you do like the idea, you can bake a sheet cake and cut the “layers” out using a large heart-shaped cookie cutter. It really doesn’t take a lot of time and effort.
Invites & Menus
I like to be cute and over-the-top, so I take the time to make invitation cards and a menu. And by that, all I mean is I pick my favorite template in Canva and customize it. Very hard work, but so worth it.
Fun & Games
And of course, I simply have to include a few movies and book suggestions here. They’re all centered around female friendships. The movies I’m suggesting are all funny, silly, wonderful classics to keep the mood light and fun. I can never get enough of them (when you work for me, you leave when I say you can leave!… News flash, Mussolini, I quit! Swinging door.)
Everything I know About Love by Dolly Alderton is a book that’s mostly a celebration of female friendships and I think it really suits the theme.
Or maybe you just want to have fun and not talk about books. In that case, this game will probably make the event a little bit more interesting…
And of course, don’t forget about that playlist.
I hope you have at your galentine’s dinner party!
