Meeting friends for dinner after work, grabbing coffee with your girlfriend or just ordering pizza on a Friday night with neighbors. We all have a deep desire to be connected in a world that often forgets the importance of relationships. Many of us have the desire to entertain, but we let our circumstances keep us from extending hospitality. Often it revolves around our lack of confidence in our ability to host events. I get this!
But here is what we need to remember. Your friends will appreciate an invitation from you, and they will not care if everything in your home is perfect. (If they do, I question if they are truly friends.) My family and I have lived in a 1950s ranch-style home for more than 3 decades. We have endured five remodels and spent months living in a construction zone. Entertaining in these conditions might seem impossible, but we need to remember it is more important to extend hospitality than to worry about what we perceive as the perfect party. Enjoy life and make the best of your circumstances.
A favorite party theme of mine was held during one of our remodels. Our house was torn up for 14 months, and there was no way I was going to go that long without entertaining. As is my philosophy in almost everything I do, go with what life gives you! I sent out construction themed invitations and told our guests to dress casually. Our floors had been ripped up, so it was a fantastic opportunity to throw confetti everywhere.
When people arrived, they were handed decorative hard hats from the party store and all food was served on paper plates. We had plenty of room to entertain because there was very little furniture in the house. I gave everyone a pen and we wrote on the walls, which had been torn down to their studs. Our friends had a blast, and it was a perfect party, even during disaster.
Remember, hospitality is how we extend love to our fellow neighbors and community. Entertaining is how we show our hospitality. We should not let our desire to entertain like the perfect Instagram influencers we follow keep us from extending hospitality.
One of our goals at Celebrate by Lisa Lou is to help you break down all aspects of entertaining, so you feel confident in your ability to extend hospitality to the world around you. Organization is the key to success in much of life. Hosting a party or a family dinner is no different. At Celebrate, our goal is to help families and communities come together, regardless of their surroundings. We believe in connection, and we believe the best place for people to come together is in the home. A healthy home makes for healthy families, and healthy families fill society with joy. So join us a the table, and let’s Celebrate!
Together with you,
Lisa Lou