Favorite Things Party

Favorite Things parties are my most favorite kind. 

Ever been to one? 

My neighborhood hosts one every year that I never miss. Additionally, this year, three of my girlfriends and I decided to also host another one since they are so much fun! I think all of our guests would agree that it was a blast! We did something a little different to shake things up, and it was really fun! In case you are interested, here are the details of how it works (and with a few party pics, of course!). 

The four hostesses

My friend, Jenn, hosted the party at her beautiful home, which served as the perfect, festive backdrop for our shindig!

We ordered these beautiful invitations, which instructed the guests to buy four of the SAME gift, each costing around $10 (so, each guest spends around $40). The guests then wrap each gift separately; so, they show up to the party with four of the same gift that are individually wrapped. 

When the guests arrived, they were assigned a number, 1 through 26 (because we had 26 total attendees). They then took their four wrapped gifts and set them up on a table at the spot corresponding to their individual number (so, if a guest was assigned the Number 1, they would leave the four gifts they brought at the spot that was designated for Number 1). 

The next hour was spent eating yummy soup and sandwiches and mini cinnamon cupcakes (made by yours truly), drinking wine and a "Ms. Claus Cocktail," and chat, chat, chatting the night away! 

Then, the real fun began! Each guest was given a personalized bag to hold the gifts they would be taking home. They were then asked to choose four random numbers from a basket (the basket contained four of each of the numbers 1 through 26, since each of the 26 guests brought four gifts). We decided to write the numbers on raffle tickets but more on that in a minute. 

After choosing their four numbers, each guest then located the four gifts corresponding to those numbers, which would be the items they would get to take home. So, they brought $40 worth of items and they took home $40 worth of items! 

Before opening the wrapped gifts, we all sat together in a big circle and, going in order of the number that was assigned, explained what we brought as our "favorite thing"while the guests that had ended up with that item opened it. Make sense? 

It is SO fun and a great way to hear about new products. In fact, we made sure to have a list with each guest's email address and wrote down what each person brought, which was then emailed to the whole group the following day. This way, if there was an item that someone loved but they didn't end up taking home, they would know just where to find it! I ended up taking home a beautiful hand towel with drawings of the iconic locations around our little town, some Tory Burch perfume (which I am now obsessed with), the best tea in the world, and a gorgeous new Reece Blair ring! Score! 

Finally, as an added bonus, each of us four hostesses surprised our guests by telling them that we had each brought an additional "favorite thing." We drew raffle numbers, and four of our guests ended up taking home one of the items, which included a bottle of a delicious honeysuckle vodka called Cathead, a gift certificate for a pedicure (to be redeemed with the hostess for a fun girlfriend date), a Swell water bottle and pass for a free Pure Barre class, and a pair of fleece leggings. It was a hit!

We all then stood around and continued to eat, drink, and chat the night away. It was such a fun way to celebrate this holiday season with so many amazing women we know and love. We hostesses have already decided to make it an annual event, and I can't wait 'til next year!