Throwing a fun cocktail party with friends has never been easier. All you need are drinks, light appetizers and great friends. Over the holidays, one of my girlfriends and I decided to throw a cocktail party together to celebrate my other friend’s engagement. Since the happy couple have been together for many years they didn’t want to do anything over the top, so a cocktail party at my house seemed like a great solution. Something nice but still laid back.
I love cocktail parties because it’s an easy way to get folks together without doing a big catered affair. People just mingle while sipping cocktails.
When planning the party, my contribution was the location and the party decorations. Since I hate cooking and I’m pretty clueless about mixed drinks, I totally lucked out in terms of assignments.
Since the party was held during the holidays, most of my holiday decorations were already up which helped a lot in terms of party decor. To make it more “engagement party” like, I did incorporate a lot of framed pictures of the happy couple together, in both the room and also on my Christmas tree. I found a great deal on little silver picture frame ornaments at Michaels. I also dressed up my dining table with pretty linens and a bowl full of holiday ornaments, which acted as a centerpiece. Pretty simple but effective.
I also decided to use linen cocktail napkins instead of paper napkins. Linen cocktail napkins are elegant and simple and go with any party decor. They can also be used for both drinks and appetizers. Plus there is something about using fabric napkins instead of paper that instantly classes up a party. Don’t you agree?
Our hemstitched cocktail napkins are perfect the way they are, but for me, I wanted to jazz them up a bit. Keeping with the holiday decor, I bought several holiday themed stamps to stamp them with. I stamped them with cute holiday sayings and the couple’s last name initial. After the party, I gifted the happy couple the stamped monogrammed cocktail napkins as an engagement gift. What I love about this gift is that it’s personal and can be used for years to come. Best part is that by doing the “monogramming” myself, the gift ended up costing a fraction of the cost of most monogrammed cocktail napkins.
To create these stamped cocktail napkins yourself, you just need a permanent ink stamp pad, linen cocktail napkins and rubber stamps.
The directions are super easy, so easy in fact that it almost seems silly to even write instructions.
The first step is to place the desired rubber stamp onto the permanent ink. You will want to press the stamp down firmly to ensure that the ink covers the stamp completely.
Once that is complete, press the inked stamp firmly onto the cocktail napkin. These should dry fairly quickly. Repeat for all the remaining cocktail napkins.
Voila! Now you just need a drink to accessorize.
