How to Host an Oscars Party

Thank you Basic Invite for sponsoring this post and adding a little Hollywood Glam to our life!

Bruce and I have this funny habit of always being gone over the Oscars – mostly because we have an annual family fun trip in February that tends to land the same weekend. Last year we discovered too late (the day before) that we were free so we just had a small gathering at our house and the first year of our marriage we had a last minute shindig at our place as well when we found out the Oscars were on. Every year though, we talk about hosting an actual Oscars party where we send out invitations and plan prizes! It is a fun (and kind of random) excuse to dress up and spend time with your friends! It’s also really fun to guess the winners and spend the rest of the night competing against each other! Are you thinking about hosting a party this year? It is not too late! Here are our tips for hosting an Oscars party this year!

Send out the invites!

Every party starts by inviting! We picked out invitations from the wedding section on Basic Invite! It wasn’t hard at all to transform the invite into an Oscars theme. We went with the Hollywood Glam look – gold, Gatsby, and cut like a ticket! I’m kind of in love with how they all came together! Basic Invite has a great selection of designs that are able to be customized into almost any color you could dream of! Have a party or event coming up (birthday, baby, wedding, graduation)? You can save 15% off everything site wide with code: 15FF51

 Plan Food & Drink

We’re planning on ordering pizza for everyone who is coming and asking guests to bring drinks or snacks to share. This way everyone pitches in and we don’t have to carry the entire burden of the food. Or you can just have some snacks with a couple signature drinks for the night and tell guests to eat dinner before. Take some time to see what your grocery/ entertaining budget can handle and plan accordingly. It is normal in our friend group to bring a pack of beer, a bottle of wine, or plate of brownies to each others homes but I know that not every group is like that. If you don’t feel comfortable asking people to bring something to share, just grab what you can afford to share.

Print out Ballets for Voting

Voting on the Academy Awards is one of the things that makes the night! I always find free printables for the Oscars on Pinterest – like this one & this one! Have a stack of them out on a table with pens for you & your guests to use! Make all your guests vote when they come in BEFORE the ceremony starts! Half the time you have no idea who or what you are voting for but it turns into a great adventure throughout the night!

Plan Prizes!

If you are going to have voting you should have some incentive to win for your guests! A six pack of a seasonal brew or bag of candy make great prizes! Don’t feel like you need to make the prizes too over the top – bragging rights is a pretty impressive prize on its own 😉 If you are going to ask your guests to dress up (like we did!) then also have a “best dressed” prize to hand out!

Just have Fun

I know I am not the only one who sometimes skips hosting parties because I am afraid my home isn’t perfect. Don’t worry about how big or perfect the space is – just open the doors. The memories come from the conversations and laughs that happen through the night. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful.