I recently had the opportunity to attend a very intimate event held at the
Setai Hotel in New York City, in their beautiful Penthouse Suite. The event was hosted by
Delta Faucet and Victoria Pericon of
Savvy Mommy who brought together a small group of New York City Bloggers to discuss Entertaining in the home and sharing tips and tricks to making at home entertaining and parties not only fun for the guests, but simpler for the hosts! The bloggers included a mix of Lifestyle, Food, Parenting and more, which made the focus group session on Entertaining all the more interesting and exciting. We came at the topic from a variety of perspectives, from food to photography, from entertaining with kids, singles and more!
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NYC Bloggers (Tracy @ Ascending Butterfly is the second to the right in the black shirt) including co-hostess Victoria Pericon of Savvy Mommy (middle closest to sign), Delta Faucet team and MSL Group team reps! |
Whether it's for a simple gathering, dinner party, birthday party or hosting for the holidays, I'm sure much like me, you run around the house like a chicken without a head trying to get everything together. Picking up, cleaning and cooking to make your home it's most welcoming for your guests. It's definitely not easy getting everything 'Just So'.
Thankfully you don't have to go it alone!
Five Tips to Hosting A Successful Gathering in your home, AND keeping it simple for you in the process:
(1) Think About Your Guests - Do any guests have food or pet allergies? Be sure to query your guests well before the event. You don't want to have someone suffer a severe allergic reaction, when this is something very easy to prevent!
(2) Pick a Theme - Theme centered parties are a fun way to keep things interesting for your guests, try to pick an inclusive theme that the most guests can relate to. Fun ideas include: A luau, A decade based party (70s, 80s, 90s etc), or even movie night. You can even have door prizes for the 3 guests who best represent the party theme!
(3) Keep it Simple - Save time and Paper (Use evites or email for invitations) use Apps like Red Rover. Or if like me, you simply cannot bare going paperless for your invites, use online services that allow you to pick, print and have them ship the invitations for you!
(4) Designate a Photographer - Delegate this to one person or have a bunch of polaroid cameras set up at various stations throughout your party and have guests take pictures! This way you don't spend your entire party behind a lens/viewfinder and miss making memories with your guests! Making your guests feel special by giving them one to one time is what will make the party memorable for them AND you!
(5) Send Thank You Notes - It's so important to take that time to thank your guests for sharing in that special day with you! A great way to personalize the note is to take a picture of yourself with the gift they brought. You can slip that picture inside the note, or if you are using a photo or card service, upload that picture, write your thank you caption and you can have them directly shipped to your guests (if you have alot of guests, use a printing service that allows you to turn the picture into a postcard since the postage is a bit cheaper and the photo postcard with Thank You caption can be sent to all your guests!)
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Collage of Event Photos include Faucet in action, bloggers networking and the great spread! |
We also had the opportunity to see Delta Faucet demo their bath and kitchen faucets with the new Touch2O® and Touch2O.xt™ Technology!
Touch2O® Technology: Tapping anywhere on the spout or handle with your wrist or forearm to start and stop the flow of water. It helps keep the bath faucet clean, even when your hands aren't.
Touch2O.xt™ Technology: For an even cleaner experience, Touch2O.xt™ Technology allows you to tap the faucet on and off or go completely hands-free. The bath touch faucet intuitively activates the water flow when your hands move close to the faucet.
We all got the chance to check out the faucets in action both a kitchen demo model and a bathroom demo model. And I thought they were both fantastic. I LOVE to cook, but I also know just how easily germs can be spread in a Kitchen. We all know just how easy raw chicken rubbed across surfaces can cause salmonella. But to clean those surfaces you have turn on your faucet, touching the faucet with your 'raw chicken hands'. Thanks to these faucets you won't have to worry about that anymore! Delta also let us in on a very scary statistic, that 1 in 5 people do not wash their hands after using the restroom. That definitely gave us all the immediate 'EWWW YUCK!' reaction.
Whether you are a foodie and want a cleaner kitchen, a mom trying to find new ways to encourage the little ones to keep their hands clean, or are a hostess with the mostest yourself, these faucets will certainly help not only make your bathroom or kitchen look nice, but will also help you save time, money and water. Think of the possibilities: While brushing your teeth, or while your DH is shaving you no longer waste water, the water turns off while you brush your teeth or shave and then turns on when you are ready for it, How smart (and cool) is that?
I will be getting the chance to try out one of these myself soon, and I will post a more in depth review at that time (and who knows butterflies, maybe I can coerce the fine folks at Delta to come back and show our readers some love too!)
In the meantime, Please Share YOUR best tip for making entertaining easy and fun!
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FTC Disclosure Info: This is NOT a sponsored Post, no monetary compensation has been received. I attended a NY based event for Digital Press where Delta provided a product demo and lunch to attendees. I will also be receiving a Touch2O.xt Technology faucet for in home review. However, I have shared my honest opinions of the brand, event and products as per ethical blogger guidelines.