Spending time with your friends is essential to your wellness. Being surrounded by friends can help you cope with stress, lengthen your lifespan, improve your psychological well-being, and boost your cardiovascular health. The number of benefits one can enjoy when they’re with their friends is one of the reasons why they’ll always find time to catch up with them.
If most of your friends are too busy to meet up with you personally or are currently abroad, don’t worry because you can always hold a virtual party for them. Virtual parties are becoming more popular today because these are convenient and accessible for many.
For your upcoming virtual party to be memorable, follow these tips when holding one:
- Excite Your Guests With Invitations
Just because the event is done virtually doesn’t mean that you should disregard the need to make and send out invitations. On the contrary, invitations are essential when holding virtual parties as these can excite your guests and provide them information about the event.
Depending on your preferences, you can simply send an email or text to your friends, or make invitations from known platforms, such as Greenvelope. Make sure to send the invitations two weeks before the event so your friends will still have time to prepare. If you’re going to require them to wear costumes or decorate their areas for the virtual party, opt to send the invitations much earlier.
- Decide On Your Virtual Location
It’s now easy to hold virtual parties because there are countless online platforms that allow you to connect with several people at the same time. You might even see yourself overwhelmed by having too many options.
For you to narrow down your options, check how many friends have confirmed their attendance for the virtual party. Online platforms have different rules when it comes to virtual parties—while some allow you to share your camera with 100 people, others can only accommodate 20 users at the same time.
Some of the most common platforms you can use for your virtual party are:
- FaceTime: If all of your friends own an Apple device, consider having the virtual party on FaceTime. When you open the FaceTime app, simply click on the + symbol button and select the people who’ll join the virtual party. As long as you have a stable Internet connection, you’ll be in a video chat with your friends in no time.
- Zoom: For virtual parties with 100 participants, Zoom is a great choice because this platform shows all of the participants’ cameras simultaneously. Using this online platform means no one has to wait for the cameras to rotate before they can see who’s talking.
- Houseparty: Although relatively new than FaceTime and Zoom, Houseparty is slowly gaining its popularity in the world because of its built-in games. Aside from connecting with your distant friends, Houseparty also offers games, such as Heads Up and Pictionary, to its participants.
- Go Overboard With Decorations
Decorations make any event more colorful, and this remains true when you’re holding a virtual party for your friends. Even if you don’t get to see your friends personally during the event, decors are still a must as these can set the mood of your virtual party.
For your own and your friends’ decors to be cohesive, come up with a theme. If the group is going to host a grad party to celebrate someone’s graduation, set up balloons and streamers on the background.
When choosing, make sure to listen to your friends’ suggestions. Some of them might have participated in virtual parties in the past and can provide suggestions on the best theme to have.
- Add A Dress Code
If you and your friends are ready to take your upcoming virtual party up a notch, set up a dress code based on your chosen theme. If you’re going to have a grad party, have everyone wear togas. The participants can wear their favorite beach outfits for a beach-themed virtual party, or their favorite pajamas if the event is pajamas-themed.
Having a dress code is a simple yet effective way of making your virtual party more fun and memorable. Plus, the photos you’ll take will surely make a great remembrance for your first virtual party!
- Plan For Virtual Activities And Games
A virtual party can be fun, but only if you’ve properly prepared for the event. Inviting your friends to a specific online platform without having any idea what the group will do next can become the reason why your friends will leave the platform.
When hosting a virtual party for your friends, don’t forget to plan for virtual activities and games. Even if you’re not in the same room with your friends, there are still countless activities you can do with them.
If you’re all out of ideas, listed below are some activities and games you can try out for your upcoming virtual party:
- Dinner party: Have everyone cook their favorite meal with the camera on and share the recipe to the group after. If most of your friends are aspiring cooks, turn the event into a friendly cooking competition.
- Show and tell: Spending a lot of time indoors will usually encourage a person to pursue a new hobby or discover hidden talents. If you or your friends have made these discoveries, encourage them to share these with the group during the virtual party.
- Happy hours: Virtual parties are great for catching up with friends, especially when most of you are busy with work and life. To keep things interesting within the group, have happy hours, and whip up an easy cocktail recipe during your virtual party. This is the perfect way to finally reconnect with your distant friends.
Strive To Learn
Holding a virtual party for your friends can be fun, but, at the same time, challenging. The latter is especially true if this is your first time to hold such an event. But, instead of stressing about the mistakes or lapses during your first virtual party, use these experiences for you to improve in the future. As long as you’re willing to learn and change your ways, it won’t be long before you can become the best virtual party host ever!
