We’ve all had awkward moments. Times when you’ve said or done something out of place, and the embarrassing silence that follows when no one knows what to say next. Don’t let those moments cloud your life. Come together for an awkward party to celebrate awkwardness and remind yourself it happens to all of us.
Invitations
If you have a classic photo of you in ultimate awkwardness, print that out and write the party deets on the back. Or use some of these postcards.
Party attire
You could simply tell your guests to wear an ill fitting outfit and then greet them in this
or spend some of the night bumping into people and apologising. When it gets old, take it off and show off oversized underwear.
Alternatively, you could go for a specific theme (and let your guests know on the invites) such as:
- wear your clothes backwards or inside out
- dress in a color you know looks terrible
- show some flesh in a way you’ve never done before.
Regardless of what theme you choose, have some hair wax near the front door. As guests arrive, use the wax to make a random section of their hair stick up, kind of like the just woken up look.
Or have some of these on hand if anyone arrives and is looking a little too suave for your shindig.
Decorations
You don’t need to dress your house too much for this kind of party but it is the chance to bend the general rules a little, particularly when creating the space and setting the lighting.
Scatter chairs around so only one person can sit and others have to stand. As the party progresses, guests will likely cluster them together anyway.
Put odd decorative pieces all around for guests to discover. There’s no shortage of unusual things to find at Etsy. Searching for ‘weird ornaments’ usually comes up with an interesting array.
Hang laundry in a doorway so guests have to walk through it to reach another room.
Leave personal toiletries around the bathroom such as head lice shampoo, anti-fungal creams, haemorrhoid cream, wart remover solution, nd anti-baldness remedies.
Put prank soap near your basin that will make people look twice when they wash their hands.. Chicken wings, dog poop, ramen noodles….so much to choose from.
Use green lighting in the dance area to make people look a little sickly.
Add strange candles around the place.
For doors that push open, add a decal that says ‘pull’ and vice versa.
Hide whoopee cushions under seats. Guests are bound to keep playing with them through the night with much hilarity.
Put your face where people will sit.
Food
Choose appetizers that can be a little awks to eat but not so bad that your guests don’t eat anything.
Laden with garlic
sticky, saucy or with stringy cheese
or oodles of noodles.
Whoever invented sliders had an evil streak, always tricky to devour without falling apart when talking to people.
Buffer with chips and dips that are either spicy hot or the more unusual flavours that you find on the supermarket shelf.
Beverages
Keep your coolers in narrow places so people need to squeeze past each other to get another drink. Apart from being awks, it also gets people starting conversation.
Give your guests a welcome cocktail with a creamy top to increase the chances of an unintended milk mustache.
Tableware
Before the party, get an old sheet and spill a few things on it such as soda drinks, ketchup, and coffee. Give it a quick rinse, but don’t remove the stains, and hang it out to dry. Use as a tablecloth.
Choose whatever colour partyware takes your fancy. If you want colors that clash, go for either green with orange or purple with yellow. Purple in particular doesn’t sit well with food.
Customize your partyware with incorrect phrasing such as cups that say ‘Wet your appetite’ instead of “whet your appetite’
and napkins that say ‘Baited breath’ instead of ‘bated breath’.
Add some of these to your refreshment table. See who’s courageous enough to try one. Lots of other flavors to choose from too.
Icebreakers
Put up a poster of House Party Rules for guests to read when they first arrive which could include:
- left handshakes only
- bad dancing only
- scratch yourself regularly
- reveal as much personal information in conversations as possible.
You could turn this into a competition where guests are given a bunch of stickers to stick on other guests when they do something hilariously awkward.
The one with the most stickers wins a prize.
Hand glasses out to guests that don’t already wear them. Put Vaseline on your fingers and lightly smear everyone’s lenses so no one can see clearly.
Set up the classic Twister game in a corner. Always guaranteed to put people in awkward positions.
Music
Make a playlist of your favourite songs and weave through songs about out-there people living out-there lives and all the big hits that get people doing crazy moves.
Send them off with a smile
Give everyone a really awkward hug when they leave. Stick your butt out and hold them just that little bit too long while patting them on the back.
With a knowing stare, hand them a stamped, self-addressed envelope with blank thank you card inside so it is clear you are expecting a response for hosting a great party.
Download and design a label template and stick them on Tic Tac boxes in a bowl by the door that say something like; “A breath of fresh air until you get home to your toothbrush.”
