Hey Alexa, play “Single Ladies” by Beyonce because it’s GALENTINES DAY BABY! I know that Valentine’s Day can be a bit triggering for us single folk, but I personally hope to change your outlook on this day of romance to a day of platonic love for your girlies! Don’t get me wrong, I do think Valentine’s day is sweet and a good excuse to spend time with your significant other, but I think that it is also a good day to remind your bffs how much you love and cherish them as well! That is why I am advising all my single ladies to text your group chat right now and make *covid safe* plans for Galentine’s day! While going out for drinks with the girls is always a good time, the pandemic isn’t exactly making that very possible. So, here is what you need to know to plan the perfect stay-in Galentine’s day ever!
Step 1: Make cute invitations
Trust me you do not need to be a graphic design major or artistic in any way to make cute invitations. You can totally choose to send something via mail because let’s face it, opening up packages is one of the only things giving us serotonin during this pandemic, but mail isn’t always reliable and if you are anything like my friend group, plans are made pretty last minute. While I applaud you for wanting to make cute homemade invitations, I personally think that sending a cute graphic to your girls via text message is also super unique! I am obsessed with Canva (a website for making graphics) and use it for basically everything. They have a ton of premade templates that would be perfect for galentine’s invitations and the website is super easy to navigate if you want to add your own pictures! While a simple text invite would suffice, we all know receiving a cute personalized graphic invitation would make the occasion feel pretty special!
Step 2: Create a Galentine’s Playlist
Everyone knows that in order to have a true get together with the girls, music will be involved. There are a ton of premade Galentine’s playlists on Spotify and Apple music so if you don’t even know where to start, they have got you covered with a female-empowering-scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs setlist. Something I have been super into recently is create a playlist on Spotify and setting it to collaboration mode so that everyone can add their own songs, this way everyone gets input into the playlist and everyone is happy!
Step 3: Decorate!
I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but a photo wall is a must. Some simple red or pink streamers with heart balloons/decorations is all you really need! Word balloons are always cute: think of short words like “the gals” “love” “kisses” “XO” that are easy to get from any party store near you! Honestly just search Galentine’s Day on Pinterest for all things décor, they usually have you covered! Stick to the basic pink, red, and white color scheme with lots of hearts and you will be fine!
Step 4: Food and Drink
Nothing makes a girl happier than her bffs and food (not proven by science but I have yet to meet someone who disagrees). While you can make just about anything for this holiday, we all know it’s much more fun to spice things up. That is why you need to make your food in a heart-shaped design. Think heart shaped pizza, heart pancakes or waffles if you are doing a brunch, heart shaped meet and cheese charcuterie board, heart burger patties, tomato soup with heart shaped grilled cheese sandwiches, literally anything! As long as you have a heart cookie cutter, you can turn about anything into a heart. Plus, a heart shaped cookie cutter is perfect to use for baking some galentine’s desserts as well. As far as drinks go, again I would advise anything pink or red, which is why I will link some fun mixed drinks that would be perfect to try! If you want to play around and create your own drinks, some suggested mixers would be: cranberry juice, raspberry/cherry/strawberry vodka, red or pink grapefruit juice, strawberries, chocolate or raspberry syrup, pink Moscato or champagne, and whatever you want to use as a base!
Step 5: Have fun!
Here are some suggested activities for your girls day/night:
- Spa Night- Get some facemasks, paint each other’s nails, and get some of those cheap handheld back massagers to make a back-massage train! I promise your skin- and friends- will thank you (like seriously winter why do you have to dry out my skin so bad)?! To make spa night a little more interactive, try making your own face masks, bath bombs, soap bars, etc.!
Uby Yanes - Game night- If your friend group is anything like mine, they are probably pretty competitive. Tell everyone to bring their favorite game to play and get ready for some intense fights (and hopefully laughs)! I personally recommend the game “For the girls” because galentine’s day is all about the gals, plus it is pretty funny and is guaranteed to bring your friend group closer!
- Arts and crafts night- I am so unartistic it is honestly concerning, but maybe you and your friends have some creative minds! I know that canvas painting and wine drinking is a favorite among many, but feel free to ditch the canvases and choose someone’s back to paint! (make sure to get some pics of this, I promise it is a lot funnier then painting on a regular canvas). Some other ideas include making coasters, decorating mason jars, homemade jewelry, or whatever your much more creative mind can think of!
stux via Pixabay - Bake-off- This is a perfect one for galentine’s day because you can bake almost anything into a heart shape! Get some red velvet or strawberry cake mix or red food dye and make some heart cakes/cupcakes. You can use a heart shaped cookie cutter to make cute heart cookies (with red and pink frosting/sprinkles of course) or if you are not feeling a heart design, stick to some basic chocolate covered strawberries instead!
Krista Stucchio - Karaoke Night- Yes, I may have gotten this idea from TikTok but who wouldn’t want to buy a Bluetooth Karaoke microphone?! Use your Galentine’s day playlist or turn on whatever is your go to Karaoke song and get ready to sing your heart out! This one may not be the best for those who have neighbors, as you will get a noise complaint if you are Karokee-ing as hard as you should be. And you cannot possibly sing without dancing around the room, so get ready for an all-out break a sweat dance party.
- Movie Night- Who doesn’t love a chill movie night? If you want to go with a classic rom-com, I recommend Valentine’s Day because 1) How fitting and 2) The casting for this is INSANE. A movie with McDreamy and McSteamy from Grey’s Anatomy? Sign me up! Honorable mention: Watching the Galentine’s Day episode from Parks and Rec. In the words of Leslie Knope: “what is Galentine’s day? Oh, it’s only the best day of the year”.
Whether you are planning to go all out or just have a small get together with the girls, I hope you have the best Galentine’s day ever! This is your reminder to text your girlfriends and tell them how much you love them right now (I mean it). Because girls run the world. Thank you, next!