Hosting a Fall Party

I've always loved planning fun get-togethers and parties with friends, especially around this time of year! There is just something so special about spending quality time with friends, celebrating the season together and catching up on eachother's lives. However, entertaining also comes with a lot of prep and planning and there are a few key components you don't want to forget about! Today, I am sharing with you my personal top priorities during the party planning process. I hosted a pumpkin painting party last Saturday with some of my sorority sisters from college and it was a blast!

1. Plan the food and drinks.

What is a party without food and drinks? I made sure to browse Pinterest ahead of time to find some delicious fall recipes.  Since my party was a "brunch" time party, I opted for pumpkin muffins, mimosas, breakfast casserole cups with eggs, bacon, cheese, and hash browns , quiche, and a few other snacks.   When preparing so much food at one time, your kitchen can easily become a huge mess and thankfully, I was able to use some Mr. Clean Concentrated Cleaner to wipe up the counters and floors before the guests arrived! The counters went from sticky and gross to sparkly and clean in no time. The food turned out delicious and was perfect for a fall brunch party.

2. Choose an activity.

I usually like to incorporate some sort of activity when I plan a party so close to a holiday.  For example, a Christmas gift exchange, ornament exchange, and in this case, pumpkin decorating.

There is the cutest pumpkin stand right down the road from me where I was able to find the perfect sized pumpkins for us to paint.  I had been wanting to try painting pumpkins with chalk paint and decided that this would be a fun thing to do at the party.

3. Set aside time for cleaning (before and after).

Unfortunately, a good party also comes paired with a lot of cleaning.  After we painted the pumpkins, there was paint on the counters and even on the floors. There were crumbs everywhere and the kitchen looked like a tornado had just plowed through it.  I always try to keep in mind that cleaning is a crucial task in the party planning process, before and after! Thanks to Mr. Clean, I was able to use their Concentrated Cleaner to wipe down everything, and I mean everything. I used this to wipe down the floors, counters, chairs, inside of the refrigerator, and even walls, to get everything back to glistening and clean!  I loved how versatile it was and I especially loved using the big sponge! It actually made cleaning fun for a change and made our apartment sparkly clean.

4. Plan the decor based on the theme.
This is my favorite part that I have to practice self-control on.  Luckily, pumpkins make decorating for a fall party pretty simple.  Just pick out a ton of pumpkins of all shapes, sizes, and colors and voila! You have created a pumpkin palooza. Before you paint them though, you might want to scrub the dirt off (you can use Mr. Clean Concentrated Cleaner for this too!). I added a few bouquets of bright flowers and that's about all for this little get-together.  I did pull out a few old fall decor pieces from around my house to use as centerpieces but not too much since the main decorations of the party were the pumpkins. 

I'd highly suggest throwing a fun pumpkin painting party in the fall.  It's relaxing and the perfect activity paired with a delicious mimosa while catching up with friends.  Keep these key components in mind when you are brainstorming your holiday parties and I'd love to hear if you have any fun fall parties planned.  Halloween parties? Pumpkin carving? Friendsgiving?

I'm also giving away a Pumpkin Party Pack with Mr. Clean Concentrated Cleaner. It comes with a beautiful white pumpkin serving bowl that is the perfect addition to any fall gathering. Just enter the rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mr. Clean Concentrated Multi-Surface Cleaner is available for $2.47-3.99 at mass merchandise outlets, grocery retailers, home improvement stores and e-retail stores throughout the U.S. Pricing is at the sole discretion of the retailer.

For more information about these products, please visit MrClean.com, or check out the cleaning tips and demonstrations at youtube.com/MrClean. 


Thanks so much for reading!
xo, Shelby

This post was brought to you in collaboration with Mr. Clean.  All opinions are my own.