Blogger Hoang-Kim holding a fall floral arrangement with red peonies, ranunculus, toffee roses, roses wearing a rust colored Anthropologie dress in front of her McGee & Co Antoni extendable dining table set for Thanksgiving Galsgiving

Something I have always dreamed of doing after owning my own home is hosting a Galsgiving. Think Thanksgiving, but with your best girlfriends! It doesn’t have to be something super elaborate or fancy. After all, the holiday season is all about coming together, enjoying good company and good food. I live for beautiful details so I came up with a color scheme to go off on. Seeing my friends’ eyes light up and feel special when they are in my home and sitting down to eat is what I’m after. There’s just something magical about hosting a special event in your home. Here are 3 easy steps to hosting your own Galsviging. Come on in and be our guest!

Set the Mood

It’s so important to communicate to your guests what the evening will be about. I mentioned this in my How to Host at Home post, but setting expectations and the mood is key. While I didn’t have to, I mailed out physical invitations to each of my friends. This makes it feel more serious and your friends will actually RSVP and dress up! I want my best girlfriends to feel loved, feminine and at ease. To me, if we’re having friends over for something like this, I want them to feel respected and special. That’s one reason why I pay such close attention to the details and making our table setting beautiful.

Florals

I went with a very feminine color scheme with fall touches. I worked with Something Pretty Floral and she truly nailed my vision. Burgundy peonies, red ranunculus, David Austin Roses and more are so exquisite together. The floral arrangements and the live wreath are simply stunning. I love how it makes the dining table pop and brought some color to the island where we put our food. While Something Pretty Floral is local to DFW, she also offers nationwide shipping on her wreaths and certain floral arrangements in her shop!

Lighting

I love the warm light of our home at night. I opted to only leave the island pendants and the dining chandelier on. This gives us plenty of light to see our food and each other while making sure it’s not overly bright! I also turned on the fireplace and lit my favorite fall candle in the living room. In the entryway by our guest book, I lit a wood-wick candle to give that intimate vibe. I love the soft crackle of a wood wick candle. Code HK20 gets you 20% off.

Music

I used my Frame TV to play music and set it to a Ludovico Einaudi playlist. You could also play a movie with the volume on low – I would recommend The Holiday.

Thanksgiving table setting with a feminine touch for a Galsgiving. Floral arrangement from Something Pretty Floral with red peonies, toffee roses, red ranunculus and cream roses.

Figure Out the Food

You can’t have a Galsgiving without food! Food can be ordered, catered or all of the girls can each make a dish and bring it! I didn’t want my friends to worry about cooking, especially since I knew some of them would be coming straight from work (I hosted on a weeknight). Regardless of how the food makes it on the table, you just want it to get there! I made truffle mashed potatoes with our mixer and picked up the rest of the food!

Since I’m not the biggest fan of the trays the food came in, I used a variety of serving trays, serving bowls and pedestal stands to plate the food. I love how it looks more cohesive and put together.

Family Style or Buffet

This is up to personal preference! Since our island is so close to our table, I did buffet style so it wouldn’t clutter the table. Especially since I had floral arrangements there. Plus, this makes it easy for someone to load up their plate and get all their favorite sides!

Food Vendors

Charcuterie Board: Graze A Board | Pies: Emporium Pies | Food: Central Market

Blogger Hoang-Kim hosts a Thanksgiving dinner for her girlfriends called Galsgiving. Sitting in a Restoration Hardware Ellison chair, McGee and Co extendable dining table, wishbone chairs and a thankstiging table setting.

Set the Table

I am partial to a beautiful table setting, especially for Galsgiving. Call me old school, but I believe these details can really make a dinner party and make your guests feel special.

To keep the table from being super matchy, I mixed and matched the linen napkins. I invited eight girlfriends over, so I chose four of these peach napkins and four dark rust napkins. I only had six sets of my previous gold flatware, so earlier this year I got two of this gold set. It worked out perfectly for Galsgiving since I used these for the two head table settings! I know gold flatware is selling out so fast so here is another set I love.

The chargers are from Something Pretty Floral, but you can find similar here. Unfortunately, my plates are old from MacKenzie-Childs. These are pretty similar.

Our wine glasses are probably my favorite stemware! I really appreciate the clean lines and to my surprise, one of my girlfriends dropped it in the sink and it didn’t break!