The perfect Valentine’s Day is spent with friends and family, sharing a delicious home-cooked meal and some Valentine’s Day-inspired cocktails and desserts. Here are some ideas for creating a charming Valentine’s Day or Galentine’s Day party that you can host for your girlfriends!

Happy Galentine’s Day Ideas!

If you’re hosting a happy Galentine’s Day for your girlfriends, there’s a lot of activities and ideas you can do! Have Valentine’s Day craft night or a Valentine’s Day movie night or maybe a wine and cheese party!

No matter what you choose to do, you can cook your favorite food (or order take out!), set up a charming Valentine’s Day-inspired bar with desserts and cocktails, and just relax! It’s a great excuse to spend time and appreciate the close friendships you have.

Appetizers for Valentine’s Day Party

Keep the food easy and make some charming appetizers to serve.

A Cheese Platter is always a good idea! They are fun to make and very filling for guests.

Marinated Olives

Ham and Cheese Sliders

Mini Lobster Rolls

Lavender Marcona Olives

Greek Mezze Platter

Baked Salmon Skewers

Yogurt Tahini Dip

Entertaining Pro Tip – Use a tiny heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut our shapes in the fruit and cheese! It’s an easy way to add a little charm and love to the cheese platter.

Valentine’s Day Cocktails

You can’t host a Galentine’s day party without cocktails! Here are our favorite, festive drinks to serve:

Pink Cocktail Recipes

Boozy Bourbon Milkshakes

Strawberry Snow Cones

Pink Whiskey Lemonade

Frozen Paloma

The Best Cosmo Recipe

Bee’s Knees Cocktail Recipe

You can also make this Floral Rosé Spritzer. It’s refreshing and the color is perfect for Valentine’s Day. Recipe in the recipe card below!

Also check out more great cocktail recipes our favorite brunch recipes, the best-mixed drinks, tequila cocktails, gin cocktails, vodka cocktails, and cheap drinks to make at home!

Tips for Making Valentine’s Day Cocktails

If it’s a shaken cocktail, make it ahead of time in the cocktail shaker. Wait to add ice, then right before serving, add the ice and shake, shake, shake! Then strain! This way you can prep all of the ingredients and measurements ahead of time.

Add a charming detail like pink ice cubes! They’re naturally colored with hibiscus flour and easy to make. 

If you’re serving wine, check out our wine serving tips and then show off your skills!

Use edible flowers to garnish your Valentine’s Day cocktail. You can even make your own edible flower garden! If not, find edible flowers in the fresh herb section at Whole Foods.

For something even more unique, make some Chambord Jello Shots!

Valentine’s Day Desserts

If you’re looking for an easy dessert that guests can assemble themselves, we love the idea of an ice cream sandwich platter. Choose 3 varieties of ice cream paired with a few options for cookies and let your friends make their own!

Make sure you have an ice cream scooper and a lot of napkins on hand!

Here are more Valentine’s Day dessert recipes you can make:

Lemon and Thyme Shortbread Cookies

Simple Peanut Butter Cookies

Italian Rainbow Cookies

Mini Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Decadent Chocolate and Easy Soufflés Recipe

The Best Cookie Recipes

Thumbprint Cookies

Valentine’s Day Crafts

Sharing a few more of our favorite Valentine’s Day crafts! These are all fun projects and gifts you can make at your party! Set up a craft station and get crafting!

DIY Mini Cake Stands – These are so charming and a fun Valentine’s Day Craft and Gift! 

DIY Essential Oil Candles are a great Valentine’s Day craft idea! 

Lavender Lip Balm DIY! With a printable Valentine’s Day label! They’re adorable and great for kids to make too.

I’m Donuts Over You printables! 

Valentine’s Day Embroidery Wine Bags 

Here are 14 more Valentine’s Day craft ideas!

Valentine’s Day Movies

If you invite friends over for Valentine’s Day Movie night, here are some great options for movies!

The Notebook

10 Things I Hate About You

When Harry Met Sally

Valentine’s Day

Say Anything

You’ve Got Mail

My Best Friends Wedding

Love Actually

Book Club

Valentine’s Day Decorations

Decorate your party with some pretty flowers and paper streamers. Keep it simple and charming but festive to celebrate the holiday! Here are some ideas:

Lot’s of Flowers

Party Streamers

Gold Plates and Flatware

Charming Paper Napkins

We hope you have a happy Galentine’s Day! Please share your photos with us @sugarandcharm on social!

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