Tis the season for cute little dinner parties with your besties! Your Pinterest board is stacked with inspo pics but you’re still looking for that little something extra that will wow your guests? Hosting a “Gratitude Gathering” might just be the trick. Not sure what that is? Don’t worry, I got you!
This post is all about How to Host a Gratitude Gathering and Create a Memorable Event.
As an Event Planner with over six years of experience at the time of writing this, I absolutely love the dinner party trend that’s on the rise. In my events business I specialize in brand activations and corporate events, and I’m starting to see a shift in this trend.
Brands are starting to care more about intimate experiences for their loyal audience and media partners, and not just over-the-top gorilla marketing activations.
From influencer dinners to brand activations and a Friday night with your friends, dinner parties with cute tablescapes are all over the internet. So, how can we make ours stand out?
We infuse gratitude!
Gratitude and Community
When you hear the word “gratitude” you probably think about the emotion. Gratitude isn’t just something that we feel individually, it’s something we can experience and share with others. Gratitude in community is so important because it uplifts people around us and allows others to feel appreciated and seen. Gratitude isn’t just an emotion, it’s a practice and a way of being.
*photo by Wade Muir
There are many ways you can experience or practice communal gratitude, and some might be a little different than what you think:
- Attend a sports game or concert – the energy in the room is palpable, and you’re all experiencing appreciation for the experience simultaneously.
- Volunteer! This is a way to express gratitude for your community and give back.
- Host a gratitude gathering.
What is a Gratitude Gathering?
A gratitude gathering is an event or meet-up that is infused with the intention of cultivating community and connection. There is actually an organization that is solely dedicated to creating gratitude gatherings, and they’re called Grateful Living.
As an Event Planner and a Personal Growth blogger, a gratitude gathering is a beautiful fusion of my two interests and passions. My mind has been racing with ideas on how to create more meaningful gatherings, and here are a few of them:
- Collect donations for charity – This is a way to practice communal gratitude, you can ask each guest to bring a charitable donation (monetary, canned goods, clothes, etc).
- Gratitude Tree – This is a fun activation where you get guests to hang notes of gratitude from a tree, this can be done on ribbons for a beautiful and Instagrammable aesthetic.
- Memorable photos – You can put your favorite photo of you and your guest on their place setting. This will spark joyful memories and encourage conversation between guests as they share their memories with one another.
Gathering Greatly, a Gratitude Hosting Guidebook
Ready to learn more about gratitude and how you can infuse it at your next gathering? Download my free e-book “Gathering Greatly, A Guide for Creating & Hosting Gratitude-Centred Gatherings”.
Thanksgiving
A gratitude gathering, in this context, should not be confused with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has a dark history and is not a cause for celebration, but a time for reflection and action toward reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
Additional Gratitude Gathering Resources
- The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker – This book was truly a game changer for me and my career as an Events professional. I love that Priya speaks about the importance of purpose in our gatherings, and finding ways other than decor to weave that purpose through.
One lesson that stuck with me from this book was not starting our events with logistics. How many times have you been at an event or “purpose-driven” meeting where the speaker starts by saying “before we begin” and then lists off housekeeping notes. The event has already begun from the moment the attendees were invited and we have to trust that our attendees are savvy enough to get the logistics or find more creative ways of sharing that information with them.
If you’re interested in going deeper Priya also offers a digital course that dives into the concepts in her book, you can sign up here. - Brene Brown with Priya Parker – On The Art of Gathering – In case books aren’t your thing (it’s alright, I’m not judging!) you can also listen to this incredible conversation between Priya and Brene Brown.
- Beautiful Everydays by Palak Dav and Laura L Benn – This beautiful book is created in the style of a cookbook but provides intentional ideas for creating beautiful gatherings and memories. Palak, the founder of Embiria, is on a mission to get people offline and into their real lives. She curates many intention-centered events and has recently launched her own online community that focuses on bringing your online connections to in-person gatherings.
We have to think deeper with our events and gatherings, it’s not just about an incredible design or cute tablescape, it’s about how people feel when they enter and how they feel when they walk away. I promise that if you start weaving intention and gratitude into your events, you’ll be everyone’s favorite host!
This post was all about Hosting a Gratitude Gathering
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