OUR
SUNDAY IS BOOKED.
by Guest Contributor,
Gabrielle Newton
While most of my Sunday afternoons can
be captured at brunch, this past month I decided to trade in the buzzy mimosas
for buzz-worthy reads amongst fellow bookworms. Since the beginning of the New
Year, I’ve made a concerted effort to gather friends together for a variety of
fun soirees. For this specific function, my good friend Stephanie and I both
knew we wanted to bring our love of books and reading together to create an
event that was “one for the books” (please tell me you giggled when read that).
Below I will share tips on how to host the perfect book swap party, including
free printables!
·
I
was curious about how to best work the logistics of the book swap party so we
decided to create a shared, private board on Pinterest. Pinterest is a great platform to
gather your thought and ideas into one place, while also pinning fantastic tips
and ideas from others!
·
Cut
down on your time and expenses by sending out electronic invitations. I
personally love Paperless Post because their invitation templates
are simply adorable! The specific template we used is titled “Library Card”.
·
Bonus tip: Paperless Post requires that you
purchase a specific number of “coins” to deliver your invitations to guest.
While this fee is rather cheap, I’ve come to learn that most of my friends will
easily check their text inbox before checking email. To save on this expense I
chose to screenshot my final design and then text invitations to my guest. It
cost nothing and received immediate RSVPs!
·
Traditionally,
most book swaps suggest that you ask guests to bring as many books as they’d
like (especially for those wishing to declutter their bookshelves of unread or
duplicated reads). For our book swap we requested that guests bring one wrapped
book to exchange, fiction or non-fiction, unused. Seeing as we really couldn’t
judge a book by its cover, we also asked that guests provide three clues about
their wrapped read (Ex: “the perfect poolside read”, “a book likely to become a
movie”, “if you’re looking to branch out from your usual fiction reads”).
·
For
food we decided to keep options light, delicious, and nutritious! We served
homemade pesto pasta salad, mini tea sandwiches, fresh fruit, and tasty lemon
bars. Don’t want to serve alcohol but want to provide a little fizz to the
table? San Pellegrinos (Blood Orange flavor to be exact) are my go-to!
·
It’s
not a party without games and giveaways! This is really where our pinned ideas
on Pinterest were able to come to life. While we wanted the majority of the
swap to involve mingling and conversations, we had the following stations set
up:
Ø
Book Suggestion Box: Using blank index cards or library
card templates have guests write down their name along 2-3 titles of their
favorite reads and place inside a box. Later, we revisited these cards and
emailed a sheet showcasing the titles suggested by everyone. Needless to say,
my list of “Must-Reads” grew after the swap!
Ø
DIY Bookmark Station: Allow your fellow book-loving
friends to be creative! Spread on a table have precut, blank bookmarks (I used
cardstock paper) and coloring materials for guests to create the perfect place
holder. We even encouraged guests to swap with one another
Ø
Guessing Game: Taking a stack of owned books,
have guests guess how many pages in total they think all of the books have (no
cheating!) on an index card, placing inside a box or gift bag. The winner gets
a prize!
Ø
Printable Bookmarks: Print free, bookmarks for guests
to take away! My personal favorites were these adorable doughnut place holders
I came across on Pinterest (printable listed below).
Ø
Bookworms Party Favors: One of my favorite parts of the
soiree were these party favors. What bookworm wouldn’t want their own little
goodie bag of bookworms (sour gummy worms) to munch on, while indulging in
their favorite page-turner?
·
For
the actual swap be sure that you have plenty of space to lay out all the books
(along with providing a jar of pens for those that may have forgotten include
their clues). I’ve seen the swap orchestrated different ways, from a
free-for-all, to being a bit more organized, giving guests a raffle ticket. We
chose to go the white elephant route, where guests could playfully steal books
that someone had already unwrapped and chosen. As you can see from the
unwrapped variety pictured above, everyone walked away with a new treasure, and
for some, from a genre completely out of their norm. This unconventional soiree
was surely “one for the books” and something I will host again for my fellow
B&N addicted friends!
FREE
PRINTABLES
Free
Guest List Printable: click here(used to gather emails)
Free
Library Card Template Printable: click here
Free
Book Suggestion Box Printable: click here
Free
Guessing Game Printable: click here
Suggested
Reads Example: click here
Free
Bookmark Printables (quotes): click here
Free
Bookmark Printables (doughnuts): click here
Free
Bookworms Party Favor Printable: click here
*******************************************************
Special thanks to my friend Gabby for inviting me to this AMAZING event. I had a blast connecting with other book lovers!
Have you ever attended a book swap party? If not, are you now inspired to host one? ;)
I definitely want to give this a go, it sounds right up my street and so much fun!
ReplyDeleteSuch a good idea! Love how you included all the printables too! xxx
Jessica Jade
jessicajadebeauty.com
You definitely should! It was a good time :)
DeleteI've never been to one, but it looks like so much fun! Thanks for all the pointers. Great post. :) ~Aleen
ReplyDeleteIt was a blast :)
DeleteI'll have to check out those freebies! I wish there was a swap here... I have so many I could swap. :)
ReplyDeleteYes and let me know if you end up using them!
DeleteThis sounds like such an amazing idea and fun party!!! You really thought of everything!
ReplyDeleteGabby did a great job! She's super thorough :)
DeleteThis sounds like such fun! Wonderful post you thought of everything :)
ReplyDeleteWow! This sounds fantastic. I love what you gals did for your Book Swap party. Pinterest is so great for the ideas and storing of ideas. I would love to go to a party like this.
ReplyDeleteYou should host your own! Let me know if you do xoxo
DeleteThis sounds like fun and what a great post!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun Idea! I loved your invitation idea. I just cleaned house and donated all my spare books. I am going to have to wait unitl I accumulate some more.
ReplyDeleteHow fun! I would love to go to one of these.
ReplyDeleteI am really happy to see this book swap party. Liked your tips and planning to arrange such a party soon at one of event space San Francisco. I would love to take great ideas from pinterest too. Happy and excited to arrange this party.
ReplyDelete