Know someone moving away or are you planning on moving soon? You might need to know just how to plan the perfect going-away party…
Goodbyes are never easy. Even in these wonderfully technologically advanced days, where a connection with another person is just a couple of clicks away, watching someone you care about moving away can be painful! A great way to curb that pain, and turn it into joy and fun, is to throw a going-away party for the person leaving. If you’re throwing the party for yourself, then you’re losing a lot more than just one person, and you must enjoy yourself as well.
Here are some tips for throwing the best going away party ever:
1. Don’t Party In The Soon-To-Be Vacant Home
It might seem cute to throw the party in the house the person is leaving behind, to celebrate it as well, but this is the biggest mistake you can make. If a person is renting, a last-second party might lose them their deposit in repair fees. If they’re selling their home, the last thing you want to do is complicate things between them and the future buyers looking for that real estate in Calgary based on how it looked before the party.
Not to mention this puts a lot of the cleanup and work on the person getting celebrated!
The best options for where to party are at a different friend’s home- where people will help clean, or a venue that charges for cleaning. Don’t complicate things for the person who’s about to move out!
2. Guests Can Be Complicated
Everyone who knows, and likes, the person will want to say goodbye. Unfortunately, not every venue or home has room for the hundreds of people the person leaving knows in the area. You’ll have to pare it down to people they want to see most. If it’s a surprise party, do a little internet sleuthing and figure out which people they cherish.
If it’s not a surprise party, ask! Surprise parties can be stressful, and it’s better to have more than everyone they want at the party than for them to miss someone important.
3. Timing Is Everything
Don’t throw the party the night before your friend leaves the city. It’ll tire them out for moving, and might make them late if they stay up and miss their alarms. In that same line of thought, please don’t throw the going-away party six months early because then when it’s time to say goodbye, they’ll feel like they didn’t get to tie off every loose end.
Best rule of thumb is to do it around a week before they leave. Give your friend time to enjoy themself and celebrate, this also allows for wiggle room after for them to say goodbye personally to people. If you’re unsure about timing, or schedules, ask the person leaving what would make them happy!
The most critical thing to remember is that you should take this time to make memories. Even if you can still be friends online, this will always change so many things. The person leaving impacted the lives of everyone around them, so celebrate them and make sure they’re excited about taking this next big step in life.
Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash