Quick tips on how to impress your guests without breaking a bank

Easter weekend provides a great opportunity to host family and friends. This can create a lot of pressure on your finances, especially if you want to impress.

Here are a few ideas on how to express your style when hosting without breaking a bank:

Potluck

Encourage your guests to bring a part of the meal as part of the contribution to the event. Most African communities will rarely visit a home without a few groceries. Tap into this culture to bring about communal entertaining, which really helps to share the hosting burden. Some can come with cooked meals such as rice or salad or desert, while others may come with drinks.

Table setting

Set your table the night before to give you a head-start on the day of hosting. You will have one less task to do on that day. Find blooming flowers and greenery from your garden to decorate the centrepiece and decorate it with Easter ornaments such as candles, a cross, palm leaves or Easter eggs on the table to remind guests what the season is all about. The greenery signifies the birth of a new life that Easter brings and celebrates the spring season.

Crafting a cross

This is especially appropriate for those who practise the Christian faith and their faith is symbolised by the cross. You can opt to use a rugged cross as a focal point for your décor. Simply join two pieces of wood with a nail. You can add two nails on the arms of the cross. The rustier the nails the more rugged the cross will look.

Improvise a crown of thorns with a thorny stem from a rose tree and place it on the apex of the cross and place it at a central place in the room such as a fireplace mantle. Add some candles around the cross to provide some somberness and quietness to reflect the seriousness of the season.

But let your event be filled with hope. You can purchase little gifts for your guests to make them feel loved and appreciated and pack it with a promise verse.  

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