We’ve all been there. You plan a catch-up with your best girls, talk about it for weeks ahead and then the long-awaited night arrives and none of you are quite sure how to make it happen. You’re tired after a day of Zoom meetings, you’re all staring listlessly at your plates, wishing you were elsewhere.
Just no. Life’s too short to accept damp squibs for your ladies’ nights. Check out our top 5 tips and we promise you the night is yours.
1. Make it a home girls exclusive
It really is not a good idea to gather forth every single female you’ve ever shared a spritzer with for your night out. For starters, restaurants currently can’t accept groups larger than six.
But you know what? Put this in your ladies’ night bible and stick to it. The bigger the group, the more difficult it is to create that one-love buzz to kick off the promised shenanigans. So keep your guest-list to those BFFs who know all the inside jokes and who actually know that tequila shots turn you into Katy Perry. Get the gang together, and tell them that this is not the night to drag some random from the office with them. Just one Karen in the group will mess up the dynamic, leaving everyone shooting despair instead of tequila.
2. Make some noize
This is a ladies’ night, not a prayer group meeting. And when ladies get together it’s time to get some drama on, right? I mean, can you even call it a ladies’ night if hearts don’t get broken (not yours, obviously), there’s no shade thrown at whatever-the-hell the influencer on the next table is wearing, and no ‘oops’ photos turn up on social media the next day? Damn right you can’t.
Well, you’re not getting any of this if you pick the quiet cafe down the road for your night out. Location, location, location ladies! Don’t forget that bar-hopping is not an option right now, so pick a hip spot with a cool lounge area so you can continue getting your afters on when dinner is done. Here’s a friendly tip – if you check out Bookia’s Valletta and St Julian’s tab, you’re likely to find more than a few glam options.
”This is a ladies’ night, not a prayer group meeting
Ramona Depares
3. Get those cocktails flowing
It is a known fact that no good story ever started out with: “..and so I ordered a salad”. If you’ve all made the effort to get dressed up, chances are that you’re going to want a fancy drink in hand, preferably with a massive umbrella sticking out of it.
Now, we’re not saying that you should get utterly sloshed. Drink responsibly is our motto. However, none of us are perfect, and if the night is going so well that this motto gets thrown out of the window, more about dealing with that in tip number 5 below.
When making your booking, don’t be shy to ask whether any special prices on cocktails or other drinks can be offered. Many restaurants are quite happy to throw in something special for groups of ladies, from two-for-one deals to free glasses of prosecco.
4. Share the love
Or, in this case, the food. If you’re well on your way to following our previous advice, you’re going to want quite a few nibbles to soak up those fancy drinks. Waiting for one heavy main meal doesn’t always work – by the time it arrives, common sense and sobriety might well be a thing of the past.
The trick is to not let things reach that stage, so our advice is to order a massive feast of starters and nibbles that everyone can share while catching up with each other. This way you avoid a bad case of the hangries and also the danger that everyone starts nodding off after their steak arrives.
5. Set up safe transport
We can’t stress this enough – be safe. Now, we’ve all promised ourselves that it’ll be two glasses of wine tops for the night. And we’ve all found ourselves singing into an empty bottle of vodka three hours later. Nowadays you don’t even need to speak to anyone to order a cab, such is the beauty of 21st century living. Keep those Apps handy and make sure no-one gets behind the wheel unless they’re 100% sober.
And because 21st century living also brings with it its fair share of creeps, keep an eye out for those who are worse for wear. Preying on drunk and vulnerable women is a real thing, just don’t let it be the thing your ladies’ night is remembered for.
