How to Throw a You've Got Mail Themed Party

I’ve seen You’ve Got Mail approximately 101 times, but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago while watching it for the 102nd time that the idea popped into my head to use the movie as the theme for a party. It was late at night, but I started rattling off notes in my phone so I wouldn’t forget my ideas the next morning. I called on my friend Mary who shares the same love for NY152 like I do, and we started planning. Her dog pictured above is named Brinkley if that tells you anything.

Up first, the invitation. We knew it had to be an email. It wouldn’t be a You’ve Got Mail party without an email in our guest’s inbox signifying they had mail. We had initially planned to host it at my apartment, but 1. it’s tiny and 2. in the midst of planning Mary had moved into the coziest new rent house that become the perfect space for our fall party.

Next, the food. We went the heavy hors d’oeuvres route with chips, dips, meats, cheeses, and New York’s signature, the black and white cookie. The only thing I made were the bacon wrapped dates. Just take a pitted date and stuff with goat cheese, wrap with 1/2 a piece of bacon and toothpick it closed. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until bacon is cooked to your liking.

The theme played out in these few items: “at least it wasn’t the fish” goldfish and “that caviar is a garnish,” cowboy caviar and chips. Caviar taste on a Trader Joe’s budget was the name of the game. To end the night we served the black and white cookies with a “tall decaf cappuccino” aka decaf coffee with frothed milk. I picked up tall size cups from Starbucks to make it really feel like the movie, and then brewed a pot of decaf coffee and used my milk frother to froth up some nut milk.

For decor, we had to have a bouquet of sharpened pencils and daisies of course. Kathleen’s favorite flower. “Don’t you think daisies are the happiest flower?” I bought a few packs of these pre-sharpened pencils on Amazon, because do they even make pencil sharpeners anymore? The daisies and fall mums were from Trader Joe’s.

The mix of truffle potato chips, gold fish, and bacon-wrapped dates left me thinking “uhhh, where are my tic tacs??” A pack for each guest (that we forgot to pass out oops!) made for perfect party favors.

It turned out to be such a fun night with a really great mix of new and old friends. We had the movie and soundtrack playing through the night, encouraged everyone to come in their best Kathleen Kelly get up, and did trivia to test everyone’s knowledge. A link to my trivia and themed menu cards are linked below for you to download.

Do you recognize our outfits from specific scenes in the movie? A classic Kathleen turtleneck while ragging on Joe Fox about the caviar at the cocktail party was me, and pj’s with a trench coat full of tissues while sick in her apartment was Mary.

I hope this inspires you to host your own You’ve Got Mail party! If you do, be sure to tag me on Instagram in your party pics.

Annie