Valentine's Day Party Ideas: 5 Themes for Couples, Galentine's and Singles, With Menus, Budgets and 14 Invitation Wordings

Most Valentine's party guides hand you three bullet lists and call it a plan. This one gives you the numbers: what each theme costs per guest at three spend tiers, how much food and wine to buy for 6, 12 and 20 people, a $25, $50 and $100 decor list itemized down to the tealights, and 14 invitation wordings you can paste into a text message.

It also handles the thing that makes Valentine's the most segmented invitation week of the year. In 2027, Valentine's Day is Sunday 14 February and Galentine's Day is Saturday 13 February, which means a lot of hosts are running two events in one weekend with two completely different guest lists. A Galentine's brunch and a couples dinner are not one party with a note attached. They are two functions, two headcounts, and two RSVP counts.

Key Takeaways

• 2027 is a three-day weekend. Valentine's Day falls on Sunday 14 February 2027, Galentine's Day on Saturday the 13th, and Presidents' Day on Monday the 15th. A Sunday Valentine's pushes hosting toward brunch and afternoon parties, and the Saturday-13th Galentine's slot becomes the strongest night of the weekend.
• Cost per guest, three tiers: roughly $12 to $18 a head thrifty, $24 to $36 a head standard, $60 to $100 a head splurge. The splurge tier runs higher than a normal party because roses, prix-fixe proteins and sparkling wine all price up in the week of the 14th.
• A seated romantic dinner caps out at 6 to 8 people. The two themes that scale past 12 without extra cooking are brunch and a tasting.
• Tasting math: a 2 oz tasting pour gives 12 pours from a 750 ml bottle, so five wines for 12 guests is exactly five bottles. Four chocolates per guest means one 3 oz bar per three guests per variety.
• Send Valentine's invitations 3 to 4 weeks out, which for 2027 means between 17 and 24 January. February books early, and a holiday weekend books earlier still.
• Two functions need two guest lists. If you are hosting Galentine's on the 13th and a couples dinner on the 14th, track them as separate events with separate RSVP deadlines. One combined invitation gives you a headcount you cannot trust for either night.

Valentine's Day and Galentine's Dates, 2027 Through 2031

Valentine's Day is always 14 February and Galentine's Day is always 13 February. What changes every year is the weekday, and the weekday decides almost everything else about your party: the start time, the length, whether people drink, and whether they can travel.

Why a Sunday Valentine's changes your plan

A Sunday Valentine's shifts the whole weekend. Guests will not commit to a late Sunday night if they work Monday, and the ones who do will leave by nine. Three adjustments cover it:

1. Start earlier. A 4 pm or 5 pm start for a Sunday dinner, or 11 am for brunch. Not 8 pm.
2. Cap the length at three hours and say so on the invitation, with an end time. Guests relax when they know when they can leave.
3. Check Presidents' Day. In 2027, Monday 15 February is the federal holiday, so a chunk of your guest list has Monday off. Ask on the invitation. If most of the room is free Monday, a Sunday evening party is back on the table.

The 2027 weekend, laid out

The Two-Function Week: Galentine's on the 13th, Couples Dinner on the 14th

The most common Valentine's hosting mistake is treating one weekend as one event. It is not. A Galentine's brunch on the 13th and a couples dinner on the 14th are two functions with two different guest lists, and the overlap between those lists is usually small.

Look at what differs.

Two lists, two times, two cost structures, two deadlines. If you send one invitation covering both, three things break. Guests invited to one function see details for the other and assume they are invited to both. Your headcount is a single number that maps to neither dinner nor brunch. And your reminder goes to everybody, including people who already replied for the night they were actually asked to.

The fix is structural, not a matter of being organized

Keep two separate guest lists and two separate RSVP counts from the first day, before anything goes out. Then a plus-one question about Sunday cannot contaminate your Saturday number.

That is exactly what per-function RSVP tracking is for, and it is where a platform built around multiple functions inside one eventdoes something a single-event invite tool cannot. Add the brunch and the dinner as two functions under one Valentine's weekend, invite a different set of people to each, and read two live headcounts. There is more on the mechanics in the wording section below.

If you only want to host once

Host the Saturday. Saturday 13 February 2027 is the strongest slot of the weekend: no work the next morning for most people, no competition from couples' restaurant reservations, and it works for every theme in this guide. Leave Sunday the 14th for whatever your own household wants to do.

What a Valentine's Party Costs Per Guest, and How Much Food to Buy for 6, 12 and 20

Budget per guest, not per party. A $300 budget means nothing until you know whether it feeds 8 people or 22. These are US planning ranges for the 2027 season, not quotes, and grocery and florist prices vary a lot by metro. Re-check them against your own store before you commit.

Cost per guest, three tiers

Two things drive the Valentine's premium in Tier 3. Roses are the most demand-sensitive flower of the year in the week of the 14th, so call your florist and ask for their Valentine's week price before you build the number in. Steak, lobster and Champagne are all doing the same thing at the same time. Want the splurge feel without the splurge date? Buy the protein on the 8th or 9th and freeze it, or cook something off the Valentine's demand curve entirely: braised short ribs, a whole roasted fish, handmade pasta.

For reference, the widely-cited Mixily Valentine's planning guide is subtitled "Ideas for Every Budget" and names no prices at all, at any tier, anywhere in the post. There is no figure of theirs to compare against here, which is precisely why we published ours.

Which theme fits which budget

Food and drink quantities for 6, 12 and 20

Buy from a quantity rule, not a feeling. These are the per-guest rules the theme menus below are built on.

A 750 ml bottle pours five 5 oz glasses, six brunch mimosas, or twelve 2 oz tasting pours. That single line is most of the alcohol math on this page. If you want a fuller cross-occasion version of these rules, the step-by-step party planning guidehas the quantity tables for parties of 10, 20 and 50.

Theme 1: Romantic Dinner Party

Best for 6 to 8 people at one table, on the evening of the 14th. This is the only theme on the list that does not scale, and that is the point of it. A romantic dinner party is a seated, coursed meal for two to four couples, which means one table, one conversation, and a host who is cooking rather than circulating.

Past eight people you lose the single-conversation quality that makes it feel like a dinner party instead of a party with food. If your list is bigger than eight, move to Theme 5.

The menu, with quantities

Four courses, built so that three of them are done before anyone arrives.

Cost per head at the standard tier: $30 to $45, which is $180 to $270 for six. The steak is the whole swing. Swap to braised short ribs or a baked pasta and you land at $22 to $30 a head with a dish that is better after it sits, not worse.

The run-of-show for a 5 pm Sunday dinner

Setting the room

Lighting does most of the work here and it is the cheapest line on the budget. Overheads off. Candles at two heights, a lamp in a far corner for depth, nothing else. One low arrangement in the center of the table so people can see across it; tall flowers at a dinner party are a wall.

Put place cards out even for six people. It stops the seating shuffle, and it lets you break up the couples, which is the single best thing you can do for the conversation at a table of four pairs.

Theme 2: Galentine's Brunch

Best for 8 to 16 friends on Saturday 13 February, 11 am to 2 pm. Galentine's deserves the same planning attention as the couples dinner, not a footnote, and in 2027 it lands on the best slot of the weekend.

The format that works is a buffet with one hot station and self-serve drinks, so you are eating with your friends instead of plating for them.

The menu, with quantities

Cost per head at the standard tier: $14 to $22. At the thrifty tier, $9 to $14, and the way you get there is a waffle bar instead of quiche, one sparkling wine instead of two, and a juice bar with three juices rather than a stocked mimosa station.

The mimosa bar, done properly

Three juices, one bottle of sparkling open at a time in an ice bucket, and a ratio card so nobody has to ask. One part juice to two parts sparkling is the standard. Put a pitcher of the same three juices, unlabeled, at the same station, because the friend who is pregnant, driving or not drinking should not have to announce it to get a drink.

Activities that are worth the setup

• A flower bar. Buy three bunches of mixed stems, put out kitchen shears, twine and small jars, and everyone leaves with an arrangement. Budget one bunch per four guests and about $7 a bunch at grocery-store prices.
• Best friend awards. Print one certificate per guest with a made-up category. Ten minutes of writing before the party, twenty minutes of laughing during it.
• A set photo time. Pick a time, say 1 pm, and announce it. Otherwise you get forty phone photos and no group shot with everyone in it. Prop a phone on a stack of books with a ten-second timer, and take it twice.
• Skip the group vision board. It takes ninety minutes and produces something nobody keeps. Craft that ends with a physical object people want, like the flower bar, is worth the table space.

Theme 3: Anti-Valentine's and Singles Party

Best for 10 to 25 people, Saturday 13 February, 7 pm onward. This is the theme most guides bury in four bullets, and it is often the best-attended party of the weekend, because the people on your list who do not have a Valentine's dinner to go to are the people who are actually free.

There are two versions and they are not interchangeable. Pick one and commit, because a party that is half ironic and half sincere reads as neither.

The menu, with quantities

A comfort-food buffet, hot, shareable, low-effort per guest.

Cost per head at the standard tier: $12 to $20. This is the cheapest adult theme in the guide, because braises and baked pasta feed a lot of people for very little and taste better made a day early.

Batch cocktail math

One pitcher, made before anyone arrives, is the whole bar. A bitter, dark-red drink fits the theme and scales cleanly.

Batch it in a pitcher, keep it in the fridge, and pour over one large cube. Do not add ice to the pitcher.

Activities

• Worst-date story bracket. Eight volunteers, single-elimination, room votes each round, winner gets a trophy you bought for $6. It takes about forty minutes and it is the best thing at the party.
• Red flag bingo. Print cards with dating-app clichés. Free space in the middle.
• Breakup-song karaoke or a lyric quiz. Fifteen songs, ten seconds each, teams of four.
• A movie, on in the other room, muted or low. Not the main event. Something to drift toward at 11 pm.
• Do not burn photos of an ex. It is a fire hazard indoors, it is a mess outdoors, and it turns a funny party into a grief ritual in about ninety seconds. If you want the catharsis, put out index cards and a paper shredder.

One rule for the guest list

Do not build this party as a consolation prize. The invitation should not say "for those of us without plans." Word it as the party you would want to go to, and couples who would rather come to this than sit in a restaurant should be welcome. Version B in particular works better with a mixed room.

Theme 4: Family Valentine's Party

Best for kids aged 3 to 10 plus their adults, Sunday 14 February, 11 am to 1 pm or 2 pm to 4 pm. Two hours, hard stop. A Sunday Valentine's is unusually good for this: the afternoon is free, nobody needs a babysitter, and the couples in the room can still have their dinner that evening.

Plan for the adults too. A kids' party where the parents stand in the kitchen with nothing to eat is a two-hour party that feels like four.

The menu, with quantities

Cost per head at the standard tier: $8 to $14, which makes this the cheapest theme in the guide. Sixteen people, adults included, lands around $130 to $220.

The two-hour run-of-show

Cookie decorating goes last on purpose. It is messy, it is the thing kids remember, and each kid leaves holding their own take-home, so you do not need favor bags.

The valentine exchange, done without tears

• Say a number on the invitation. "Bring 10 valentines" removes the guesswork and stops one child arriving with two.
• Everyone gets one from everyone. No choosing. Give each child a paper bag with their name on it and let them drop one card into every bag.
• Use LED candles, not real ones. This is the one theme where the candle rule flips.
• Put out one allergy-safe treat table and label it. Ask about allergies on the invitation, not at the door.

If your school class exchange is separate, note that a full class of 22 means 22 cards per child, which is a Saturday-morning craft project on its own.

Theme 5: Cocktail Party or Wine and Chocolate Tasting for a Mixed Crowd

Best for 8 to 16 adults, couples and singles together, Saturday night or Sunday afternoon. Pick this one when your guest list will not sort neatly into "couples" or "friends," which for most hosts is the real situation.

Two formats work. A standing cocktail party, which is easy and open-ended, or a guided wine and chocolate tasting, which gives a mixed room a shared task and is the single best structure for a party where not everyone knows each other.

The tasting, with exact pours

A tasting pour is 2 oz, which is twelve pours per 750 ml bottle. So five wines for twelve guests is five bottles, one per wine. Above twelve guests, buy two of each. That is the whole calculation.

Print a scorecard: five rows, three columns, one-to-five scores. It gives everyone something to say to a stranger, and it stops the tasting becoming five glasses of wine in forty minutes.

Cost per head at the standard tier: $18 to $30. The non-alcoholic flight is not an afterthought here. Run it in parallel with the same five chocolates, on the same scorecard, and the guests not drinking are playing the same game as everyone else.

Mixed-crowd rules that matter more than the menu

1. No seating plan based on relationship status. No couples' end of the table, and above all no singles' table.
2. Do not seat the two single people next to each other as a project. Everyone can tell.
3. Give the room one shared activity in the first thirty minutes. The tasting scorecard, a blind chocolate guess, anything with a card and a pen. It is how strangers start talking without being introduced twice.
4. Say "couples and singles both" on the invitation in plain words. It is the single line that decides whether half your list comes.

Decorations by Budget: $25, $50 and $100

Decorate to a number. Three itemized lists follow, adding up to exactly $25, $50 and $100, sized for a living room and dining table hosting 8 to 16 people. Prices are US planning estimates for the 2027 season, worth re-verifying at your own store, especially the flowers.

The $25 list

At this tier, lighting is the decor. Thirty tealights grouped on trays and mirrors you own change a room more than $25 of anything else.

The $50 list

The $100 list

Palettes by theme

Where not to spend

• Helium balloons. Latex helium balloons typically hold for less than a day, so an early fill for an evening party is money on the ceiling. Air-filled garlands last days and cost less.
• Loose rose petals on fabric. They bruise, they stain light tablecloths, and by hour two they are on the floor.
• Five small decorations instead of one large one. One balloon garland, one flower arrangement or one candle wall reads as intentional. Five scattered items read as leftover.
• Themed disposable plates in a photo. If photos matter to you, plain white or black plates with a colored napkin look better in every shot.

Fire safety, on the one holiday built around open flame: keep candles clear of balloons, paper garlands and curtains, put them out before the last guests leave, and use LED candles wherever children or pets are moving through the room.

Valentine's Party Invitation Wording: 14 Copy-Paste Templates

Fourteen wordings below, covering all five themes plus the two-function version for hosts running both the 13th and the 14th. Every one uses bracketed placeholders and real line breaks, so it pastes into a text message, an email, a caption or a designed invite without collapsing into a paragraph.

Three lines decide whether a Valentine's invitation works, and they are all about who is invited:

1. Say the relationship boundary out loud. "Couples only," "friends only, no partners," "bring anyone." Guests guess wrong and then feel bad about it.
2. Give a start time and an end time. Especially on a Sunday.
3. Put an RSVP deadline with a date on it, and set that date by whatever you have to buy. Protein order needs a week; a brunch buffet needs three days.

Fuller versions of these rules, across every occasion, are in our invitation wording guide.

1. Couples dinner party, semi-formal

2. Couples dinner party, casual text

3. Double date dinner, four people

4. Galentine's brunch, casual

5. Galentine's brunch, hosted and semi-formal

6. Galentine's, bring-a-dish

7. Anti-Valentine's, "Love Stinks" party

8. Singles party, sincere version

9. Self-care night for a friend group

10. Family Valentine's party, written to the parent

11. Kids' valentine exchange party

12. Wine and chocolate tasting, mixed crowd

13. Two-function master invitation, both nights

14. Function-specific version, for guests invited to one night only

Sending an invitation when the guest list is the whole point

Valentine's is the most segmented invitation week of the year. A couples-only dinner and a friends-only brunch are both defined by who is not on the list, which is exactly the situation where a public link posted to a group chat causes problems and a direct, private invitation does not.

The mechanic that fits: upload the invitation you already made to Lumhe in whatever format you made it, whether that is an image out of Canva, a video you filmed on your phone, a PDF or plain typed text, then find and connect with your guests inside Lumhe by name, phone number or email and send it to each of them directly. If you are hosting both nights, add the Galentine's brunch on the 13th and the couples dinner on the 14th as two functions under one event, each with its own date, time, guest list and RSVP, so you read two separate live headcounts instead of one number that means nothing, and reminders go only to the people who have not replied yet. Lumhe does not design the invitation for you. You bring the artwork; a template library is coming but is not live today. And every invitation also generates a shareable link if you do want to send it through WhatsApp, iMessage, Instagram or email.

Games and Playlists That Work for a Mixed Room

Pick games that do not require being in a couple to play, and do not reveal who is single. That rule alone rules out most of what gets recommended for Valentine's, including the Newlywed Game, which is fun for the four people playing it and a spectator sport for everyone else.

How to actually run a game at a party

Run it once, early, and announce it. The failure mode is not a bad game, it is a game proposed at 10:40 pm to a room that has settled into conversation. Put one game in the first forty minutes while people are still arriving and awkward, and one at the halfway point when energy dips. That is enough.

Pair people by drawing names rather than by couple, which solves the couples-versus-singles problem before it appears, and keep every round under fifteen minutes so anyone not enjoying it can see the end from where they stand.

Playlists by theme

Build the playlist to about 1.5 times the length of the party so it never loops back to track one. Shuffle off, order on. The order is the arc.

Your Valentine's Party Timeline, Four Weeks to Day Of

Valentine's has a shorter runway than most holidays, because the whole month books up in the second week of January. Mixily's guide advises sending invitations 2 to 3 weeks in advance; for February we would push that to 3 to 4 weeks, and further if a three-day weekend is attached, as it is in 2027.

The copy-paste checklist

After the Party: Photos, Leftovers and Thank-Yous

The party is not over when the last guest leaves, and this is the part almost every Valentine's guide skips entirely.

Get the photos into one place

Valentine's produces a specific photo problem. Everyone shoots on their own phone, in candlelight, and the good pictures scatter across eleven camera rolls and one story that expires in a day. Host two functions and they scatter across two nights as well.

Collect them in one shared timeline instead. In Lumhe, everyone who was invited uploads to Moments, a shared photo timeline for the event that does not expire and stays available after the party ends. It is not a group chat or a story, so the brunch photos from the 13th and the dinner photos from the 14th land in one place you can still open in June.

Whatever tool you use, do two things. Announce a group photo time during the party, because you will not get one otherwise. And ask for uploads within 48 hours, while people still remember.

Leftovers, chocolate and flowers

• Refrigerate leftovers within two hours of serving, per standard US food-safety guidance, and within one hour if the room was warm.
• Braises and baked pasta keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freeze well. Send guests home with some, in containers you do not want back.
• Chocolate keeps at cool room temperature, not in the fridge. Refrigerated chocolate blooms and picks up odors.
• Cut flowers get a fresh cut and clean water the next morning and will run another five to seven days. Roses bought at Valentine's week prices are worth the extra two minutes.

Thank-yous, within 48 hours

Send them within two days, while the evening is still specific. A thank-you that names one real thing beats a nicer-sounding generic one.

Then two lines in your notes app while you clean up: what ran out, and what nobody touched. Next February you plan against real information instead of memory.

Valentine's Day Party FAQ

What day is Valentine's Day 2027?

Valentine's Day 2027 falls on Sunday, 14 February. Galentine's Day is the day before, Saturday 13 February, and Presidents' Day is Monday 15 February, which makes it a three-day weekend for many US guests. A Sunday Valentine's pushes hosting toward brunches and early dinners, and it makes Saturday the 13th the strongest party slot of the weekend.

When should I send Valentine's Day party invitations?

Send them 3 to 4 weeks out, which for 2027 means between 17 and 24 January. February plans get made in the first half of January, and a holiday weekend gets booked earlier still. If you are hosting two functions, send both at the same time but with separate RSVP deadlines, set by whatever you have to buy for each one.

How much does a Valentine's Day party cost per person?

Plan on $12 to $18 per guest for a thrifty party, $24 to $36 for a standard one, and $60 to $100 for a splurge. The splurge tier runs higher than a normal party because roses, steak, lobster and sparkling wine all price up in the week of the 14th. Buying the protein a week early and freezing it is the easiest way to cut the top tier.

What is Galentine's Day and when is it?

Galentine's Day is 13 February, a celebration of female friendship that was popularized by an episode of the television series Parks and Recreation. It has become a distinct occasion with its own date, and in 2027 it lands on a Saturday. Treat it as its own party with its own guest list rather than a warm-up to the 14th.

Should I host a Galentine's party and a couples dinner in the same week?

Yes, and it works well, but treat them as two separate events. They have different guest lists, different sizes, different start times and different costs per head, so they need two RSVP counts and two deadlines. A brunch on the 13th and a seated dinner on the 14th also spread the cooking load across two days rather than stacking it on one.

How do I host a Valentine's party without making single guests feel awkward?

Say "couples and singles both" on the invitation in plain words, then design the room so relationship status is invisible. No seating plan based on who came with whom, no singles' table, and no games that need a partner to play. Pair people randomly by drawing names, and give the whole room one shared activity in the first thirty minutes, like a tasting scorecard.

What food should I serve at a Valentine's Day party for 12?

For 12 guests, plan about 66 appetizer bites across three types, 5.5 lb of boneless main protein, 3 lb of vegetables, 4.5 lb of starch, 15 dessert portions and 8 bottles of wine over three hours. If you would rather not cook a main, the two formats that feed 12 with almost no cooking are a brunch buffet with a waffle station and a five-wine tasting with a cheese board after.

Can I throw a Valentine's Day party on a $100 budget?

Yes, for about 6 to 8 guests. At the thrifty tier of $12 to $18 a head, $100 covers 6 to 8 people if you make it BYOB or serve one batch cocktail, run a comfort-food buffet instead of a plated main, and put the whole decor budget into candles. A Galentine's brunch at $9 to $14 a head stretches $100 to 8 or 10 guests.

Ready to Host Both Nights

Planning a Valentine's weekend? Upload the invitation you already made to Lumhe, whether that is an image from Canva, a video you shot on your phone, a PDF or plain typed text, then find and connect with your guests by name, phone number or email inside Lumhe and send it to them directly, which is what you want when the list is couples-only or friends-only rather than an open link. Add each function separately, so the Galentine's brunch on the 13th and the couples dinner on the 14th have their own guest lists and their own RSVPs, and you always know the headcount for each one, with reminders going only to the people who have not replied. After the party, everyone's photos collect in Moments, a shared timeline that does not expire, so both nights live in one place. You can also share your invitation link on WhatsApp, iMessage, Instagram or any other platform. Explore Lumhe.

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