How To Plan A Successful Dinner Party
Planning a dinner party can be a stressful and intimidating experience. However with a little careful planning in advance, it is possible to provide a beautiful dinner party which will be appreciated by all your guests whilst also ensuring that you too have a good time.
Planning The Dinner Party
- The date: Decide on a date, time and guest list. Try to give at least 2 weeks notice to your guests as this will give them time to RSVP.
- Dinner Invitations: Consider buying or making some dinner party invitations to send out to your dinner party guests. Prepare them in the same style as the theme you have chosen for the evening. Make sure you specify a time and dress-code for the dinner party, and an address or phone number if you want the guests to RSVP.
- Once you have an idea of numbers, ensure you have enough cutlery, plates and chairs to go around. You may need to consider hiring certain items if you don’t think you have enough and you don’t want to buy.
- Once you have decided on a theme, consider decorations – will you go simple with maybe a vase of colour co-ordinated flowers or are you looking to buy/hire some decorations to fit in with your dinner party theme?
Dinner Party Food
- Make a realistic assessment of your cooking and baking skills and then plan your menu around your cooking strengths. Unless you are uber-confident in your cooking skills, always allow more time to prepare than the recipe asks for to ensure that everything runs smoothly.
- It is a good idea to plan for food that can be prepared in advance so that you spend less time in the kitchen and more time with your guests. Pre-prepared food and deli food is usually perfectly acceptable!
- Take note of any special requirements, for example check to see if any of your dinner party guests are vegetarian/vegan or have food allergies. It is a good idea to offer a choice of main courses to ensure everyone can eat something they enjoy.
- Once you have decided on your menu, start making lists – one for the food you will require and another showing when you need to start preparing the food. If you are planning meat, you may want to marinate it 24 hours in advance. A little foward-planning will hopefully ensure that your dinner party goes as smoothly as possible!
Dinner Party Drinks
- White wine for white meat and fish; red wine for red meat. Although this old rule is strictly adhered to by some, it is worth keeping a supply of both wines as some people have a preference for one type of another. It may also be useful to have a stock of spirits, mixers and beer/cider for those who prefer not to drink wine but would like an alcoholic drink.
- If your party is themed, consider having a special cocktail for the evening that matches. You could even offer one of these cocktails to the guests as they arrive.
- Have a range of soft drinks on hand for those who don’t want to drink or who are driving home.
Dinner Party Decorations
- Music: If you are having a themed party, music to match is a good idea. Otherwise, light music such as classical, light jazz or middle-of-the-road jazz are normally a good choice for background music.
- Candles almost always seem to be used for dinner parties. Candles add atmosphere and can also help add a splash of colour to the evening.
- Think about how you want to decorate – decorations for a dinner party can be as simple as a couple of candles, or you can go all out with flowers, streamers, balloons and tablecloths. Seasonal decorations are usually quite stylish – for example preserved lemons and oranges for autumn/winter, fresh flowers in spring/summer.
- Wine glass charms are an excellent idea at dinner parties, particularly if you have quite a few guests. Wine glass charms are bought in packs and each charm is slightly different. The charms are easy to attach/detatch and ensure that people can identify their own drinks quickly and easily.
The most important thing about your dinner party is to have fun! Try not to get stuck in your kitchen; instead, spend as much time with each of your guests as possible.
Category: Home & Garden, How-To
Tags: Dinner Party, gadgets, shopping
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