Dinner Party Planning Made Easy
June 18, 2010
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The thought of planning a dinner party can be a cause of stress to lots of people. They want to make a good impression on those who they invite and are concerned about doing something ‘wrong‘. It does not have to be a stressful process though, so long as you follow a few guidelines…
Celebrate an occasion or event – The best dinner parties are normally those that are held to celebrate something, such as a birthday, promotion or graduation. By having something in particular to celebrate, it makes it easier to establish the theme and mood of the party. The event does not have to be something specific to you though, with Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and Independence Day all being good reasons to celebrate too. Of course, you can still have a dinner party is there is nothing in particular to celebrate, it just increases your chances of success if there is.
Plan ahead – Organization is key to the success of your dinner party. The sooner you start getting things organized the better. Amongst other things, you will need to create a menu, choose the wines, polish the silverware, decide on the background music, buy some dinner candles and / or scented candles and work out a seating plan. None of these tasks are difficult, but if you leave them all to the last minute, and try to do them all at the same time, then they can become overwhelming. So, start getting at least some parts of your dinner party organized at least a week beforehand.
Let guests know well in advance – Along with the food, the guests are the most important aspect of a dinner party. If you want everyone on your list to attend then you need to let them know at least a couple of weeks before the event. For a formal occasion, and one that you are putting a lot of time and effort into, then you should send out invitations even earlier than that – maybe a month beforehand. It is best to send out written invitations and to then follow up with a phone call a week later.
Provide some entertainment – Lots of people spend so much time thinking about the food that they will be serving that they neglect to think about how they will entertain their guests. What kind of entertainment is appropriate will depend on those attending and the atmosphere that you want to create, but you cannot go far wrong with a good selection of CDs and a pack of cards. Having board games and movies on hand is not a bad idea, even if you do not plan to use them, as they can be good to bring out if the conversation is not going as well as you had expected.
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