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When you first move into your own home and begin to start a new chapter in your life, one of the things you might be looking forward to the most is hosing your own parties and get togethers. Hosting a dinner party can be a super fun way to celebrate your new home and to be a little creative, and there are lots of ways to make the day as amazing as it can be.
Today we are going to take a look at some of the things you can do to make your dinner party the best it can be and to make your family and friends want to come back for more.
Choose a theme
The first deciding you will want to make when deciding to host your perfect dinner party is on a theme for the day. This will depend on several different factors and it can be something which really makes it breaks the evening. Here are some of the factors you will want to consider and how to choose a theme accordingly:
- Season – the first thing to think about is the season of the event. For example, in the winter you might want to create a festive feel with mulled wine and roasted chestnuts. For a summer theme you may consider hosting the party out in the garden as a Greek feast or a barbecue.
- Guests – the second factor is the guests you want to invite to the party. If you are only inviting friends this might mean that the theme can be a little more relaxed and informal. If you are hosting family though it might be something more formal and classy.
- Event – is the dinner party on the fly, for a wedding anniversary, for a birthday or something else? This will of course highly dictate the theme you choose for the day because you will want to ensure that you are celebrating a specific thing during the evening.
Keep it simple
When planning for the best dinner party you possibly can it can be super easy to get carried away with idea after idea and end up putting too much on your shoulders for the day ahead. For example, if you were to start looking on Pinterest for inspiration it would be incredibly easy to get lost in a sea of ideas and this could leave you stranded when it came down to making a decision.
Keep your ideas simple and you can’t go wrong, and even if you want to add more elements when you get a spare minute this is ok, just make sure that your initial plans are simple and easy for you to manage on your own.
Prepare the day before
It is so important when you host a dinner party to take the chance to prepare as much as possible ahead of time. For example, if you were to serve a pudding such as a crumble or a trifle or ice cream, it is easy to make this the day before and leave it in the fridge until you need it in the evening. A lot of times you can also prepare things such as vegetables be dicing and slicing them up the day before and save yourself time preparing salads too. The only thing you should be worried about on the day is your main meal, everything else should be easy enough to go.
Lay the table
Now that you are ready for your dinner party it is time for you to lay the table and impress your guests. You could choose restaurant quality tablecloths from Richard Haworth for a luxury feel and you can think about adding name tags to the places on the table for a party feel. The good thing about adding place settings is that you can easily cater for everyone’s specific taste this way by placing certain drinks at certain sides of the table. You will also want to keep the theme of the table simple, ideally 1 or 2 colours, and make sure everything matches your theme.
Choose great wine
The key to creating a dinner party which is miles above the rest is to make it feel elegant and classy from day one. The best thing you can do to achieve this is choose wonderful wines to pair with every part of your meal. For example a fresh salad to start would go brilliantly with a light Chardonnay. A meaty main dish would be an ideal pairing for a deep merlot or a rich Pinot noir… and dessert is great with a sweet dessert wine or a Zinfandel. Choosing great wines for the meal will help you to elevate the dishes you choose and this will allow your guests to feel like they are having a real experience out of their meal.
Make it cosy
A dinner party is one which often goes on for a fair few hours and it can lead into the late evening. When people are eating lots of food and drinking wine they can become a little tired after a while and this is where you can make their day better by making the room cosy and comfortable. This will allow your guests to stay for longer and your party will feel much better because of it.
Have some entertainment
A party is always better if you have a little bit of entertainment to lighten up the mood and make the day more exciting. For example to make he party much more interested and to also give everyone something to do during the time between dishes you could break out some party games or card games to lighten the tone. This is a great way to get everyone really engaging in the table and in what everyone else is doing. You can also think about having some music on in the background to set the tone for the evening and to make sure you cut through any silences that do go on during the night.
Photo by Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash
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