Party Ideas
Dinner party decoration ideas
To enhance the food you are about to serve you need to create a complimenting atmosphere. This can be accomplished by matching various decorations with your menu:
- For an elegant party, a good idea would be lit candles in silver or glass candlestick holders and vases full of fresh flowers, fruit or both.
- If you’re serving something messy, go old-school classy with individual finger bowls. Just fill small bowls with water and a slice of lemon, and place one next to each guest’s water glass to use during the meal.
- A more casual menu means you can have more fun with writing your guests names on a paper tablecloth where they will sit and setting the table with colorful paper and plastic utensils.
- Serving Chinese food? Hang Chinese lanterns above the table.
- Offering a Mexican feast? Drape chili-pepper lights around the doorways of your dining area, and serve your guacamole and salsa in bowls shaped like sombreros.
- A Moroccan meal means you can banish tables and chairs and eat on blankets and pillows right on the floor.
Dinner party attire
Dinner parties tend to be dressier affairs, so you may want to advise your guests ahead of time to leave the t-shirts and jeans in the hamper. Make sure you convey this to your guests though.
If you're packing guests into a small apartment for a buffet meal where they'll sit on the floor, for example, your female guests will appreciate knowing that they'll probably want to wear pants. If you tell your guests that you're serving a sit-down five-course meal, they'll probably feel inspired to dress up a little more than usual. This will also increase the anticipation of your affair.
Dinner party activities
Go around the table and ask your guests to reveal something about themselves: a childhood nickname, their favorite song, their biggest celebrity crush. If you want to do something a little more involved, create a murder mystery game announcing the culprit over desert. Just don’t blame it on the DOG.
If your guests are into wine, you can incorporate a wine-pairing lesson into the dinner. Ask each guest to bring a bottle that pairs with one dish or course of your meal. While you're eating and sipping, that guest can explain why they chose that wine, what flavors and characteristics that grape has, and how it pairs well with the ingredients in the dish you've prepared.
Dinner party menu ideas
The most important tip for a dinner party: Splurge on high-quality ingredients. They'll enhance both the flavor and texture of your dishes. When you are deciding which recipes to create for the dinner be certain to obtain any necessary information containing food allergies your guests may have and accommodate their needs while serving plenty of sides to provide many options they can pick and choose.
Assorted cheeses and olives are crowd-pleasing snacks before the meal, and you can’t go wrong with chocolate and fruit for dessert.
Dilled Gravlax with Mustard Sauce
Foie Gras and Cream Eggs
Chocolate-Amaretti Tortes
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Must have Drink
Champagne Celebration (serves 1)
- juice of 1/2 lime, freshly squeezed
- 1/2 oz. Cointreau
- 1/2 oz. brandy
- 1 sugar cube
- Peychaud bitters
- 4 oz. Champagne
Pour Cointreau and brandy into a Champagne flute. Saturate a sugar cube with bitters and add to flute. Fill flute with Champagne.
Non-Alcoholic - Sparkling cider, sparkling water
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