Daily Blog: Themed dinner parties

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Themed dinner parties

Hosting dinner parties is a wonderful opportunity to practice hospitality and have a good time with your guests. Choosing a specific theme for your gathering will allow you to follow a clear decoration direction and create a special atmosphere.

When planning your themed party, have in mind the following pointers:

1. Choose your theme carefully. The topic should be relevant to the current season, the audience, a special common interest or a life event. Whatever the reason, make sure the subject of your party has meaning to your guests.

2. Send invitations in the mail. You could certainly send an online evite but paper invitations are always more appropriate. You could create your own free printable invitations or order some affordable ones at Visaprint.com, Shutterfly.com, Tinyprints.com, etc, among other places.

3. Make your party visually appealing by using different theme related props. Choose a color scheme so your color palette is not all over the place.

4. Decide what location in your home you should place the food to allow guests easy access to seating and socializing (ex. kitchen and dining room).

5. Utilize your nice plates, glasses and utensils and refrain from using paper/plastic ones.

6. Use recipes related to the theme you selected.

7. Display the food in beautiful trays and containers using different heights to create visual interest.

8. Make sure your food is served at the proper temperature. Nobody likes cold food that was supposed to be hot!

9. Know your audience taste in drinks (alcoholic, non-alcoholic or both).

10. Make sure most of your food and party presentation is ready by the time guests arrive so you can devote yourself to socializing, cater to your visitor's needs and of course, enjoy yourself!

Fall dinner for the ladies in my squadron-2016. The main dish (butternut squash filled raviolis in brown sauce) is not in this picture because I didn't want it to get cold!;)