5 Tips on How-to Host a Stress Free Dinner Party

Hosting a dinner party is supposed to be fun-not stressful, but more often than not we leave things to the eleventh hour. Often times, five minutes prior to our guest’s arrival, we find ourselves frantically running around, trying to apply our mascara and lipstick, while at the same time handling the last minute prep! Who wants to endure that stress if it can be avoided. Here are a few tips and tricks from the Ladies of L&L on how to properly organize and prepare for your hosting duties so you can keep calm, cool and collected come party time.

1-      Keep things simple– Not everyone is a “Martha Stewart” in the kitchen and there is nothing wrong with that! Your guests are thrilled enough to be invited over in the first place so there is no need to try and find a complicated new recipe that you have never made before. Stick to the basics; offer your guests a few hors d’oeuvres to munch on while they sip on their welcome cocktails, and then serve up your famous go-to dish. This will guarantee a well-timed, executed and stress-free dinner experience for you and your invitees.MELCAM2

2-      Do as much prep work as possible– We know that time is limited in today’s hustle and bustle lifestyle, but if you simply assign yourself one task a night during the week leading up to your event, you can tick off a lot of boxes on your sometimes overwhelmingly long list of things to-do. A few daily task suggestions could include: deciding on your menu, purchasing the non-perishable groceries and alcohol, or setting the table.

3-      Do your alcohol calculations– No hostess ever wants to run out of anything, so take the stress and guess work out of trying to figure out the right bottle calculations and use one of the many alcohol calculators available at your disposal. These calculators ask you to enter the amount of guests and length of your party and give you a pretty accurate calculation of how much alcohol you will need to keep your guests’ glasses full and flowing all night long. Check out http://www.evite.com/pages/party/drink-calculator

4-      Pre-select your music source– Why not let today’s technology tend to the DJ duties? If you have satellite and your television is close to your eating area, you can pick one of the many Galaxie stations, or if you have a smart phone handy, you can opt for Songza or 8tracks. Both options provide you with a variety of musical medleys to suit the atmosphere you are aiming to create. If you prefer to use your stereo, make sure go through your cd’s ahead of time and select the ones you wish to play and the order in which you want to play them.

5-      Take your time – Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Don’t panic if your main dish is taking a little longer to cook than usual. No one will ever know that dinner was served twenty minutes later than planned, so just enjoy your time with your guests… after all, that’s why you invited them over in the first place!

No Comments

Post A Comment