Dinner Party Invitations

Invite a few close friends to a Dinner Party!

Choosing the Menu

Dinner parties are intended to be small, intimate semi-formal gatherings for close family members or friends. Since you will be having a small gathering, it is feasible to offer several courses during the dinner party. You will need to decide what type of food you want to serve. When choosing a theme for the menu, you can consider traditional menus that feature seafood, surf & turf, or Italian cuisine. For those more adventurous, you could consider offering a menu selection from a particular country such as Spain, Greece, China, Germany, or Australia; to name a few.

Once you have decided the type of food that you will serve, you will need to select recipes that will appeal to your guests. If you do not own suitable cookbooks, there are several internet sites that offer thousands of recipes at no charge. Be sure to choose an appetizer, a salad and bread, a main dish, and a dessert. If you desire a fifth course, you can serve a soup in between the appetizer and salad.

If the theme is Greece, you might serve Dolmas (Stuffed Grape Leaves) as an appetizer, a salad with feta cheese, Stifado (Spiced Braised Beef and Onions) as the main course, and Baklava for dessert. Be sure you choose items that will not require your immediate and constant attention prior to serving, so that you can enjoy the dinner with your guests.

Timing will be important, so be sure to create a worksheet, to ensure your dinner party goes smoothly. You can prepare appetizers and salads ahead, as well as the dessert, and choose a main dish that can bake in the oven while you are enjoying the other courses.

Invitations

Remember that the first introduction your invited guest will have to the dinner party will be the invitation that they receive for the evening of fun. Choose stationary that depicts the theme of your dinner. If you are doing a country theme such as Spain, you would want to search for an invitation that has décor from that country on it. Consider printing a computerized menu to insert into the invitation, to build anticipation of the event. Let your guests know that dinner will be semi-formal.

Décor

An elegant evening dinner party requires low lights, lots of candles, white twinkle lights and beautiful flowers such as white roses. Take the time to locate some soft background music. A careful search will yield music originating in the country that you are featuring, such as Greece or Spain. You might consider greeting each female guest with a long stem rose or boutonnière, for an added touch of class. The success of your dinner party will depend, in party, on a well thought out seating plan. To promote stimulating conversations throughout the dinner party, seat guests near others who will have similar interests. Set place cards on the top plate of each place setting, to direct invited guests to the proper seat. It will be well worth your time and effort to borrow or rent items that you do not own, such as candelabras, linens for the table, stemware and ample matching place settings. Your guests will feel as though they are dining in a five star restaurant!

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