Stress Free Dinner Party Planning
Last month we celebrated my parents 45th wedding anniversary. My sister and I decided to surprise them with a dinner party with a few of their close friends at my house. It was a blast! And I was surprised at how stress free it was. A little planning was all it took to make it easy and enjoyable.
These tips are for a dinner party or any event that you are planning at your home. These tips and scheduling ideas will translate to a birthday party or baby shower easily!
You can start planning as far in advance as you would like. 2 weeks is the least I like to allow.
One month before:
Choose a Date/Time
Plan the guest list
Send invites. This allows plenty of time for you to see who to expect.
2-3 Weeks ahead:
Decor plan - Do you need a specific table cloth? What dishes will you use? I prefer to use as many things as I have on hand. But if I need to purchase something, I want to do it well before the event.
Meal plan - What is your menu? Where will you be shopping for these things? Once you have created the menu you can determine if something is more difficult to get. Do you need to go to a grocery store that isn’t close to your home? Thinking of these things helps to prevent overload right at the dinner.
Create a detailed shopping list. Include on the list items you usually have on hand. The day before you shop it’s good to double check that you aren’t out of something you thought you had.
For example, let me share with you the menu for my parent’s recent anniversary dinner:
Appetizer - Fig and Grapefruit Salad
Dinner - Filet
- Hasselback Potatoes
- Balsamic Brussel Sprouts with bacon
- Brazilian Cheese Bite Rolls
Dessert - Flourless Chocolate Torte
- Almond cookie and marscapone parfait
We went with a gluten free menu due to some dietary restrictions. It was easier to make the entire meal gluten free. My mom can’t have chocolate, so we made sure to have one dessert with no chocolate.
For this menu, I know I can get all of these items at Costco.
Menu tips:
Only 1 side required cooking right before I served it. The potatoes take an hour in the oven and go straight to the plate. I only had to think of the brussels. My husband took care of the steaks.
I chose a dessert that is best when made a day before (chocolate torte). My brother in law made the second dessert. I would have never chosen a dessert that needs to be assembled right before, but we had extra hands.
The week of the party:
Confirm with all the dinner guests.
Plan shopping days - My dinner was Friday evening, I chose to shop on Wednesday. Thankfully I did because while Costco always has brussel sprouts, they were out that week! We made a trip to a grocery store on Thursday and picked some up.
Tips on cleaning:
When we are having guests over we always want to put our best foot forward and that includes a clean home.
Keep your regular cleaning schedule. This ensures that you are starting with a clean house. And I didn’t have to clean the entire house on the day of the party. Just some light vacuuming and straightening.
Check the space you plan to host in to see if you need to change anything. We were using my formal dining room. We typically don’t use this room, but I wanted it to be a bit more special. My daughter keeps her play kitchen in here. So early in the week I moved this upstairs to her room.
The day of I did some follow up cleaning and will lay that out in my plan for the day of.
Day of the event:
8AM - Regular work - I purposefully planned my week to have a lighter work load on this day.
Noon
Did a run through of the upstairs. My son’s bathroom is used in case the downstairs restroom is in use. I made sure to clean this and asked my kids to not use it. (They could use my bathroom or the one downstairs.)
Asked the kids to stay downstairs for the rest of the day (so the upstairs would stay tidy)
2pm
Kitchen prep work:
This included washing and slicing potatoes. (Tip - you can soak sliced potatoes in cold water to prevent them from turning brown.)
Washed and cut up fruit for the desserts.
Made the salad dressing and cut the fruit for the salad topping.
Made the whipped cream for the chocolate torte. (I had made the dessert the day before.)
Set the table in the dining room.
After the kitchen prep work was finished I cleaned the kitchen and ran the vacuum over the main level of my house.
Ran the dishwasher on the quick wash so I could start the dinner with an empty dishwasher. THIS IS IMPORTANT!
At this point I gave my 5 year old a snack and a movie and let her veg in the front room until it got time to drop her at the sitter. Note - I NEVER have had a sitter for a dinner party before. We always have our kids here. It was wonderful to have her at a sitters, but you can do this with kids. I kept my son here because he was a huge help.
5pm guests arrived. We served coffee and waited to surprise my parents.
This was a blast and it was even more fun that we were able to surprise my parents. But what allowed it to be fun was planning ahead. It felt easy. I have never ever wished I wouldn’t have prepped and planned. But I have had plenty of times that I wished I would have. Make life easier on yourself and plan ahead as much as you can!
The holidays are coming up and I will have more content for you on ideas specific to the holidays, but you can use these tips if you are hosting a holiday dinner.
I hope this helps you feel ready to host a dinner party at your home soon! We enjoy meeting friends and family at a restaurant, but there is something special about sharing your home with your friends and family. We love sipping coffee over dessert and not worrying about whether or not the waiter is ready for us to move on. Go ahead and plan a date today with your best friends!