How to Plan for a Dinner Party with Friends

Last weekend I hosted twelve very dear friends and family members for a dinner party. I loved every minute of it and am very excited to share with all of you how to plan for a dinner party.

You can do this. I promise!

I know what you are thinking. “It is too much work to plan for a dinner party with friends!”. But it is not that hard. You just need to be organized and make sure you have all of the tableware that you need. Be sure to plan a menu that tastes amazing but isn’t too hard and invite fun people.

That’s it.

Most people, when they plan for a dinner with friends, invite about six people over and serve a nice easy dinner. I know this because I have entertained like this a gazillion times. I love it!

But this past weekend was different.

While I was remodeling our Waco home, I met so many amazing people. There was a small group of friends that I got to know dearly and they helped me more than I could ever imagine. I had always intended to create a very special dinner for my friends but then the lockdown happened and I didn’t visit Waco for over a year.

Finally, this past weekend I treated twelve of my friends and family to a seven course dinner. It was magical!

How to Plan a Dinner Party

The Wood Table Top

When you are planning for a dinner party with friends you need to decide where to hold the dinner. You probably know that I love to find creative places for dinner but the dining room is a great spot to!

The first issue I had to solve was finding a place where I could sit all twelve of us together at the same table. I thought about trying to put our dining room and porch table side by side but that wasn’t ideal.

Do you remember when I made wood table tops at home for our plastic folding tables?

My table tops were in Southern California and the dinner party was, of course, in Waco. Hmmm.

But then my dear friend KariAnne from Thistlewood Farms came to the rescue. She insisted that her husband Denny could make table tops for our Waco dining room table. How amazing is that?

Of course Denny improved upon my design They are in three sections and they have latches on each section so they hold together really well.

Let me show you the table tops. Here is our existing dining room table. It is wonderful and sits eight comfortably.

Here is the table with the first section of the table top on top.

Next I added the middle section.

And next I added the end section.

Doesn’t this look amazing? I am so grateful to both Denny and KariAnne for creating this amazing wood table top!

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The Table Setting

I know you will be surprised, but this table was the perfect combination of vintage and new items. Here is everything we used for the 7-course meal.

I bought the napkins, stainless chargers, mercury glass vases, candles, mercury glass votives and mercury glass candlesticks. They are all linked at the end of this post and are very affordable.

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I also found some vintage items which include the etched footed glasses, the ironstone plates (three sets of 12), glass bowls, and the wood moulding pieces. I bought a lot of this in Round Top and payed a few dollars for each. My favorite etched footed crystal glasses cost between $.99 and $4.00 each.

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We used the wood moulding pieces and small bowls for the first course, which was the Nibbles. You will see more about those in tomorrow’s blog post when I share the menu and recipes.

I absolutely love how well the new and vintage pieces looked on our table.

The Personalized Plates

I made glass plates with a personalized message for each of my guests. Since we were serving seven courses, we needed a plate to set the small plates on for each course. A glass plate was perfect.

I made these plates because I really wanted to let each of my guests know how much I appreciated all of their help. I thought this might be a fun idea and I really do love how they came out

The plates also served as place cards and each guest took their plates home when with them!

I made the messages of the plates with my Cricut machine. I designed the names and messages in Cricut Design Space and then mirrored the image. I cut them out of Permanent Vinyl on the Cricut machine.

I do need to be honest that I really struggled with the “weeding” process. This is when you pull off the letters from the vinyl. I think it’s because the letters were very small and perhaps I am not as skilled as I should be when it comes to working with permanent vinyl.

Once I cut the vinyl, and attached the letters to the Transfer Tape, I placed the letters on the bottom of the plate. I did this because I wanted to protect the letters (if they were on top I don’t think they would have lasted long). Once they were adhered to the plate I brushed the bottom of the plate with Mod Podge and let it dry.

It did take me a really long time to make these. But it was so worth it.

Arranging the Flowers

We bought the flowers at the local grocery store in Waco and the selection was pretty great. We used the mercury glass vases and some mason jars and arranged the flowers on the porch. We ended up with five arrangements.

You an do this. There is no secret to arranging flowers. Just don’t forget to buy some greenery and if you want to keep it really simple, just buy the same color of flowers.

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Setting the Table

I think setting the table is my favorite part of getting ready for the dinner party. I took some photos of how I set the table.

When you entertain, you can include as many of these steps as you want.

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The Menu

For the complete menu and recipes just go to The Best Dinner Party Recipes.

I shared everything about this party with you, with hopes that you will use some of the ideas for your own dinner party. You don’t need to do it all, just pick a few of these ideas and run with it.

Entertaining and sharing magical moments with friends is a wonderful way to have fun. I hope this post has encouraged you to give it a try.

Be sure and read my blog post on Tuesday for every single recipe from this party!

Links to the Items Shown in This Post

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