How To Throw A Successful Party

Pre-planning is one key to throwing a successful party, but there’s more to it than that. It helps to know how many servings you’ll need per person for the type of party you’re planning, too.

Appetizers

The size of your guest list and the party facility; your living room, backyard or a reception hall; will determine what sort of food will be provided, whether finger-food, appetizers, or a sit-down dinner. Some of the best and most enjoyed parties had nothing more than simple finger-food like pizza or veggie platters, dips and chips.

Plan for 3 to 5 pieces of appetizers per person if you are having a dinner party. Don’t forget nuts, olives, and other munchies can fill people up before dinner. So, don’t put out too many nibbles before a dinner party. If you are planning an hors d’oeuvre only party, make heartier appetizers than you’d serve at a dinner party and plan for 10 to 15 pieces per person. Think large shrimp on skewers, fresh veggies with dip and things like that.

Dinner

Don’t try to plan your menu to please a special dietary requirement. Just because one person doesn’t eat white flour or meat doesn’t mean your entire menu needs to be vegan. Plan a special dish for your guest and serve what you want to serve to your other guests. Make sure you have plenty of drinks for your guests (non-alcoholic too) and make sure they don’t over imbibe.

Kids

Make it quite clear in your invitation if kids are invited or not. If you do have kids to your party, create a space where they can eat and play, and serve something they’ll enjoy like grilled cheese or other kid-pleasers.

Serving

It’s much easier to set up a buffet and let guests serve themselves as most people like choosing their own portion sizes. If you can’t have a buffet, think about hiring a server to help get everyone served on time.

A good host should be prepared to keep the activity flowing. After some food and general conversation, party games are sometimes appropriate, particularly those that will involve the entire crowd . . . and not be embarrassing to anyone.

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