Planning the Perfect Dinner Party

Dinner parties are a great way to celebrate special occasions with your family and friends, while having an excuse to eat good food and have a good time. Whether you’re planning to celebrate a milestone, a birthday or another accomplishment, here are some tips for hosting the perfect dinner party.

Find a Theme or Inspiration

Begin planning your dinner party by deciding on a theme or inspiration. Birthday parties are a lot more fun when they have a set theme. Themes can be drawn from different countries, decades, letters of the alphabet, television shows and movies. Likewise, more formal celebrations such as weddings, fundraisers and corporate parties can also benefit from a source of inspiration. For inspiration, look to seasons (summer, winter, autumn and spring), colours (black and white, pink, blue or green), patterns (polka dot, checked or striped) and landscapes (beaches, forests, jungles or the outback).

Organise Your Food

The most important part of a dinner party is the food. Depending on your guests and occasion, you will need to decide whether your party will have a sit down meal, a buffets or a cocktail or tapas style dinner. While you could organise the food yourself, by hiring a catering company such as Noosh Catering , you can leave your party’s food preparation and distribution to the professionals. It is important to ensure that your food matches your theme or inspiration. In fact your theme can be even inspired by the food you wish to consume, by considering different cuisines, such as Spanish, French, Italian, Mexican, Indian, Thai or Japanese. Whatever you decide, it is important to consider people with special food needs. Make sure there are alternatives for people who are vegan or vegetarian, have food allergies or intolerances, or cultural or religious restrictions to their diet.

Decide on a Venue

You need to decide whether you want to have your party at home, or at a hired location, such as a function room, hall, or council grounds. Children’s parties and parties with smaller numbers of guests are probably better at home, but if your guest list is larger or you don’t want the inconvenience of having a party at home, then a hired venue is the way to go.

Consider Decorations, Lighting and Music

Select appropriate decorations for your particular theme and occasion. For birthday dinner parties, you can’t go past balloons, banners and streamers that match your theme. For more formal occasions, such as milestone birthdays, anniversaries and weddings, decorations such as picture boards, guest books and centre pieces are far more appropriate. You should also consider appropriate lighting and music. If it is a sit down meal or formal event, you will need mellow music and formal lighting from candles, chandeliers or more conventional wall lighting. For less formal parties, you will need music that encourages your guests to move around and dance, and you may like to consider hiring coloured lights to liven up the party.

While planning dinner parties can be stressful, with professional catering, a clear theme or inspiration, appropriate venue and suitable lighting, music and decorations, you are sure to impress all of your guests. What do you think is most important when planning a dinner party?