Tips on Entertaining for the Home Owner

Entertaining in your own home can be the most rewarding way to spend quality time with your loved ones, especially when you have some aspect of your home that you want to show off.

There is something special about spending time with friends in the comfort of your home rather than in a crowded and noisy restaurant or bar. Maybe you’ve just moved in, finally sorted all the boxes and want to let family and friends see your new pad, had a remodelled kitchen or redecoration to part of the house, or perhaps you’ve just not had anyone around for a while and want to spend some quality time with family or friends – whatever the reason, your planned party needs some preparation to be the best event you can make it.

Here are a few tips to help your event go off with a bang!

Planning

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success”, according to Alexander Graham Bell, and the principle of being prepared is certainly wise, as anyone who has tried to do anything of significance without being properly prepared will know.

1. Type of event

Firstly, you need to decide what type of event you’re planning to host - a BBQ or a drinks party will be a very different event from a formal sit-down dinner. A less formal event will likely see guests moving more freely around your home, whereas a formal dinner will tend to have guests seated most of the evening in a formal dining space. And a BBQ may be more dependent on good weather and being able to open up your indoor spaces to the garden. Careful thought needs to be made before any further planning takes place.

2. Numbers

The next task is to decide how many people you’ll be inviting. If you live in a small apartment, this may well limit how many you can invite, although having said that – a crowd in a smaller space can make for an amazing party atmosphere. But if you’re planning on inviting a crowd, you’ll need to make sure you can cope with the volume of food and drinks needed, as well as more practical considerations such as seating, cutlery, crockery and glasses.

3. Menu

Think in advance about your food and drink options. Make sure you’ve got plenty of ice and consider using the sink as an additional drinks cooler to save space. Plan food strategically – you don’t want to be stressing out in the kitchen instead of enjoying spending time with your guests, so any foods that can be prepared in advance will make sure you maximise quality time with your friends, rather than having a heart attack in the kitchen. People will remember the time they had together more than necessarily what they ate. If you’re inviting guests into an open-plan kitchen and dining area, then make the food preparation time part of the evening where guests can chat with you while you cook or serve. Remove unnecessary appliances from the work surfaces and put out dips and nibbles in decorative dishes and platters for your guests to snack on while waiting for the main meal.

4. Clean up

Use the party as a good reason for a clean and clear up. Put unnecessary clutter away in cupboards or under beds and have quick hoover and dust through making sure that bathrooms are clean and clear of clutter as well as stocked up on toilet roll for the comfort of your friends. An upcoming party is also a great excuse to get those small DIY jobs or chores sorted, like changing lightbulbs or throwing out dead houseplants, that you’ve been putting off getting around to.

5. Consider room space and flow

If you’ve got a less formal event planned and people are going to be moving around, consider where you’ll put food and drinks for people to serve themselves from, as you don’t want them to be in a tight space where a bottleneck could build up with everyone struggling to squeeze past each other. Also, a good flow around your spaces will encourage people to mingle and chat with different people – all contributing to a great atmosphere.

6. Lighting

Getting the lighting right is surprisingly more important than people sometimes think. A bright light in the centre of the room creates a totally different atmosphere than using side lights, fairy lights or candles. Experiment ahead of time to see what type of atmosphere you can create with different lighting and what feels most appropriate for your event and the guests you’re inviting.

7. Music

Prepare your playlist in advance with mood-appropriate music. If you have Bluetooth speakers or connecting speaker systems from different rooms, you can play the same music throughout your home. If you don’t have connecting speakers, you could consider having different music in separate rooms which can create a nice change of atmosphere as guests move through your house. If a sound system isn’t something you own, you can always consider playing a playlist from the television – all of which will contribute to bringing the right mood and vibe to your event. When you begin the pre-party preparations, you can start the playlist to get you in the mood as you prep.

On the night

Make sure you’ve got yourself ready in an outfit that gives you confidence and aim to greet your guests personally at the door. This gives the impression you’re in control and guarantees you get to talk to all of your guests at least once.

Don’t do it all by yourself - make sure that you’ve got a ‘wingman’, or woman, to support you, whether by topping up drinks, clearing dirty crockery away or even helping with the food preparations beforehand. ‘Teamwork makes the dream work’, and it’s so much more fun, and less stressful, if you’ve got a partner or friend to help with the entertainment.

Try to keep it simple, it may be tempting to go for all the extravagant extras, but a simple, yet excellent, event will be a lot less stressful to pull off, as well as being more economical as well.

Enjoy it! Try to take time to enjoy the evening, take some photos and make memories of your own. Entertaining should be fun and not all work so that, hopefully, you’ll want to do it again and it’ll have been a party that your guests talk about for weeks to come.

If you’re looking for that beautiful kitchen worktop to create the perfect party space and provide the aesthetic backdrop to the foods you’re providing for your guests, then look no further.

Bellagio Marble Ideas can create that transformation for your kitchen that will wow your guests with a bespoke, stunning worktop. We understand the importance of having a luxurious kitchen area to welcome your guests into and will be thrilled to advise and support you in the process of finding the ideal solution for your home.

Get in touch today to discuss your dream worktop renovation with one of our friendly team.