Day 4. Inviting: Is it Really an Art?
Many women get so stressed out over entertaining because they don’t know who to invite. Again, my book explores this matter, but I will say that inviting for a dinner party is sometimes an art (but not always). It depends on what your goal is. Are you inviting to meet new friends? Or maybe you are inviting to introduce friends to other friends. People may be coming to dinner because you’ve invited them knowing they are lonely.
These “after-the-dinner” pictures in this post are from a recent dinner party: Six people, two different places where we comfortably sat and got to know one another better. A small intimate dinner party is the best way to get started, if you are reluctant entertainer.
How to invite?
You do not want to spend too much time and energy and get all tied up in knots regarding who to invite. Keep it simple. Get a notebook and write it down … and read this section in my book because I think you will find the tips to be really helpful.
How big do you want your dinner party?
Think about personalities. Who goes with who?
Be thinking of positive interactions and who will be blessed by coming?
When you’re feeling wishy-washy with your invites, here’s a quote from my book that might help:
Don’t budge from your original plan until you become a more seasoned hostess. Then you can let hospitality flow and be creative in last-minute changes. -RE
How do you feel you do when it comes to invites? Do you stress over it?
Join in on the 31 Days Series …
Chatting at the Sky, Nesting Place, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, My First Kitchen, Life With My 3 Boybarians, Remodeling This Life, The Inspired Room
My next post: How do you make the actual invite? Also, my friends at Love Feast Table are also doing a 31-Days Series on Savoring a Beautiful Life, so head over and check out these classy ladies.
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I definitley try to invite people with like interests or for like reasons if it is a medium to small group. If the group is larger (which we do not do as often anymore) I am not as concerned because then there is usually something for everyone. But I think a good guest list is the start of a good party.
For small dinner parties, I always invite in person or over the phone. For large parties (20 or more) I will send out an invitation. For church stuff, (we do several socials a year in our home) I usually email (I know that sounds awful) but it is the easiest way to communicate a lot of information and to keep track of everyone.
I’m usually over zealous when it comes to inviting, but I’m slowly getting better at editing the invite list. Thanks for the fabulous post!
http://ashleyanderic.blogspot.com
I don’t stress about it near as much anymore. To me, the more I stress, the more I regret it after the event. Things always seem to work out and it is way more important to me and to our family that we do what we can do with invites etc. and just enjoy!
I just posted on our crazy day last Monday but yet still managed to have company of 12 over.
I don’t usually stress about invites. We often try to invite people over who we haven’t had over in awhile. We also think about how people will mix together (C: When we are entertaining guest speakers from our church and we have them over for dinner or take them out and invite others, we honestly choose people who aren’t going to “drain” them, but will just relate and enjoy them. We are also prone to spontaneity when we invite people over as well.
Sometimes I know who I want to come, but I am unsure when to have the party so that they can come. Here’s a cool online tool http://www.doodle.com/… You can offer several times and have people pick which one works better. It is designed more for meetings, but it is still pretty cool. Here’s an example http://www.doodle.com/BSP2gqev473wd2tp
Will one of these 31 days be dedicated to devising a guest list (figuring out who to leave out) and/or answer the question “why don’t people come to my parties?”
I’m really enjoying this series! And the inviting part is something Hubby and I struggle with all the time. I think I’m realizing small events are more my taste, and now that I’ve figured that out, I’m more inclinded to have people in our home.
I’m co-hosting the international military wives’ coffee next week- it was exciting until we sat down to plan. We’re expecting upwards of 40 women and we’re to have 2 cups/person, plates, forks, favor bags, blah, blah, blah- all the real deal (no throw-away china this time!)…it’ll all come together and be fine, but as I had a moment of stress, I was thinking, “WHAT IN THE WORLD DID I VOLUNTEER FOR?!?!” The small intimate dinner party is much more my speed for frequent entertaining!
I am L-O-V-I-N-G this series! Thank you so much! I absolutely love entertaining, but always feel like things have to be perfect before I have people over, which means we dont do it very often. You have totally inspired me!
The only stress I have with invites is that we really only have one day out of the week in which to do it because of my husbands work schedule. So I don’t get to entertain near as much as I like, so I actually have a list a mile long of people I’d like to invite over but when you can only do once a week and on a MONDAY it makes it difficult. *sigh* So I’d say that’s my biggest stress.
But on the other hand I”d be MORE stressed if he didn’t have a job. So I’m not complaining. LOL!
OK, I think I can do a small dinner party. It doesn’t sound as scary as a large one!