DINNER PARTY ADVICE AND CONFESSIONS
from entertaining expert Merrily Jackson
I love to have dinner parties. I love planning them, shopping for them, cooking for them, and cleaning up after them. If I see the phrase “dinner party” on a page, it jumps out at me. If I overhear it in a conversation, my ears perk up. My favorite scenes in movies are always the dinner party scenes.

Sharing food and laughs and stories with friends, drinking wine by candlelight into the night — it’s the stuff that life is made of. And that’s the point of a dinner party.

There is no one right or wrong way to have a dinner party. But in my 25 years of having them, I’ve gained some wisdom to share with you…

FIRST,  LET’S TALK ABOUT ANXIETY–
There is a moment we all experience before we have a party and if you tell me you don’t you are lying. It’s the point where we fixate on the stain in the carpet or the shabby sofa and we think, this party is going to be a flop. I ought to have my head examined for thinking I can do this. How, for the love of God, did I get myself into this?

I’ve given hundreds of dinner parties and it hits me every time. Trust me, it never goes away.

With entertaining comes anxiety. It’s the reason a lot of people never have a dinner party: But when you think about it, you know that a good dinner party is not about the food or how fabulous your house looks. It’s about the guest list.  Next week:  “Be My Guest–(unless you’re boring)”