SoRaiseYourGlasses

Inviting friends to a Dinner Party is the ultimate compliment to your friends, and they can be great fun as well as very satisfying.

Whether you are bringing together people who don't know each other very well or are good friends already the planning of your dinner party will make all the difference to your enjoyment of the evening. Some of the key things to think about include:

• Date - clearly an important starting point!
• Time - make sure that you invite people for a time that suits you - so you can have everything ready with a little time to spare, and so you can relax
• Food - the main ingredient - there are no absolute rules with food as there is no end of variety in what it is good to serve people. However, there are three tips that are always worth sticking to :
• Check with your guests beforehand to make sure you know anything that they cannot eat
• Serve dishes that you have tried yourself beforehand, so you know that they are good
• However complicated your recipes, try to choose things where you can do a good deal of the preparation in advance - that way you won't spend half the evening in the kitchen without your guests!
• Drinks - for many wine with dinner is a must, and easy enough, but few of us keep fully stocked bars, and so it's worth checking with guests beforehand to see if they have a favourite tipple - then at least you can get it in for them if you don't have it.
• Don't forget the drivers - always have water and soft drinks available in plentiful supply
• The Table - How you lay your table for your guests is very much a matter of personal taste, but it's always worth checking that the crockery, cutlery, galsses and serviettes etc. that you plan to use are still in good condition and ready for use - saves blushes on the evening of your party! You may also want to have flowers or candles, or both, and as these are simple to prepare in advance it's worth getting them out of the way early on
• Ice Breakers and Games - Once again, this is a matter of personal taste, but if you have guests who don't know each other it's often useful either to have some ideas for ice breakers - conversation starters that everyone can join in with. There are a number of dinner party games, trivia and ice breakers on the market (So Raise Your Glasses stocks several) that can start conversation with limited chance of controversy but also allows people to start to get to know one another. Many of these can be great fun even if you know your guests very well, and they know each other too.

Most important of all - make sure you and your guests really enjoy themselves