When people are trying to come up with unique dinner party ideas, the idea usually revolves around a meal at your own house - either indoors or in the garden. The question to consider is this - can a dinner party you organize be held at another venue altogether? Is it still a dinner party - a party of friends enjoying a meal together? I intend to give a few examples today and in future posts.
I know a Greek man who loves ancient history and he wanted to invite his friends and acquaintances to learn about the great Greek philosophers that he so admired.
What he did was this.. he found a small local Greek restaurant and asked whether he could organize a theme night. His house wasn't big enough for what he had in mind and this guy had a lot of friends..
He negotiated a night at the restaurant where invited guests would come and be served a traditional three course Greek meal at an affordable price and people could bring their own wine with no corkage price on top.
He spoke to a lecturer friend who agreed to come and speak about Aristotle - and so the first of many similar nights was set.
If you don't have a friend that can speak, you may have to pay someone - so if the meal at the restaurant costs $40 then you would add on a couple of dollars per person to pay the guest speaker's fee.
If your interest revolves around say a charity you wish to support then they often have ambassadors that will come to talk to groups for free - I do this myself for the M.S. Society.
He'd already run the idea past his friends and they were all very keen and willing to come along because this was something so unusual it was inviting.
His goal was to get say 30 people to the restaurant - 15 couples and the restaurant would be full.
And he actually got them to pre-pay their money because he didn't want to have promised the restaurant 30 people when only 20 people actually showed on the night.. so however many turned up on the night - the costs would be covered.
But everyone did show and the night was a smash - people enjoyed various dips at their tables and chatted and had fun. The starter arrived and then by the time it came to serve the main meal the guest speaker started his talk about the great philosopher.
People ate as they listened with interest and actually learnt some really interesting stuff. The waiting staff cleared the meals and then served some light dessert. It was all taken care of and the host and his guests could just sit back and enjoy the experience. And the best part was he didn't have to worry about washing up.
Everyone left on a high and really enjoyed the night. The host could go home to his clean house and he knew that his efforts to organize this dinner party with a difference really paid off!
Oh yes, and if you do take money off people, it's a good idea to give them a receipt so there is a record for you and your guests can bring their receipt as proof of payment. Here's an example of an inexpensive receipt book you can buy easily:
Stay tuned for more dinner party ideas soon!
Randa
The Hostess with the Mostess
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment