life has become so fast a that whenever we decide to celebrate the “happiness” in our lives we tend to take the easy way out for almost everything….Taking friends and family out for lunches, dinners and coffee treats, to the local restaurant is the easy way I am talking about…There is no doubt that you might have taken them to the best eat out place in town but does it really match the joy and fun of throwing a party at your own place?.....Well if you  are the kind who wants not only good food but the homy environment of your house for a party and to be able to specially design each and every aspect of the party, you are throwing, then there’s no better place to throw a party  than your home.

                      The entire process can be loads of fun. First thing first, you need to chalk out an entire blueprint of the event that you want to plan. It would include the following things:

1.      How many days are left for you to plan the dinner…this question might be valid if you are planning for a birthday party , a graduation  day get together, etc for you relatives as the date will not be of your own choosing. Even if the date for the party is at your discretion, even then you need to plan for it well in advance and to make sure that your “guests to be will” be will be available on those date. Weekends are always a better choice as people tend to be busy working during the weeks.

2.      How many people should be invited: this is the most important question…..you would want to invite as many as you can but you have to take some things into consideration(a)how many guests can be entertained comfortably at your place as you don’t want the gathering to give an image of people stuffed into a cage(b)and secondly how many guests can you comfortably cook for because if you are planning for a four course meal for example, going over 10 guests would be a serious mistake as it would put you in a very messy situation.

3.      Formal or Casual Lunch/Dinner/Tea party: what ever you decide from this category will have a bearing on the entire event. WHY? because if you choose a formal or casual dinner or lunch  the menu, the crockery, home decorations, the dress code, hostess gifts,etc will all have to be in accordance with that.

4.      Is the party a general invitation or is it linked to some seasonal or religious festival: are you planning to throw a thanksgiving ,Easter, Christmas, Halloween, Eid, diwali, hannukah party, etcyou are planning for one of these occasions then the decorations ,menu and hostess gifts will vary for each category.

5.      Menu: there is loads to choose from when it comes to menu. You can make your own menu by picking up selected recipes from different cuisines and gracefully pulling them off as a part of your four course meal. But if you area puritan at heart  then choose one cuisine for the party and cook different specialties from it. If you want an oriental experience for your guests then choose Chinese, Thai or Japanese cuisine. If you want middle-eastern experience then Moroccan, Jordanian and Lebanese cuisine would be great. If your guests want a truly European experience then French, British, Italian, etc would be delicious options.

6.      Table Arrangement/Decorations: these would include the crockery, candle arrangements, flatware, flower arrangement for the dinning space…..if you are going for the oriental theme then choose a special flower arrangement for the centre table….a good option would be to go to your nearest florist and get a centre table piece made……same goes for other themes too. P.S: if you have chosen oriental cuisine then make sure you have chopsticks, ceramic? platic chinses spoon,etc to go with the food to make it a thoroughly fun food experience.

7.      Courses: you can choose how many courses do you want .you can have the standard 4 course meal of, starters, salads, main course and dessert. Or you could have the main course and desrt only. With oriental cuisine a buffet style will be more suitable as most dishes cannot be strictly divided into the 4 course category.

8.      Dessert: “final nail in the coffer” the dessert….choose a dessert than goes with the weather and the chosen theme of the party. If its summer time make some dessert with fresh fruits like mangoes,strawberries,passionfriut,etc…if its winter time make desserts containing chocolate,nuts,caramel,etc.Moreover make sure your dessert ties in with the cuisine you have chosen.

9.      Hostess gifts: this is optional and is also dependant on how much you have spent on making the other arrangements for the party. If you are short on time there is no need to panic….go to your local store like Macy,Godiva chocolatiers,The body shop, Bath and Bodyworks, Sephora, etc and choose from a variety of ready to buy hostess gifts…….If you are short on time as you have to take care of the other arrangements and cannot go around shopping gifts for each guest individually then go straight to Godiva and buy their gift size golden chocolate truffle and ganache boxes, each having 2 to four pieces with beautiful floral decorations.