Serving food at Dinner Parties

I love thinking about this!

Someone recently DM’d me asking how I would serve food for a dinner party with a table setting like featured. This is something I have never talked about or give ya’ll advice on so I thought this blog post was a must! Serving food at dinner parties can go many different ways. I believe it has to do with the type of party for starts – the table setting you go with, then what kind of vibe you want to give off to your guests. Remember, the dinner party doesn’t have to be a fancy table with all the works, it can even be a buffet style game night with everyone sitting on the couch! It’s however YOU want to host it.

How to serve food when there isn’t room on the table…

So, like the featured photo of this gorgeous setting from Joanna Buchanan – the Pewter Trim Linen Dinner Napkins, napkin rings and Taupe Ombre Placemats are to die for! I love them for all winter long as a beautiful go to for our table, especially having them set always! Anyways – for a table setting like this there isn’t much room to put out family style food (similar to my Winter table setting). For this setting I would serve buffet style – putting all the food out on our kitchen island for guests to serve themselves OR plate the food for each guest. Obviously these two styles are going to give off a casual vs. fancy dinner party vibe – however, I think plating dinner but serving family style salad is the better way to go. IF you have an easy meal to plate. Last night I had some friends over for dinner, the table setting wasn’t crowded but I thought it would be better to plate the dinner as opposed to dirtying more dishes honestly. Plus, the presentation of them meal (coq a von chicken meatballs) looked better that way. I put the salad out on the table (because there was room) so our guests could serve themselves salad. If you don’t have room for the salad, plate that as well! For the winter dinner party I served a salad course then a main course – plating each one with the help of my husband.

Family style is always a great go to!

If your table setting has the room – go with family style! I love this way of sharing a meal with friends and family. There is something about passing around the food and discussing the food that makes the meal more inclusive. If you want to have a family style dinner party, keep your centerpiece to a minimum but having just votive candles and or bud vases out. It’s also OK to not have a centerpiece to let the meal shine as the centerpiece!

Hosting a more casual dinner party?

I recently was on a panel at NYNOW discussing dinner parties in the new age. One interesting question we talked about was if the dinner party was dead – because of millennials of course haha. Speaking as a millennial, I do not think that the dinner party is dead – we just do it in different ways. Obviously I show a lot of set tables that are meant to inspire you to have a dinner party, but there is different ways to host a dinner party not around a table. For starts, setting out a stack of plates, flatware and napkins along with a spread of food to let guests help themselves and graze is a great way to host a dinner party (especially if you don’t have a table big enough for the amount of guests). This allows people to get more involved in the food, sit wherever they please (on your couch perhaps?), and feel more relaxed and at home in your home. Another favorite way to host a non-dinner party is potluck! Always a great go to. Additionally, setting out plates and food for guests to serve themselves then sit around for a game night or movie night is another fun way to host a casual dinner party!

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