How To Host A Successful (sort of) Dinner Party | Thursday Talks

Most of my close friends from high school attend uni for the vast majority of the year and therefore I don't see them all that often. However, as it has been Christmas recently (incase you missed that) they were all back in the good ol' land of Sussex, the land we call home, and so I took the oppurtunity to get my best girlfriends round to my house for a, sort of, dinner party. We're all pretty skint, most of them are students living on student money, and myself and Katrina are both avid travellers, her last year and me this year, and so spend 99.9% of the time poor, therefore none of us could really afford to go out so having everyone to my house was cheap and most definitely cheerful. And here's how we made it so successful.

Invite the people you'd tell anything to, no awkwardness around the table makes the night. Meet my gorgeous friends. All of them I went to school with and spent the majority of my school years larking around with them on the school field and getting away with all sorts of mischief due to having the 'good girls' label, oh if only they knew. Anyway, you're likely to see more of them around this blog, particularly that blonde one at the front. Katrina is like a twin, we were born in the hospital bed next to each other and have been friends ever since, literally, and we definitely consider each other more like sisters. There's nothing she doesn't know. 

Get everyone to bring something and cook something simple. We decided the best way to do it was share the duties of food and drink. Everybody had a different thing to do so that no one was left doing everything and so that no had to spend loads of money to feed everyone and everyone else got away with just bringing their drinks. I cooked the main, a rather scrumptious (if I do say so myself) homemade spag bol, which went down really well. Jess bought along cheese and bacon potato skins and garlic mushrooms for starter, Becca made a glorious gingerbread house for pudding, Katrina bought some snacky bits that went alongside the gingerbread house and Charley bought drinks. Everyone's food and contributions went down really well and it meant I wasn't slaving in the kitchen all evening but we still got a good three course meal and felt well and truly stuffed by the end of it. Well it wouldn't Christmas unless you felt fit to burst after every meal. 

It wouldn't be a gathering without the awkward photo taken by someone stood on a chair. Your other half, your mum, your dad, the pet dog, wrangle in someone else in the house to take a photo of your friends reuniting over too much food and toilet talk pretending to be civilised and lady like. I'm not going to lie it's not the nicest photo of us but it's nice to have a photo where a couple of us aren't contorting our bodies in bizarre ways to fit in the fame because we're using the smashed up front facing camera on Katrina's iPod. 

Once your guests have filled up on food supplied not wholly by yourself, send them on their merry way and face the bomb site. This is tame by other standards of a night around the table with this lot. To be honest I left it to be faced the next morning when the spag bol & gingerbread baby and gone. Either way, ends of crackers, empty bottles and a half destroyed gingerbread house have got to be signs of a good night in. 

So there we are, my four tips for how to host a successful dinner party. It doesn't need to be fancy and posh and you don't need to spend hours sweating over the hob whilst your guests twiddle their thumbs for the night to go down a treat. Invite your closest friends, cook something dead simple and get others to contribute elsewhere, take lots of photos to commemorate and don't be scared of the mess that will ensue.