Dawat: Prep for a Perfect Gathering

I absolutely love having people over at my house for gatherings. However, in order to enjoy the time with family and friends, I like to prepare way in advance so things can go smoothly. Doing so, helps ensure that people who come over feel special and can enjoy themselves.

Invitation:

Before you do anything it is important to check guests’ availability. I recommend sending a text or a short phone call asking them if they are available on the day you are planning on hosting. Once you have the date and availability of your guest, it is time to create an invitation. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. You can simply type up the time, date, and location along with a cute picture related to your theme and send it to people you would like to invite. Of course you can also use various apps that are available as well to create artistic invitations. Once you have finalized your invitation, its time to send it your guests in a written format. This makes sure they have the correct time, date and address to the venue. If you have specific parking instructions, you can also let your guests know in advance.

Theme:

I recommend selecting a theme for your gatherings. It can be a theme based of a color scheme, a specific cuisine, a favorite movie, a certain time period, etc. The possibilities are endless; you just have to be a little creative. Picking a theme will help you in deciding other components of the party such as the food, decorations, and favors. It will tie everything together giving a cohesive and well thought out event. If you are stuck and you don’t know where to start, I suggest turning to pinterest for some motivation and ideas.

Menu:

For most people, food is an important component when hosting, especially for dinners. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to small details. Before you decide on your menu, it is key that you ask your guests for any dietary restrictions. Once you have this information, you can begin to create your menu. You want to have dishes that go well together. For example, simple rice or matar paulao goes well with a dry or gravy meat dish such as charga or baked chicken. You want to use various meat options when possible. It is a good idea to give your guests some options when it comes to proteins for your dishes for example if you are serving chicken curry you want to have goat paulao as another option. Of course, you will decide your menu based off whom you are inviting and what they like to eat. But a general rule of thumb is that you want to have a bit of everything. Now it does not need to be served all in main course, you can divide it up between the appetizers, main course, and sides. At this point you also want to decide which dishes will be catered, and what will be made at home. I do not recommend making everything at home unless you have the time and/or the energy. You can purchase pre-made items and cook them at home or you can simply cater some items. However, I do not recommend getting everything catered either (unless it’s a big gathering) because you want to make the guests feel special by preparing something for them yourself. If you are someone who doesn’t like to cook or can’t cook then I recommend making a simple dessert while using shortcuts when possible. This will show that you put in the effort. And of course, your guests will greatly appreciate you for it.

Clean it up

Give yourself a few days to clean your entire house before the party. Yes, the entire house. Unfortunately, I had to learn this one the hard way. I have been in situation where I wasn’t planning on using a certain room in my house (usually my bedroom) and decided to make that a dump all space. And people have asked to use room to feed their kids or change diapers. After being embarrassed couple of times, I give myself enough time to clean the entire house even if I don’t plan on using a particular space. Even if you think you will have time to get everything done, give yourself some peace of mind and clean it at least two days before. A day before you can really focus on space you plan on using for entertaining.

Pull it Together

The night before you host, get as much done as possible. Do the cleaning, put up décor, set the table, take out all the items you think you will be using, all the way you’re your serving dishes down to which teaspoons you want to use. Depending on your space layout as much as possible for example, if it’s a formal dinner set the table, if it’s a buffet styles place the stack of plates where you want guests to start from. The more you have done the day before the easier it is for you. These things are usually time consuming and you wouldn’t want to rush at the last minute. You also want to plan out what you will wear and have all of your accessories ready beforehand. Think of every little detail and get it done before the day of the gathering. Trust me, it will make things go very smoothly. And don’t worry you will still have things to do the day of the party, such as preparing and finishing food items.

Tip: If you are just starting to host gatherings, don’t be intimidated by all the wonderful pictures you see on pinterest and instagram. You can also achieve that with time and practice. Take it slow, focus on one aspect and try to get to your perfect. You DO NOT have to have everything “perfect”. Having people over should be fun and exciting not stressful.

I hope your next gathering is fun, organized and stress free. All the best!