A Sunday to Give Back… My Sunday Dinner Party and Entertaining Tips

I was minding my own business when I got this idea that I HAD to do. I felt it so passionately that I couldn’t do any other project till I created a Sunday dinner party. Why Sunday? Sunday is a mixed bag of emotions and quite frankly, it was either the best day or the worst day last year during all the turmoil and I really leaned into my relationships on that day. I wanted to say thank you to those that were there for me with a special Sunday dinner. I always want to be creating a sense of community and fostering deeper relationships

Yes, the summer and fall makes us all want to be extra social, but I actually think that winter is perfecting for hosting a dinner party. Think about it! Cozy foods, candlelight dinners, eating too many carbs, being inside and warm and cozy instead of outside in the blah weather weather. Plus winter tablescape decor I think is everywhere when you are on Pinterest because we all want to look at something pretty. (That also could just be my feed.)

If you want to see other dinner parties and entertaining posts, click here, here and here.

Creating the Atmosphere

For this Sunday dinner I wanted it to have warmth, intimacy and encourage deep conversation. I have a very specific vision for this and I knew that I didn’t want to have to spend long on the decor so I rented items from Endless Treasures here in Wichita. (Not sponsored, I just love them.)

I cannot say enough good about Endless Treasures! I love their team but I love their attention to detail. They knew exactly what I wanted and needed and went from there! I rented the table, chairs and place-settings and it was the best money I’ve spent. They even had winter tablescape inspiration and packages if you didn’t want to have to think about what you wanted to rent. I was able to focus on setting the table and bringing my vision to life and instead of sourcing items and buying things like candles. They had it all delivered to me exactly on time and made hosting a breeze.

I also curated this playlist that helped encourage the cozy, intimate vibe.

Setting the Table

I love winter for the amount of natural elements that you can have in a tablescape. These greens (in the photos) were incredibly cheap but also supplemented by a nice walk and picking up fallen branches and natural elements. I think that when you look at winter tablescape inspiration on Pinterest, you can see that no matter where you are in the country, your decor can be incredibly cheap.

I created the dinner menu in Canva which was a great way to stop everyone from asking what each item was, and if they had a dietary restrictions. Everything is listed under that dish so one had to disclose any sort of dietary information if they weren’t comfortable. I highly recommend this if you are the entertainer AND the cook as little questions like that can get tiresome quickly.

The Menu

When you are solo-hosting a dinner party It’s really helpful to have a mix of cool and warm dishes so you don’t spend all your time in the kitchen. The theme was Greek food for this evening. Here’s what the menu was:

• Layered Hummus
• Rosemary Carrots
• Balsamic Green Beans with Feta and Pine Nuts
• Greek Meatballs (Honestly I just made up the recipe)
• Orzo Salad (Also made up this recipe)
• Fresh Baklava
  
  (Also you can tell I got busy in the kitchen when people arrived because I only have a photo of one dish, the hummus.)

Other Tips

• I spend a lot of time curating a guest list. While all of these guests were close friends of mine, I don’t intermix friends from work or personal life unless the circumstances are truly extraordinary. If you have half and half the room naturally divides and has less of a community feel and more of a small-talk feel which is most likely the opposite of what you want.
• If you want to go really detailed, you can provide a small card at the place-setting with commonalities of the people sitting next to each other. It helps ease some of the small-talk and create genuine conversations!

Tag me when you host your dinner party if you get an inspiration from this post. I’m starting to blog more about my entertaining and I hope that you are enjoying it as much as I am. Feel free to let me know if you want me to do a certain theme or answer any questions.