In your 20s, most people enjoy going to bars and clubs. From the food to the music to the cute guy you see eye-ing you from across the room, everything about partying made you feel young and alive… that’s what your 20s are for. Once you hit your 30s and up, the club scene just isn’t so fun to you anymore… it just doesn’t have that same appeal for you anymore. So what are you to do for entertainment now, when going to parties has been such a huge part of your life for so long? You throw your own parties! ( Image Credit: Terri Cnudde/Pixabay)

Now, throwing parties isn’t for the faint of heart. People tend to think that throwing parties consists of red Solo cups, ordering pizza, and playing games and music… that might be what it was for you in college but once you hit your 30s, there’s a class and elegance behind throwing a party, and if you want to break things down even further, there’s actually a science behind throwing an amazing dinner party.

The Science of It All

Okay, so you’ve decided to throw an awesome dinner party and for the most part, you think you know how to do that… everyone has given you the best party tips ever but those tips are for “good” parties… if you want to throw the best party and become THE host that makes everybody want to attend your party, you have to get behind the science of it. Let’s take a look at the breakdown.

What Will People Remember About Your Party?

One of the goals of hosting an amazing dinner party is to make sure it’s memorable to your guests, right? Of course, but in making your party memorable, people often think that you have to have something going on every minute of your party, and that’s just not the case. In fact, your guests are only going to remember three things from your party… it’s called your “event impression.”

When people come to your party, they’re going to remember:

1. The first five minutes of arriving at your party: What’s happening as everyone first arrives? Are you greeting them with party favors? You can think of it as an event “first impression.”
2. Something really funny or exciting: You’re hosting a dinner party so that means that something really funny or exciting has to happen or at least be discussed… if not, your party will be remembered as that boring one and you don’t want that!
3. The last five minutes before leaving your party: How do your guests feel as they’re leaving your dinner party? Do they wish it wasn’t ending or that they want to come to your next one? Leaving a good impression is very important as your guests leave because as they’re leaving, they’re going to evaluate the entire night, giving way to the “recency effect,” (remembering the last thing in the order in which it happened).

What’s Your Event First Impression?

An event first impression is just like a human first impression, in the aspect of it not taking too long to formulate one. For people, it typically takes a tenth of a second to formulate a first impression of someone, according to executive-impressions.com, but with dinner parties, you get a little lee-way, so have to get it right the first time, or else you’ll find yourself in host/hostess hell.

 If you’ve ever gone to a dinner party, you were probably a little nervous, wondering if you look okay, where should you put your things, who do you know that you can talk to first? With event first impressions, the only impressions you want to give off to your guests are feelings of comfort and excitement.

Nothing makes a dinner party more awkward than your guests not feeling comfortable or even excited for what the night has to bring. Upon entering your home, your guests should smell food, and the temperature should be perfect. When your guests can walk into your home and experience that, the good times are going to roll.

You can hop on Pinterest and look up different drink recipes for a signature drink for the night. For dinner ideas, you can visit TheMediterraneanDish.com, and find everything from stuffed pepper recipes to an easy Italian baked chicken recipe your guests will love.

The right beverage can set the mood for your party. Consider a nice bottle of wine, or if you’d like to impress people with something unique, you can always put together a signature cocktail. Hosts nowadays also like to get a few bottles of navy strength rum which are perfect for cocktails or drinking them neat. Do some research and know who your guests are before you decide what to buy.

Your Party Needs to Have Highs Not Lows

Again, your dinner party doesn’t need to constantly have something going on but it also doesn’t need to have too much dead time where there’s nothing happening either. The best way to have a good balance of dinner party activities and socializing amongst your guests is to break the evening up into various highs throughout the night. You can make special announcements like calling a toast, introducing the evening’s dessert, and fun games. Splitting the evening into various highs makes it easier for everyone to have a good time, even the introverts who decided to come out!

Becoming the Perfect Host

As the host of your party, it’s your responsibility to make sure your guests are having a good time, right? Of course, so that also means that you also have to socialize with your guests. You should be walking around greeting people and checking on their needs.

If you have single friends there that haven’t met some of your other single friends, introduce them. Even better, if you have friends that work in the same industry introduce them to each other… This is just a great way to be an awesome host and to get your guests to feel more comfortable around each other; this will help you in your efforts of trying to get your guests to stay for the entire party.

All in all, if you take these factors into consideration and incorporate them in your dinner party, you will indeed become the ultimate party host and everyone will hope to be invited to your events.