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Are you hosting any get-togethers this fall? If you ever get in your head when planning parties, like I do, just take a deep breath, remember that people love to hang out with you, and read these entertaining tips from our past house tours. Here goes…
HOSTING IN SMALL SPACES:
1. Rearrange your furniture. “The key to hosting big parties is moving the furniture. Before people arrive, I move everything into the back room. My goal is to make the living/kitchen area feel like a giant dance floor.” — LaTonya Yvette
2. Serve buffet style. “I like setting out a buffet in the kitchen, where everyone can help themselves. Then I can avoid feeling at the end of the night like I didn’t get to have a real conversation with anyone!” — Maggie Pouncey
3. Or just skip dinner altogether. “I love having people over, but only two people fit around my table. So, I invite friends for drinks and apps and let them sprawl around my whole place. I figure it’s less about the food itself than bringing people together and having fun.” — Christina Bryant
EASY MEALS:
4. Consider roast chicken with a twist. “My tried-and-true, learned-from-my-mom recipe is Chicken Marbella. It’s a perfect sweet and salty chicken from the 1980s cookbook The Silver Palate. You marinate the chicken overnight in a combination of prunes and bay leaves and parsley and capers and green olives. It looks really beautiful, and I love serving it with rice and a big salad.” — Hopie Stockman Hill
5. And cumin-glazed salmon is easier than it sounds. “When friends come for dinner, I do a salmon with cumin brown sugar glaze, and sautéed spinach with golden raisins and pine nuts, which is always a hit. It’s not too complicated. I found the basic recipe years ago and have tweaked it to be my own. — Julia Leach
FUN THEMES:
6. Host a talent show. “My friend and I host an annual concert at my apartment. We invite people over; then we play guitar and sing six songs. Our preferred genre is murder ballads, like Caleb Meyer by Gillian Welch. We both have a dark sense of humor, and it’s not anything serious, just an excuse to hang out.” — Corrie Beth Hogg
7. Throw a tomato (or apple or pumpkin) party. “In the summer, I love anything with tomatoes. My friends have historically held an ‘annual tomato fest’ in August — it’s a dinner party where every recipe has tomatoes.” — Taylor Swaim
8. Organize a taste test. “Right now, India is making some of the best gins in the world; I bring back four bottles every time I go. A fun party trick is pulling them all out and doing a taste test with friends. My favorite is Pumori — it’s very cardamon forward.” — Sana Javeri Kadri
OVERNIGHT GUEST TIPS:
9. Sleep in the guest room. “I wanted our guest room to be the perfect spot, so I slept in there myself to try it out. I also feel like people have a bad habit of putting things that they don’t want to see all the time into guest rooms. I flipped that on its head and fill the room with things we really love.” — Justin Reis
10. Fill the fridge. “We keep the fridge stocked with milk, beer, and champagne because we have people stay all the time and want things to be as self-serve and efficient as possible. Whatever is in the fridge is free game.” — Heather Ross
SETTING A RELAXED VIBE:
11. Have an open-door policy. “Once a week, we invite our friends over for dinner. Most times, they will let themselves in before we get home, so by the time we show up, families are already playing and eating popsicles outside. It feels so good.” — Hannah Haehn
12. Stock up on crowd-pleasing drinks. “I try to anticipate what drinks people will want. At an arm’s reach, my brother-in-law can grab a Pellegrino, because he crushes a bunch every night. My friend Annie loves Coors Light, and I never bought them before but now I’m buying them all the time. My husband is always laughing because I keep stocking way up on her favorite drink. But it’s all about making people feel welcome and thought of.” — Heather Taylor
13. Talk to everyone. “Last Christmas, I taught the boys how to mingle, a parenting experience that still makes me laugh. Before our adult friends came over, I told the boys that people would naturally separate into small groups (‘How do you already KNOW that?’ said Toby, wide-eyed), and at the start of the party, the role of the host is to float between groups and chat for a few minutes at each one. The boys excitedly accepted the challenge and spent a half hour rotating between clusters. ‘Okay, gotta go!’ Toby told some friends, at one point. ‘My five minutes are up!’” — Joanna Goddard
How about you? Do you have entertaining tips you always fall back on?
P.S. A menu that works for almost everyone, and are you a party host or enthusiastic guest?
(Heather Taylor’s home photographed by Nicki Sebastian. LaTonya Yvette’s home photographed by Julia Robbs. Emma Straub’s home photographed by Alpha Smoot, styling by Oliver Cano. Justin Reis’ home photographed by Alpha Smoot, styling by Cecilia Elguero. Hannah Haehn’s home photographed by Leela Cyd.)
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