Help meeee! It is our turn to host "dinner club" and I am thinking that our house...

[Old Dominion Heather]

I am thinking that the house may just be too small. There are 12 adults in our supper club at our church and some of the guys and at least one of the women are at or over six feet. We have a combined livingroom/dining room area and a table that I had thought was big. (It will seat eight.) The room is about 240 square feet.

 

I have this many people over pretty often, but they are usually our age or younger and I don't think they mind sitting on the floor or being pretty cramped. I just fix something on a buffet and we eat wherever.

 

But the Supper Club people are all older and more formal than we are, which is not to say that they are ancient of days, just older. As in 40's and 50's. We can just host at a restaurant, but I feel bad doing that since they have all had us over for dinner at their (really big) homes.

 

I love my house, but it is not as large as the houses of those who have hosted, so I don't know how comfortable they would be with the smushed in factor. I don't know any of them very well. We have only been attending the church for about 6 months. I don't know any of them outside of church. (Sigh)

 

So I guess the question is this: Should I even attempt to have these people over? What would you all do? Host somewhere else? Let them be smushed? Spread out on the floor?

 

How did I get myself into this mess???

[Jennifer in MI]

Invite them to your house. How is the weather where you are? Could you seat people outside? On a porch? When we had a smaller house, we used to do outdoor parties.

 

If not, push the table against the wall, serve a buffet on nice plates and use nice silverware (use this as an excuse to use your wedding silver and china!), serve wine (I think that wine glasses really dress up a table - no matter how small! LOL), and have a good time. Have people sit in your living room in the comfortable chairs. I think it would be really nice!

[Liz CA]

I.

 

I have this many people over pretty often, but they are usually our age or younger and I don't think they mind sitting on the floor or being pretty cramped. I just fix something on a buffet and we eat wherever.

 

 

So I guess the question is this: Should I even attempt to have these people over? What would you all do? Host somewhere else? Let them be smushed? Spread out on the floor?

 

How did I get myself into this mess???

 

...make sure everybody has a seat, chair, couch, something. Do you know how many people you can expect? If there is a chance that more will show up than you were led to expect, don't make elaborate excuses, just see if you can find extra seating places.

Perhaps you'll have to borrow chairs from a neighbor.

If there is not any space to mingle, people will stay seated. I've been to many small houses and have lived in small houses. In my experience, people make do and a smaller house can make it more fun because people are not spread out into far-flung corners.

 

I've never been to a person's house and walked away thinking :"Gosh, how tiny" but I've been to a family in a fairly small house and thought how cozy, warm and welcoming it was.

I bet your house is just beautiful! Don't apologize about anything and enjoy the evening. :D

[Old Dominion Heather]

It is too cold to be outside, or I would just do a cookout, but in VA in March, it might be 80F or there might be snow, you just don't know until the day. We don't have enough seating in the living room. Some would have to sit on the floor.

 

The dinners we have been to have been VERY formal. Wine is a given at these meals, in fact there are usually at least four to choose from as well as a non-alcoholic choice.

 

I do love my china, but unfortunately, I don't have enough settings for everyone. I hadn't actually remembered that til now.

[DB in NJ]

I would definitely have them over to your house. Make sure everyone has somewhere to sit down; asking 50 year olds to sit on the floor isn't good LOL I'm only 43, and I wouldn't mind sitting on the floor, but I don't know if I'd ask other people to do it.

 

Do you have TV trays? Do you have a mother, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, or friend who has TV trays?? I would push the table up against the wall, serve a casual meal buffet style, have chairs grouped here and there with TV trays for everyone. Casual and easy does it.

 

Most of all, be comfortable with yourself. If YOU are comfy, your guests will be comfy too. I promise!

[Jennifer in MI]

Most of all, be comfortable with yourself. If YOU are comfy, your guests will be comfy too. I promise!

 

Yup!

 

You know, I'd still use my nice china. I'd just add in some of my everyday. People will understand! Really. If you want to offer wine - do so. One type is fine. You could also serve an alcoholic punch (cheaper than wine). Or, buy a box of wine and put it in a caraffe. I like the idea of tv trays for everyone.

 

So, what's on the menu? I love planning parties!

[whitestavern]

This is a problem some people in our supper club have as well. What they do is most of them have a dining room or kitchen that they have a table in and then they set up a dining table in another room (usually a family or living room). Each couple picks a number to determine which table they'll be sitting at. So far it has worked out nicely. Everyone gets the formal sit down meal, and the smaller groups enable nice conversation and makes it easier to get to know people.

[Tracey in TX]

I've always hosted parties entirely too large for the house! It's a blast; the more the merrier. We've had 25 people in an 1000 sq ft home; our current home is 4000 sq ft and we've had 150 mothers/daughters for an afternoon tea. Let it be about the joy and experience. Maybe make it Japanese style where sitting on the floor is expected :)

 

Have fun. Share the love of your home with your friends!

[Tutor]

Since you said that your dining room and living room were one big room, would it be big enough to place the dining table in the center and put a long piece of plywood on it to make it longer? Since it already seats 8, you wouldn't need much more length to seat 12. My folks did this for ages when all they had was a glass-topped patio table as their dining table. It normally sat 6, but with the plywood (which I think my dad used TV tables to use as props on the ends) it sat at least 8 adults and 3 kids. Just make sure you put something under the plywood so you don't scratch your dining table. You can get a long table cloth to put on top.

 

We live in a tiny house and have people over all the time. We don't have a long enough space to increase the table size with plywood, so we put picnic blankets on the floor for kids and just place groups of chairs and small tables around for adults. We bought a couple padded folding chairs and have lots of ottomans around to use as chairs in a pinch. We rearrange end tables, TV tables and nightstands so we have enough surface area. We even move chairs closer to windows so people can put their drinks down on the windowsills if they need to. We usually serve wine, so we have a lot of inexpensive wine glasses and some wedding crystal to fill that purpose, but we usually use nice paper plates and plastic silverware when we have more than 10 guests because we've found that guests are more comfortable putting paper plates on the floor if they need to than our china or everyday dishes.

 

As DB in NJ pointed out, if you're comfortable, they'll be comfortable. Have fun and enjoy. What time is dinner? Oh, and where do you live? ;)

[Old Dominion Heather]

But our kitchen is galley style, so no luck there with the table. Only other largish room (12x12) is our bedroom.

 

The only really big thing that we have done here is a family reunion where we were packed to the gills with 30 people on the floor and upstairs and outside. I didn't care if they sat on the floor! They have to love me anyway!;)

[Old Dominion Heather]

I am thinking that we might make do, but it is hard to know whether they would be comfortable with being that informal. So far our dinners have been very formal and in houses at least 3-4 times the square footage of ours, so it is hard to say.

 

They seem like nice people, but it was mentioned at the first dinner that if you had a house that was too small to seat everyone comfortably that everyone would just go out to dinner together, and that that is what had been done before.

 

I had assumed that the dinners would be on the less formal side and felt confident that we would all fit, but so far our "informal" dinner was on where we made our own pizzas and sat down at an exquisitely decorated table with china, sideboards, etc... to eat. Beautiful home and wonderful, gracious hosts... they made us feel very welcome, but their "informal" was what I would consider still pretty doggone formal. :p

 

I think part of the problem is that these are NOT people who we would normally hang out with, so the thought of really relaxing with these people, even though they are very nice... I just don't know.:confused:

[Renee in NC]

You can rent chairs and tables from a party rental place pretty inexpensively (at least more inexpensive than a restaurant!) Move all the furniture against the walls and set up the tables in the middle.

[Danestress]

Heather, just hostess the way you always do! People will enjoy the difference and enjoy seeing how your entertainment style is different from theirs. At the very worst, they will get to feel superior:)

 

We had this same problem in our first church as a married couple. DH was active duty and we lived on base. Everyone else was civilian and living in town in lovely old Southen homes. I did the best I could and once I just cooked and we ate around the fire place on the floor. It was fun. Just do whatever seems best to you and pray for each person by name before they come. Ask God to bless the gathering, and to take your mind off the particulars of hostessing.