Sponsored by Dr. Oetker
I love getting together with friends, especially having a “Girls Night In” with my girlfriends! Today, I’m happy to share some simple tips for hosting a stress free dinner party along with a fabulous giveaway to help you plan a fun night in with your friends!
When it comes to a party or simple dinner with friends, I’m all about making it easy! I used to go crazy with decorations and fancy recipes, but that just became too stressful and not fun at all. These days, I’m much less stressed and do things that are easy and fun for me as well as my guests.
I hope you enjoy these quick tips and the awesome giveaway!
1. Enjoy dinner yourself by serving something simple.
You don’t have to cook a five course meal to host a fabulous dinner party! I love to bake simple dishes to make dinner parties low stress.
As you know, I’ve been working with Ristorante Pizza and love serving their scrumptious pizza anytime I have friends come over. Not only is this pizza so easy to make, but it tastes like homemade! My latest favorite is their Mozzarella pizza with tomatoes, Edam cheese and a herbs that perfectly compliment the generous helping of cheese on top. Doesn’t this look delicious and oh so fancy? Nobody will know you didn’t make it from scratch:-)
Adding a fresh salad to something store-bought makes entertaining so much easier!
Slicing some goat cheese and placing it on toasted bread or crackers always makes a good presentation as well.
Check out the Ristorante Store Locator to find this brand of frozen pizza near you.
2. Make a Beautiful Presentation with Items You Already Own
For easy wow factor, use a tablecloth and get out those fancy dishes, serving trays, napkins and glasses that you keep stored away. Simple white dishes and just one or two accent colors make a great tablescape.
Flowers and centerpieces should be short enough to talk over. I like getting inexpensive grocery store flowers or picking flowers from my garden and dividing them up into several small vases. Sometimes I use fancy glasses for my vases.
3. Have a Drink and Appetizer Station
Designate a table or counter space just for drinks and appetizers so people can help themselves. This gives you plenty of time to chat with friends and frees you to go back and forth to the kitchen to finish up things for dinner if needed. I like to put appetizers in areas I would like people to sit. Having food in that space insures they will congregate around that area of your home.
Break open the wine or sparkling cider. For some reason, drinking from fancy glasses is always so much more fun! Make sure to have extra wine, glasses and bottle openers out and ready to go when needed.
4. Have a Conversation Piece
A conversation piece can be a fancy dessert, beautiful centerpiece, fun napkins or silly wine glasses with goofy quotes on them. I often think about the conversation piece just as much as the food! My girlfriends and I love the Lolita wine glasses.
For my latest girl’s night in, I made spiked popsicles with my new ring popsicle molds! Now that is a conversation piece right? Ha!
To make these popsicles, I added a little bit of Pomegranate Vodka to some Pom Hula Juice. Yum!
5. End with a Delicious Dessert
You want to give your guests a lasting impression with a fabulous dessert!
I’ve got a ton of great dessert recipes if you need a new idea for your next party. If you don’t want to cook, just pop over to your local bakery and get some yummy cupcakes. You can’t go wrong with cake!
Girls Night In Giveaway!
Now, thanks to Ristorante Pizza, you get a chance to win some great prizes to help you plan a fabulous Girls Night In Dinner Party! I’m giving away some accessories to take your Girls Night In to the next level and make the party planning process stress-free!
Here are the fun prizes you could win…
- Apples to Apples game
- What’s a Dame to do? game
- 12 Stemless White Wine Glasses from Crate & Barrel
- 12.5″ Platter from Crate & Barrel
- 2 Ristorante Coupons
Follow the directions on the widget to enter to win. Good Luck!
Another BIG Giveaway…
While you’re planning your summer parties, don’t forget to enter Ristorante’s Savor Your Summer Sweepstakes on Facebook with prizes valued at $1,500!
Enter for your chance to win a partial home makeover and to bring together just the right combination of food and people who are important to create a Perfect Night In.
Follow Dr. Oetker USA on Facebook to get more details.
This is a sponsored post on behalf of Dr. Oetker USA LLC. I received compensation for this post; however, all opinions stated are my own.
Gailen Jacobs Runge says
July 17, 2014 at 2:54 pmtalking. Food and drinks are nice, but as long as we can sit down and catch up, that's perfect!
Stephanie says
July 17, 2014 at 9:11 amMy favorite girls night activity is to watch a movie we’ve all been waiting to see and eat food!
Lisa Griggy Heddleson says
July 17, 2014 at 12:31 pmDrinks and a fun girlie movie with fun appetizers and lots of laughing
Laura Stilwell says
July 17, 2014 at 12:27 pmDinner and drinks.
Sandra says
July 17, 2014 at 6:52 amHaving a kids free dinner and talking!
Susan Tuma says
July 16, 2014 at 9:04 amGoing out to dinner and just talking.
Jen M. says
July 15, 2014 at 9:23 amPlay Mexican train!
Lisa Jones says
July 15, 2014 at 1:12 amMaking Paella together with your friends makes a wonderful party!
Kellie says
July 14, 2014 at 7:25 pmJust sitting around chatting about our lives, maybe while making a craft or working on a project.
Bev says
July 14, 2014 at 10:25 amLunch and lots of laughs!!!
Kara Sharp says
July 14, 2014 at 2:55 pmWine and delicious appetizers, with some great conversation!!
Sue Kennedy says
July 14, 2014 at 9:04 amI love playing bunco with my girlfriends
Amy M. C. says
July 12, 2014 at 8:41 pmI like to hang out at a great restaurant or coffee shop.
carogonza says
July 12, 2014 at 8:03 pmWe like staying in and watching movies
Brandy says
July 12, 2014 at 6:20 pmDinner out!
Sarah Avila-Ward says
July 12, 2014 at 1:54 pmA dinner with fabulous wine enjoyed outside!
Natalie Yarbrough says
July 12, 2014 at 12:17 amI love playing apples to apples, blaring music in the background and watching a good movie after.
Laura | Baking Outside the Box says
July 11, 2014 at 2:13 pmSuch cute ideas for a fun dinner party. nice giveaway too.
Natalie Jacques Belinsky says
July 11, 2014 at 6:48 pmI just love getting together with my girls and we chat and et and have fun!
Jane Maynardj says
July 11, 2014 at 1:42 pmjust sitting around and talking! 🙂
Maria says
July 11, 2014 at 11:07 amDessert, drinks and games are my favorite girls night activity
Kelly D says
July 11, 2014 at 7:51 amI like going to a nice restaurant.
Consuelo says
July 11, 2014 at 6:49 amLadies Night In – “Happiness as is” friends and I started a compliment box where we write down things about each other and read them out loud by the end of the evening. Its a great conversation starter
Stephanie j says
July 11, 2014 at 6:29 amWine and crafts!
Lucie Skinner says
July 11, 2014 at 2:02 amDrinking, eating & having fun
Melissa says
July 11, 2014 at 12:26 amgirls night in… we cook dinner, drink wine and gossip
Jodi Ross Hill says
July 11, 2014 at 3:05 amDrinking wine and making crafts is my favorite girls night out activity!
Patty Doering-Montpetit says
July 11, 2014 at 2:32 amI love playing most games and visiting
Carrie says
July 10, 2014 at 9:05 pmDinner & dessert
Lindsey says
July 10, 2014 at 8:39 pmMy favorite girls night activity is watching movies and doing hair/nails!
Barbara Schieving says
July 10, 2014 at 5:57 pmI love going to a musical or a play since my husband doesn’t really enjoy those.
Tamrah T. says
July 10, 2014 at 5:13 pmWe girls will just keep it simple with a movie and dessert.
Contessa Aiello says
July 10, 2014 at 8:16 pmNothing better than getting together with old friends and giggling until you pee! Been there, done that and laughed even more.
evelyn says
July 10, 2014 at 1:59 pmchatting with girl friends.
Tracy says
July 10, 2014 at 1:15 pmMy girls night would consist of dinner, wine, & conversation.
Victorya Marie Bankson says
July 10, 2014 at 6:06 pmMy least favorite girls night activity has to be watching movies, cause i feel like im not getting that time in with them.
susan says
July 10, 2014 at 12:14 pmI love going out to the movies.
Abigail Sweeney Bernier says
July 10, 2014 at 5:08 pmDoes drinking wine count as an activity?!
Kimber Chambless says
July 10, 2014 at 12:08 pmJust Drinking coffee or wine and doing a lot of talking and listening 🙂
Kara Thomas says
July 10, 2014 at 12:06 pmPlaying 42, or dictionary, and just talking with my friends!
foodandcrafts says
July 10, 2014 at 11:44 amJust chatting over wine and snacks.
teresa says
July 10, 2014 at 11:38 amDinner outside and conversation….planning one for next week. =)
Thanks
Jessica Noffsinger says
July 10, 2014 at 4:29 pmCatching up over a cold beverage!
Mar says
July 10, 2014 at 11:26 amGirls night out starts Margaritas at El Paragua followed by a fabulous dinner and later dancing. But most of all great conversation and lots of laughs!
Jeanie Brown says
July 10, 2014 at 4:16 pmBunco! Great drinks, yummy food, fun friends, what more can a girl ask for?
Donna O'Neil says
July 10, 2014 at 10:46 amI haven’t had a girls night in about 6 years. I think manicures and cocktails after would be a fun girls night.
Bridget T. says
July 10, 2014 at 10:34 amWe like to play games, Nerts, Mexican Train, or Trivial Pursuit.
Jessica w says
July 10, 2014 at 10:33 amwatching a movie, while doing manicures, and drinking some great mixed drinks
Julia D. says
July 10, 2014 at 10:30 amAlways fun with our funny friends!
Rach says
July 10, 2014 at 10:16 amCocktails or wine, bad tv and catching up on all the things we’ve missed out on being that lives and work take over and we only get to do this once a month!
Helen Vigil says
July 10, 2014 at 3:08 pmWine and appies party, for sure!
Tracy L says
July 10, 2014 at 10:01 amYummy snacks, music, time to talk
Melissa Olson says
July 10, 2014 at 9:52 amgreat company and awesome food!
Bev says
July 10, 2014 at 9:34 amLunch a lots of laughs
Liz S. says
July 10, 2014 at 9:30 amMy favorite girls’ night activity is movie-watching.
Katrina Turnbach says
July 10, 2014 at 2:30 pmChatting with fancy drinks
Judi Fields Peffley says
July 10, 2014 at 2:27 pmThis is what my life needs! Girls' nights in!
Kim Olson says
July 10, 2014 at 2:24 pmCatching up over a glass of wine
Whitney Mihalik says
July 10, 2014 at 2:17 pmI LOVE movie nights in!
Roxanne Russell says
July 10, 2014 at 9:16 amKaraoke!!
Liz says
July 10, 2014 at 9:15 amMy friends and I call it “indoor camping” which involves lots of snacks, blankets, couches, pjs, bad tv, and smores in the oven. It may make the best Friday nights ever.
lesley says
July 10, 2014 at 8:54 ammy BFF and i always make margaritas, nachos and watch sons of anarchy or something like that