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9.07.2015

WHY DINNER PARTIES SHOULD BE A THING

Why Dinner Parties Should Be a Thing

It all started with Shauna Niequist's Bread and Wine. I devoured that book (pun intended) in a matter of days, and as soon as I closed the last page, I thought, I want to host a dinner party. I didn't know how or when, but all I knew is I wanted to see a table full of my favourite people in my home, eating a glorious meal, swapping stories, and enjoying plenty of laughter (the best). 

Life went on, but the back of my mind continued to chant dinner party, dinner party, dinner party. Finally, the opportunity presented itself. My Texas-dwelling friend, May Michael, decided it was high time to come visit, and after a flurry of texts and a last-minute change of plans, the date was set and only a week away. For a moment, the idea came that her visit would be the perfect excuse for an elaborate, lavish dinner party that would make Bread and Wine proud. 

but things didn't go exactly to plan. 
That week was the busiest I'd seen in a while, and time to plan was nonexistent. But after mentioning May's visit to some other dear friends, Jordan and Emily, we thought, hey, we can totally make this dinner party thing work for Sunday evening. Jordan, who also recently finished Bread and Wine, suggested Shauna's bacon-wrapped date recipe for the menu, but that was about as far as our planning went. (Completely on top of things, we know.) 

My week just kept getting busier and dinner plans were pushed to the back burner. (Is that another pun? I'm on fire today.) I was gone three days and had an article for Grafted Magazine to finish (I literally made the final edit exactly half an hour before May Michael arrived). So when Saturday came around, I suddenly realized the only thing we had planned for our dinner was the dates. Procrastination had expired; it was time for action. After consultations with May Michael and my mama, we went for the quick and easy route: the aforementioned dates, plenty of coffee and iced tea, and a pancake bar with strawberries and ricotta cream (because who doesn't love breakfast food for dinner, am I right?).

it turned out to be perfect. 
Though, I must admit, it was not what I originally had in mind after Bread and Wine. There were no elaborate decorations or exotic menus or long guest lists or fancy table settings or tall glasses of red wine. Instead, it was a close group of friends flipping pancakes and slicing fruit and stuffing dates with goat cheese, sipping iced coffee out of plastic cups with paper straws. We gathered around a full table of iced tea and peanut butter and chocolate chips, talking about Jesus and life and love and relationships. We shared stories and made each other laugh until we couldn't breathe and just thoroughly enjoyed each other's existence. We talked about our struggles and innermost goals and appalling secrets (heh heh). We ate too much and consumed an illegal amount of coffee and watched Audrey Hepburn and took pictures. 

Now I'm just further convinced dinner parties need to be a regular thing (and I'm determined to make that happen). Ours was small and impromptu and a bit unplanned and last-minute, but in the end, details weren't important. What mattered was that friendships were made stronger, good words were shared, and the beauty of people, life, and the love of our Jesus was celebrated to the full. 

and it included some pretty darn good food.

So tell me... have you ever hosted a dinner party? Was it fabulous? Disastrous? Or is it something you'd like to try one day?

Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A ThingWhy Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing
Why Dinner Parties Should Be A Thing

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22 comments:

  1. OH HEY I LOVE THIS. COZ, FOOD. AND GORGEOUS PEOPLE. AND COFFEE. AND PAPER STRAWS FROM SOME FABULOUS PERSON OVERSEAS. XD

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  2. Your pictures are so good, girl!!!

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  3. That looks PERFECT. And DELICIOUS. <3

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  4. Yum.Just YUM! xD
    Those pancakes look superrrrrrrrb!

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  5. So, so perfect and beautiful and everything nice. <3

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  6. Love it! I think I'm always in a mood to host a dinner party, and though I've only co-hosted a couple times, it's always a blast! Actually, I was planning on going the dinner party route for my birthday this year (it's in a month therefore I'm allowed to start planning, right? Riiight??). I'm going to have to snatch a copy of Bread and Wine to read up before the occasion!

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    1. That's a fabulous idea! Um, are you kidding? I start planning my birthdays like three months in advance. :D Yes, yes, you definitely should read it!

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  7. BLAHHHHH. SO GORGEOUS. We must do this. I'm coming. Now. Get the bacon and coffee out. Replace Audrey with Stanley, though. ; )

    Seriously, now I need to plan a dinner party. Gosh. Thanks. : P

    -Ashley-

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    1. I KNOOOOW IT WAS WONDERFUL. Okay. I'm frying the bacon and brewing the coffee now. Just COME.

      Yup. You do. You won't regret it. :)

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    2. Girl, we need to get together.

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  8. I've actually been thinking it'd be super duper fun to host a dinner party for my 22nd birthday coming up in January!!! :) Any ideas on yummy food?? ;) xoxo

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    1. That would be so fun!! Well, the book I mentioned, Bread + Wine, has a load of delicious sounding recipes in it. That's where we got the bacon-wrapped dates recipe, and those were DIVINE. Seriously, they are my new addiction and I crave them every time I sit down to a meal. I've always thought a fancy Italian meal would be fun (Italian food is my faaaaavourite), but now that I've done it, it's pretty hard to beat the breakfast-for-dinner route. ;) Or if you wanted to be super adventurous, you could choose a crazy French recipe out of Julia Child's cookbook and make a menu around that! But I mean, it's food, so options are kind of endless. :D have fun!

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  9. This sounds absolutely delightful! I'm seeing a trend, and now I'm wondering if I could pull off a dinner party for my 21st birthday next month. You've made it sound oh so lovely. And those photos you took: seriously GORGEOUS use of the light!

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  10. wheeeew, the food looks absolutely delish! (also you girls are stunning).

    i love how everything turned out! now i really wanna have some girlfriends over to chill and make dinner heehee <3<3

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  11. Okay, so I thought I would comment on here, because I read this around 3 times and loved it so much! :D
    This year I've been wanting to go out of my comfort zone, to try new, challenging things (and not this year - I want to continue doing that!) and I'd JUST decided that for my next school term I'd try some daunting cooking recipes that I'd never ventured to try before. I'd also been imaging hosting a small dinner for my friends, or something, so this post came at exactly the right time. :) First off, I must admit, I've not hosted a dinner party, nor tried the daunting recipes, as of yet, but I'm by no means less eager to do it. You look like you had so much fun!! I'd love to do that (although I'd doubt my friends would be very keen for the cooking part - almost none are home-schoolers, sadly, and don't really enjoy things like that for some reason). Also, I put that book on my to-read list. :D I've never read a book like that before, and I love trying new book genres, especially the inspiring kind of books (which it sounds like)! And all that food still looks SO delicious. (By the way, all you girls are so pretty! I noticed your sister Lydia was wearing a purity ring. I've always liked the idea of that, although my family doesn't do it.)
    I know this is rambling and disjointed and I'm basically restating a lot, but I just HAD to comment. Especially since you changed it so that I was able to. :) But seriously, this post truly inspired me!
    ~Miss Meg March

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