ENTERTAINING: Tips on Moving a Party Indoors When it Rains

Where can I put food? 

Do you have a buffet in the dining room that’s loaded with pictures? Dump them in a drawer and set up the sides on top with serving utensils. If you don’t have a buffet, do you have a small folding table you were going to put outside that now can be popped in a corner of the dining room to hold some dishes? Splitting up the food from mains and sides between two areas opens up the food lines a little, so there is not a big traffic jam in one area.

Clear up any and all tables you have in the house, and pull out the extra chairs you have so that people can find seats and empty surfaces to eat and chat.

Use your living room coffee table too if you have one. You can’t see it in this pic-I swear I took a pic of it for you. But oh well! I threw a table cloth on the coffee table in the living room, and let kids know that they could sit around it on the floor and eat their dinner. If you are worried about messes on the carpet, place a washable blanket underneath the table, and throw it in the wash once the guest are gone. If your living room has a TV, entice the kids to sit and eat with a Pixar movie playing. That always works here!

Use your kitchen counters. Here is the Italian beef that I decided to put in a crock pot to save space (versus large trays over Sternos that take up a ton of room), and plug that baby in. Place rolls and toppings near it. To the left I was going to put some other pyrex pans filled with entrees.

Don’t forget your stove. It’s a major surface area in your kitchen, and makes things easy for you because you won’t have to travel far once things are heated up. I decided once I pulled out my lasagnas, I was going to just keep them on the stove, have a pot of heated sauce for topping on a burner, throw in the serving spoons and let the hunger games begin.

Figure out a place where guests can grab the essentials; plates, utensils, napkins, pepper. I decided the small counter near my stove which was now going to feature the main dishes hot out of the oven was best. Make the area nice by using matching linen and some flowers to alert people visually to the area.

Find a place to feature your desserts. Here my kitchen table was doing double duty. We cleared it, added the leaf to make it larger and brought out extra chairs so it could accommodate more guests to eat comfortably. And it helped show off my homemade pies that I was serving for dessert. 

Now this year I bought a long and skinny folding table that fits nicely under my dining room window. Its skinniness allows it to stay out of the way, but I can put out all my desserts, coffee cups, desert plates, coffee carafe and forks on this table. It keep things out of the way until needed toward the end of the evening. I bought it at Kmart for 30 bucks. It caused a marital argument of monumental proportion of which I won. But every time I use it at a party, I am sooo happy. It can work for drinks, or you can put plates and stuff on it too. It has been worth the marital strife. Trust me.

Find some counter space for wine glasses, charms, cups, a sharpie (for guests to write their name so they don’t lose their drink) cocktail ingredients and such if you don’t have a bar. We don’t have a traditional bar. SO I move all of C’ school papers, and the misc nonsense that piles up on this part of the counter, and I made it a drink station. 

We also kept a giant cooler outside the kitchen door with pop and juice. It’s the only thing we kept outside, and we kept it close for guests so they wouldn’t get too wet if they wanted to grab a beer just outside the door.

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