Things that went well / badly

[cjsmith]

1. The guest list had a big, consuming interest in common. MAN did people talk. I think this alone made the party a success.
2. We had enough wine. It is really handy that I had a bunch beforehand.
3. The cats didn't try to escape. They were actually quite social.
4. Tablecloths that drape close to the floor can hide a multitude of clutter-related sins.
5. The furniture layout with lots of room to move around worked very well. (We'd done a fair bit of rearranging.)
6. The trash and recyclables containers were sufficient and were well-marked enough that people found them with no trouble.

Not So Good:
1. Amount of food was way too much. This contributed to...
2. My feet. Food prep is not a sitting-down activity, and a lot of it is not stuff I could do ahead of time. By the time guests arrived I'd been on my feet for eight hours. I was in way too much pain to be a "good hostess" and mingle, bring people drinks, etc. I tried, but not very hard.
3. White wine was pulled from the fridge too early, so it warmed up too much. Keep extras in the fridge longer. On the flip side, the soft drinks can be pulled out into ice chests much earlier. (Fridge space management was a huge issue.)
4. (minor) People asked for permission to open wine. Next time we could put up a "feel free!" sign. We had signs on everything else!

Comments

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I warned you that my estimates always resulted in lots of leftovers!

Sounds like it went really well. Cheese freezes. So do cold cuts.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ayep, and I went with other people's estimates too, also with lots of leftovers! If I had to make a mistake of that magnitude I'm glad it was this direction and not the other. Having one-tenth the amount of food you need is much less pleasant for the guests than having ten times the amount you need.