Do you want to throw a dinner party, but planning one seems like more work than you can handle? Don’t sweat it. As long as you create a fantastic menu, the rest of your party planning will fall into place.

Most of your attention should be put toward the menu of your dinner party. Planning a formal dinner party, or is casual more your thing? Do you want to plan a sit-down dinner, or is buffet going to work better in your house?

To answer some of these questions, you first need to know how many people you want at your party. If you’re preparing the food yourself, it’s a good idea to keep your guest list under ten people. This will keep your preparations manageable; becoming overwhelmed before the party is not what this is all about.

Next, plan for the menu to have a little bit for every type. Even though this is your party, you should still make sure you know your guests’ preferences. Serve foods that will satisfy meat lovers, as well as vegetarians.

For your main dish, whether it’s steak, chicken, prime rib, or fish, make sure it’s fresh. For the freshest meat selections, visit your local meat market or fish market instead of a supermarket. They’ll have the freshest cuts available. Once you try this for your party (if you haven’t done so already), you’ll have a hard time going back to supermarket meats.

When buying produce for your menu, you should also stick with the freshest stuff available to you. If you have your own garden, then you should definitely use whatever you have there. If you don’t have your own garden, and it’s summertime, head out to a farmer’s market in your area. Depending on how big the market is, you can usually get a good selection from the various farmers.

Your other option for produce is going to someplace like Whole Foods, Trader Joes, or some other organic food store. In a lot of cases, your local supermarket will be just fine for produce. Just make sure that whatever you purchase is the freshest you can find.

Whether you get your food from Whole Foods, Trader Joes, a farmer’s market, or your own garden, it’s important to try to come up with something seasonal when planning your dinner party menu. For example, you don’t want to serve a summer fruit salad in the middle of January. You can’t always stick to this philosophy, and all of your guests may not notice, but the ones who do will appreciate it.

Dinner party planning doesn’t have to be some monumental feat. Just keep in mind how many people you have coming, your guests preferences (if you know them), and that you should always buy the freshest when it comes to meats and produce. Having these few planning points on your checklist will help you throw a successful dinner party that your guests will enjoy, and will have them looking forward to your next party.

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