✦ Don’t invite more guests than you can comfortably accommodate.
✦ Keep the “friendship factor” in mind. The best word of advice? Be sensitive to people’s feelings. Try not to exclude anyone who would be hurt if not invited, even if it means adjusting your space or planning a less expensive menu. For example, if two or three couples usually pal around together and are always invited to the same parties, don’t exclude one of them if you can help it.
✦ Keep the personalities and interests of your potential guests in mind to create a harmonious mix. Give some thought to their compatibility.
✦ Try for a balance of male and female guests, especially for a formal sit-down
dinner party.
✦ It is said that the ideal number of guests for a formal dinner party is no more than six to eight, the perfect number for gathering comfortably around most dining room tables.
✦ When composing your guest list for a wedding shower, it is proper etiquette to invite only those who will also be invited to the wedding.
✦ Be as specific as possible when telling guests how to dress. If you have in- vited guests from other states, keep in mind that what is appropriate for a certain type of party in one part of the country may not be in another. Here are some helpful definitions regarding party attire.
1. “Black tie” usually means dinner jackets for men and long or short evening dresses for women.
2. “White tie” indicates white ties and tails for men and long dresses for women.
3. “Informal attire” technically means that the men should wear suits and the women should wear suits or dresses. This is often confused with “ca- sual,” however, which means dressing in appropriate, comfortable attire for the occasion, such as jeans and Western shirts for a barbecue, or shorts and tennis shoes for an old-fashioned picnic.
arriving in a nice dress when what the hostess really meant by “informal at- tire” was jeans and a T-shirt.
