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Entertaining ideas
Chinese Dinner Party
Celebrate with a dinner party honouring wealth, happiness and good fortune.
Set the tone of your Chinese celebration with striking red and gold invitations.
Take red lanterns, pink and orange blossom, bamboo, black lacquer work and gold highlights as your inspirations. Start with a colour palette of red, pink and orange.
String paper lanterns in crimson, fuchsia and orange along the length of your entertaining space. Set the table with chopsticks and white porcelain Chinese spoons as well as plates, knives and forks. Tie your cutlery and napkins together with pink and orange ribbons and tuck in a pink orchid. For a simple centrepiece, run a red or pink satin table runner down the middle of your table and add red pillar candles in various heights for illumination.
The easiest entertaining solution is to find a local dim sum restaurant and order a selection of delicious appetizers. If you feel confident, then cook up a storm with spring rolls, sweet chicken and corn soup, Sweet and Sour pork, Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, Mongolian lamb, salt and pepper prawns. And don't forget the rice!
Finish the meal with lychees and vanilla ice cream in martini glasses for dessert. Provide Chinese Green tea for your guests to sip throughout dinner.
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Viva Las Vegas Party
Invite your friends for a night of good times and glamour. Throw in a little bit of gambling and you’ve got a party that will be the talk of the town.
Set the scene for the party by sending handmade invitations - simply glue a playing card onto a piece of folded red cardboard.
The trick to make this theme classy rather than brassy is to stick with your colour theme. Think black, white and red - just like a deck of cards - with splashes of green felt fabric on the tables to evoke those casino card tables. Set the scene with some large cardboard cut outs of Las Vegas lights, and then feature special card and dice themed balloons among standard red, black and white helium balloons for a cheap but classy display. Try making a card backdrop by sticking together dozens of cards to form your decorative Ace in the hole! And don't forget to dig out your Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin CDs for some mood music straight from the Brat Pack.
The 'Vesper Martini' was made famous by James Bond, when he ordered it in both the book and movie versions of Casino Royale. Ian Fleming describes it as "Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel.
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Bollywood Nights Dinner Party
Few can resist a good curry and a Bollywood inspired dinner party may be the most fun you’ll have this side of the Taj Mahal!
It's all about lively music, bright fabrics and an exuberant atmosphere. Let your guests know they can expect some fun and frivolity by sending out fabulous themed invitations.
Have some sandalwood incense and candles, and visit a fabric store for a collection of sari material in hot pink, citrus lime and orange. Use this fabric to drape your windows, walls, table, coffee table and even chairs.
For your table, buffet and serving areas, start with your sari fabric backdrop and then add your lavish accents. If you don’t have brightly coloured tableware that suits the Bollywood theme then set the table with your best cutlery and dinnerset, and then complement your theme with tea light candle holders in gold, fuschia, orange and green. Tie your cutlery together in a collection of satin ribbons in the same colours, and rest them alongside Indian style tumblers. Scatter a profusion of flowers in those same colours – think chrysanthemums, dahlias, hibiscus, waterlilies and rose petals for a luxe look.
Encourage your guests to dress up in Bollywood style, and then pull out all stops with henna tattoos and bindis for a bit of decorative fun.
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