Our Gr8 Party Outlines set out the decisions we made to make these dinners a bit easier. You don't have to stress about having friends over!
During our first meeting over 20 years ago, we set some ground rules.
Since all of us were moms of at least 2 kids, these dinners had to be considered fairly easy or we would never have begun this adventure!
And, most importantly, none of us were trained chefs, we are all just moms who learned to cook from our mothers or were self taught.
So, here are the rules we agreed on at that first meeting:
- Each couple hosts one time per year at their house, this means we get together 4 times each year.
- The 4 dates are set at the beginning of the year. All 8 of us try extra hard to not change a date (it's amazing how challenging it is to get 4 dates that work for all of us!).
- The hostess is responsible for the theme, the invitations (see #6), and most of the cooking.
- Generally, the hostess assigns the other 3 couples the salad, a side dish and dessert. But this can vary, sometimes one of the couples brings an appetizer. There is no hard and fast rule as to what everyone brings. But everyone does bring something!
- The recipes don't have to be tried beforehand (we are all busy moms). If a dish doesn't turn out, we order pizza! (We've NEVER had to order pizza. Some recipes maybe weren't exactly as we wished, but we've always had PLENTY of food!)
- The hostess always delivers an invitation at least a week ahead of the date. This is an IMPORTANT part of the success of our group. The invitation sets the tone and tells each couple what they are to bring. Now all of our friends look forward to seeing the creative invitations we get for each party. Remember, you only have to make 3 invitations.
We've had everything from casual parties about sports to fancy holiday parties to cultural themes, and more.
Check out all of our Gr8 dinner parties!
Anna
Hi Colleen, welcome Gr8 Friend! Love the set-up of your group, the middle of the week sounds fun! And yes, we get together randomly at other times of the year, but for sure, 4 hosted dinners. Have a Gr8 day!
Colleen
I've just discovered this. Reminds me of a cooking group I had going for 10+ years with 3 other couples. We called it MOME. Which is Middle of the Month Experimentation. Our rules were to meet in the middle of the month in the middle of the week (Wednesdays), you HAD to make at least ONE new recipe and if the host for the month wanted to pull the plug and meet a restaurant we would do that. We hosted more often. The 3 couples each hosted once per quarter (4x per year). It got us together 12x a year. As with any good thing, after 10 years it had run its course (moves, kids, divorce).
I like your idea as 4x a year is very manageable with family schedules these days. Glad I found this.
Thank you!
Anna
Hi Bernie! We are very blessed to have such a Gr8 Group! I checked out your blog and it looks amazing...thanks for visiting!
Bernie Dezenski
I love this concept - SO much fun!! What a great group 🙂
Jurga
Donna,
You're on! LOVE those cookies!
Donna Barnecut
OMG..... LOVE THIS!!!!! Congrats Ladies and am proud to know each of you, but are you all taking turns to come over and service my cutting boards? I will provide plenty of cookies
Much love to all of you,
Donna❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
[email protected]
Working on that!
alex
You should have a pick and bio of each couple!