How to Host a Fall Dinner Party (2024)
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The Concept
I absolutely love this time of year. It’s my favorite, hands down. I embody and embrace the fall season like no one I’ve ever met. If I could make money off the fall season, I absolutely would. My family and friends all know me as the hostess and party planner, and I’m good at it. I’m the one constantly getting everyone together for trips, parties, events, or movie nights. I am the dictionary definition of an extrovert and I love to entertain. That’s why I decided to host a fall dinner party and also show you how to host a fall dinner party!
When I lived around my family back in Pennsylvania, something we started doing with some of my cousins was having Sunday family dinners and other family get-togethers. We fellowshipped, ate good food, chatted, and played games. It’s your typical Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Sunday afternoon and I wouldn’t have it any other way! Now that I’m married and have moved across the country, I cherish those memories.
With fall slowly creeping into society again (the official first day of Fall 2024 is September 22), I wanted a way to get my family in the mood for fall. Enter, the inaugural 2023 Fall Dinner Party. When you plan any kind of party, there is typically at least some time and financial obligation. And let me tell you, sometimes it is not cheap! However, I absolutely love doing it, so it’s completely worth it to me.
RELATED: Check out my 13 Reasons to Get Excited For Fall!
Atmosphere/Mood
I think we sometimes underestimate the importance of the atmosphere and mood within a dinner party. That’s why I make sure it’s a focal piece to almost every party I plan. I am all about a cozy, comfy life, and I wanted the same for my fall dinner party. My family is laidback and I knew they wouldn’t want a stuffy party, but I did want to impress them with delicious food and a beautiful tablescape. Check out how I added to the atmosphere for my fall dinner party.
Table linens
Every dinner party needs a pretty table. My mom has a beautiful wood table, but likes to keep it covered with a tablecloth. She also likes patterned tablecloths, but for my fall dinner party, a neutral tablecloth was a must. I picked a simple white tablecloth because I planned to add a runner for an extra layer on the table.
Honestly, I don’t remember where I found the tablecloth, but I purchased the runner from At Home. Originally, I wanted a burlap table runner but couldn’t find them anywhere. I settled for this neutral runner. It’s gray with pumpkins on it and I ended up really liking it. It really tied all the table elements together quite nicely.
Plates, cups, and flatware
The last thing I wanted to do at the end of our meal (probably the most important element of a fall dinner party) was clean dishes for an hour. For parties, I usually opt for plates, flatware, and cups that can be thrown away. Sometimes it’s a bummer though, because there are so many cute options, and I just don’t want to throw them away!
Plates – We had an appetizer before our meal (more on that later), so I knew I would need smaller plates and that I wanted them to match the dinner plates. I found these adorable plaid pumpkin small paper plates for the appetizers and a large version of them for our main meal. Underneath, I placed a lacey pumpkin doily that I bought from Dollar General. They were only $1 for a pack of 2!
Flatware, napkins, and cups – To go with the colors, I picked up this copper foil cutlery set from Hobby Lobby. If you haven’t figured out by now, I’m a Hobby Lobby fanatic! We used these plaid pumpkin napkins, and they of course matched the plates. In order to add to the atmosphere, I wrapped the cutlery in plain, white napkins and added a cute, little berry sprig to them. I’ll be talking more about how I did it later. The cups came from At Home. We had an apple cider bar and I bought insulated cups, which also came from At Home.
Centerpiece
This was my favorite part of our table. I am blessed with an eye for creativity and I love putting it to good use. I received great feedback from what I created! All of the pieces came from Hobby Lobby. I used the following elements to put it together (you can also find the links with each item):
Wood dough bowl, size small
Mini pumpkins and pinecones (I’m not certain this is exactly what I bought, but it’s close)
Pumpkins, gourds, and pinecones (These weren’t the exact ones I bought. The ones I bought were more metallic and shiny, but these would work as well.)
Ivory flameless candles – I bought a pack of small candles, a tall one, and two medium ones all separately. In hindsight, I should have just bought a set because it probably would have been much cheaper!
Music
It may be last on this list, but in my opinion, it’s so important to have a good playlist to set the mood for your dinner party. Luckily for me, I started a fall playlist about a decade ago. Yes, I am THAT person who readily has a seasonal playlist available and listens to it regularly throughout that season!
My fall playlist has been mainly curated from the Instrumental Folk radio on Pandora, so obviously you’re going to hear plenty of acoustic guitar. I also have some lyric songs that have a folksy, acoustic vibe to them. View my playlist here!
Menu
It’s a sad day if you go to a party and are disappointed by the food. I put a LOT of thought and planning into the food I include in a party. I do a lot of research before deciding what to put on the menu. It depends on the season, type of party, how much time I want to put into making the food, etc. For our fall dinner party, I knew I wanted an appetizer, main meal, and dessert, but I didn’t want to spend all day cooking, so I picked foods that weren’t too hard to prepare. Here’s what we had:
Appetizer(s)
When my guests first arrived, I was still cooking, so instructed them to enjoy the pre-meal food. This included an apple cider bar and warm butternut squash dip with toasted pumpkin seeds and whole grain toast points. For my apple cider bar, I heated up some local apple cider with cinnamon sticks and spices. Once it was hot, I poured it into my carafe and set out the toppings, which included caramel syrup, mini marshmallows, graham cracker crumbs, gold sprinkles, and whipped cream.
My family does not like to try new foods and they especially don’t like to try “weird” foods, and they definitely considered the squash dip a little weird before trying it. Surprisingly, almost all of them enjoyed it! The dip consists of roasted butternut squash, caramelized onions, cream cheese, sour cream, asiago cheese, and Greek yogurt. I sliced and toasted whole grain bread and added pumpkin seeds on top of the squash. It’s warm, gooey, and a little sweet. Most of all it’s delicious and I’ve included a link to the recipe for it.
Main Meal
For our main meal we had apple cider bacon chicken, recipe courtesy of Simply Scratch. It has juicy and tender pan-fried chicken that’s cooked in bacon fat in a cast iron skillet. Paired with diced, sauteed onions and an apple cider gravy, you cannot go wrong with this recipe. There is just something about cooking in a cast iron skillet that is superior to a regular skillet or frying pan.
Our side dish included roasted root vegetables, and the recipe is from The Kitchn. Knowing how picky my family is, I stuck with colorful potatoes, carrots, and red onion. I had some leftover thyme, so I added that to the vegetables as well as fresh rosemary. My family gobbled them up and they don’t even like vegetables! I was one proud cousin that day.
RELATED: Check out my 13 Reasons to Get Excited For Fall!
In case you’re planning a fall dinner part of your own and need some recipe ideas, look no further! Here are 10 dinner recipe ideas for you:
Sheet Pan Maple Dijon Sausage and Veggies
Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash
Butternut Squash Pasta with Sage
Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon
Classic Chicken Pie (And if it has a crust and shell, it’s NOT pot pie around where I live!)
Dessert and Drinks
Dessert
Hands-down, dessert is almost always my favorite part of any meal! We did a trivia game in between the main meal and dessert. During this time, I set out a loaf of apple cider donut bread. O.M.G. This stuff is absolutely delicious! There were only three little pieces at the end of the party! You can snag this recipe from The View from Great Island. It’s a definite winner!
While this was technically a fall dinner party, it’s still peach pie in Lancaster County, so I decided to make a peach pie for dessert. Usually I make homemade whipped cream, but since I wanted to save time and we used whipped cream for the apple cider bar, I decided to just use the canned stuff. I gotta say, it’s always delicious. The pie was gobbled up and we only had a few pieces leftover! Sally’s Baking Addiction has incredible recipes, which is why I used a version of her peach pie recipe.
Drinks
I’m not a heavy drinker and can sometimes go weeks without consuming alcohol, but we agreed that an after-dinner drink was appropriate. And what better way to celebrate fall than with a pumpkin pie martini?? I wanted a recipe where I had most of the ingredients readily available, and this pumpkin pie martini recipe from No Spoon Necessary hit the spot.
Set-up and Preparations
As much as I love planning, the set-up, preparations, and logistics tends to stifle my fun, so I have to make it fun for myself. We had the party at my mom’s house and she lives about 5 minutes away from me. While I love hosting, my apartment just isn’t big enough to even house a table, so it’s easier to have it at her place. In order to lower my stress, I went to her house the night before to set up the table. I got a lot of my inspirations for the table from Pinterest, which is where I turn to for almost all of my party planning needs. After making sure things were cleaned off the table, I set out to create my tablescape and it only took about 20 minutes to set everything up! I think it turned out beautifully.
I made sure to prep as much of my food ahead of time so I wouldn’t have as much to do on the day of the dinner party. My biggest recommendation is to do just that – find things you can prep ahead of time so you’re not stressing yourself out for hours on the day of your party!
Another thing I did was make a list of every item I needed to take to my mom’s. While it was a pain to have to take so much over, having a list that I could check off was absolutely a sanity and time saver and I will do it for every party going forward!
Entertainment
A party isn’t a party without entertainment. This was a very small party – there were only five of us total, so there didn’t need to be a big hoopla. I decided to create a fun trivia game. Each guest got a paper with questions on it that asked trivia questions relating to the fall season. The winner got a fun little gift bag filled with goodies (a candle, felt pumpkin, mug, and some Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins). It was such a fun added touch to our delightful meal and the cozy atmosphere the party created.
Final Thoughts
I had SO much fun putting together this fall dinner party! Since it was my first official dinner party and I was swept up in making sure everything turned out well, I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked to, so for next time, I’ll definitely be sure to take pictures and highlight the different elements of the party.
Preparation is key to executing your party flawlessly and in a timely manner. The more lists, the better in my opinion! Spend some time doing research and always, always OVERESTIMATE the amount of time you think it’s going to take you to prepare for something.
Stay tuned for my next party taking place in October, which will feature make-your-own pizzas, costumes, a book pumpkin craft, and a viewing of Hocus Pocus!
