I'm probably crazy to be posting right now, because I have too much to do around the (very dusty and messy) house. We are having our now-annual fall party Saturday, and this year it has grown to 74 attendees. Yep, 43 adults and 31 kids will be joining us for drinks and dinner Saturday night. I'm not insane. Really I'm not.
One of the things that attracted us to this house, along with its 200+-year-old charm, was its eminent suitability for large gatherings. Big yard, big patio, and space to park everyone's cars.
Growing up I always dreamed of having the kind of property where you could have your wedding in the back yard. My grandmother was married in the beautiful shaded back lawn of her parents' house, and later inherited the house. My parents' wedding reception was held in the same place, and the setting was stunning. It was a summer wedding and they had a huge tent and dancing on the lawn under the massive trees, and the band played from a round terrace on the side of the hill above the yard. The whole thing as seen in photos seemed like a fairy tale. The suburban houses I grew up in and my tiny first house in Maryland didn't have such yards. Not even close.
But then we moved to the country. This was the second house we looked at, and I fell in love with the property before I even got out of the car on that hot day in June. Literally the first thing out of my mouth when I climbed out was "Melrose could have her wedding here!" We had found the fairy tale yard! Big trees, big lawn, and even the round stone patio. The house does not have a huge modern kitchen with a granite-topped island and Viking stove (which seems to be essential for today's homebuyers). We don't even have a master bathroom, and our powder room doubles as a pantry. But dang, we have room for parties. And yes, maybe even a wedding.
One of the things that attracted us to this house, along with its 200+-year-old charm, was its eminent suitability for large gatherings. Big yard, big patio, and space to park everyone's cars.
Growing up I always dreamed of having the kind of property where you could have your wedding in the back yard. My grandmother was married in the beautiful shaded back lawn of her parents' house, and later inherited the house. My parents' wedding reception was held in the same place, and the setting was stunning. It was a summer wedding and they had a huge tent and dancing on the lawn under the massive trees, and the band played from a round terrace on the side of the hill above the yard. The whole thing as seen in photos seemed like a fairy tale. The suburban houses I grew up in and my tiny first house in Maryland didn't have such yards. Not even close.
But then we moved to the country. This was the second house we looked at, and I fell in love with the property before I even got out of the car on that hot day in June. Literally the first thing out of my mouth when I climbed out was "Melrose could have her wedding here!" We had found the fairy tale yard! Big trees, big lawn, and even the round stone patio. The house does not have a huge modern kitchen with a granite-topped island and Viking stove (which seems to be essential for today's homebuyers). We don't even have a master bathroom, and our powder room doubles as a pantry. But dang, we have room for parties. And yes, maybe even a wedding.
But getting back to this party, we have learned much about entertaining from the various shindigs we've hosted thus far. For one thing, you can never have too much white wine, and you almost always have too much green salad. But a more startling revelation is that just a few days before any event, there are always a handful of people who haven't RSVP'd.
While hardly a problem on a world scale, I realize this has become a common and chronic complaint among those hosts who care about etiquette. For a casual event like this, I get a little annoyed, and then assume half of them will show up and go about my merry way. More formal events with catering mean this is more than a small problem. We had such an event earlier this year and four days beforehand, we still hadn't heard from some stragglers and we needed to give the caterer our numbers. We called and left messages. We called again. Nothing.
Then DH came up with the brilliantly passive-aggressive idea of including the stragglers in a group e-mail providing directions, as if they had already said yes. That got us the desired response almost immediately. I highly recommend it.
What annoys me more is when, again with a more formal event, people say they are coming, you give the caterer the numbers, and less than 48 hours ahead of time, they bail for some asinine reason. One guy this summer was like "My friend is coming into town and I need to pick her up at the airport." I can understand a medical issue, a family crisis, or a true emergency, but an airport run? Is this really worth our paying for your uneaten meal?
But this thing Saturday is not a formal event. Just hangin' in the back yard, eating, drinking, and catching up with various friends and neighbors of all ages. I am looking forward to it, but I'll be looking forward to it a lot more once I banish the dust bunnies, and the crud in the microwave, and the maple tree detritus all over the patio....
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