Dinner parties are terrifying for most people. After all, most of us have never thrown more than one or two in our entire culinary lifetimes, if ever. While it is true that there are many things that can potentially go wrong, the good news is that the vast majority of them can be nullified with a little simple planning. Whether you are planning a night of healthy cooking for your yoga class or spaghetti and fried catfish for your bowling team, there is no reason to think you can't throw a successful dinner party. To that end, here are a few tips to help make your dinner party a success.

Find Out About Allergies First Whenever you serve a group of five or more people, odds are that you will run into at least one food allergy, if not more. There is nothing worse than putting hours of work into creating a beautiful meal, only to find out at the last minute that one of your guests can't eat garlic or that the shrimp cocktail you prepared might send someone to the hospital.

The best way to avoid this is to contact every guest before you plan your meal to determine whether or not they have any food allergies or special preferences. Taking a few minutes to make the phone call may seem inconvenient, but you'll be grateful that you don't have to prepare a special meal at the last minute or have to stop the dinner party to call 9-1-1.

Cook Ahead Dinner parties are social occasions, so it goes without saying that most of your time should be spent socializing and spending time with your guests. You simply cannot do this if you spend all your time in the kitchen.

Now, since most of us don't have servants to do the work for us, the solution is to cook as much food ahead of time as possible and either reheat the dishes at service time or prepare dishes intended to be served cold. There are countless appetizers that go wonderfully from fridge to dining room, but good choices for main courses are stews and braises, since they generally don't require any last-minute prep or attention.

Cook More Than You Need Next, it is important that you cook more than you need. In the event that your guests are especially hungry or someone brings a last-minute guest, you need to make sure that there is still plenty of food to go around.

A good rule of thumb regarding this is to prepare three to five more portions of each dish than you have guests. Unless you are cooking for a very large group, this is usually enough to satisfy any requests for seconds and any unexpected guests without having to deal with a mountain of leftovers in the event that neither of these happen. Dealing with a few leftover chicken breasts is a small price to pay compared to the prospect of running out of food.

If You Expect Your Guests To Bring Something, Tell Them Now, you may be throwing a pot luck or other occasion where guests are expected to bring something, whether it is a bottle of wine, a side dish, a loaf of bread, or anything else. In order to avoid embarrassment on everybody's parts, if you need someone to bring something to your dinner party, you absolutely have to spell it out up front. This avoids any confusion and ensures that people who have not attended this sort of occasion know what is expected of them.

Throwing a dinner party can be a terrifying prospect, especially if it is your first time or if you are cooking for more people than you are accustomed. Just take a deep breath, plan ahead as much as you can, and address any potential problems well ahead of the date and you will have little to worry about.