http://192.168.2.6/english/1117/轻松准备假日party.rm

Nothing dresses up your home like a party with friends, but it can be a lot of work. Recently, I stop by Pottery Barn here in New York City for something new ideas to make the holiday party season a little easier.

Hosting a party can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be, design expert Susanna Salk is here to show us how to host elegant evening that can also be enjoyable for the host.

Very important.

You say the first thing to do is set up what you can ahead of time, like you made a bar.

I just make a bar out of the table, you don’t need a special bar, a cart, a special area. Get a beautiful tray, put your grasses on it, get a signature pitcher of drinks, that you can just leave there and guest can help themselves. So you’re not doing all the work when they arrive.

Well, now, I noticed this that everything is silver. That’s on purpose.

I don’t want to get a uniformity to it, so it looks like a festive place to come, with people arrive so…?

Buy new thing, but great with the pot fresh flower and putout a little bit of snacks not too much, but just something coz people like to cluster around serve yourself bar, I think. And I just have write and red wine, a bottle of water, and ice, and you have a picture drinks.

Now to make it really special you have three things. Bring those, bring those things over and tell what you have.

I want to give you your own very special monogrammed paper napkins because I think white one are so bar and linens are so impractical, these cost 30 dollars, so I went to a party store, order them put a monogram mark on it, them. I think those are really fun. I think it’s great to show the recipe for your signature drink people know what they’re having. And a nice touch is always a picture frame of yourself as the host the casual way, it just give more personality to the table.

So within your husband you put the frame for the hosting?

Exactly.
Ok, easy.

Now, spend less than an hour at the cocktail hour before you get.

Don’t spend too long here. And then, again, a buffet is a great way to set it and forget it as a work, Coz you can set this up with the food obviously the night before it, so easily, Find the nice big table in your house anywhere, put a beautiful table cloth on it. Push it, and center it so guest can really flow around it, I think it’s so important because very often, everyone doesn’t always want to eat once, you have people still clustering from the bar, and that way they can come around as the line a line form, and kind of go around it.

Ok, and design wise. You just kept that simple. One color, theme of just white roses, I think the white roses look so great. I love one flower, and I love putting in something interesting this is a garden urn. And I thought that almost had a tie affect with the white table cloth. So easy. I did different layers of height, because I think that’s what make the first of the dramatical table,

Meaning, this , the layer of height means a low

Exactly, I carry the roses down below. I have height with the food platters. I have some.. um.. elevation there. Different heights with the bread, again just so it's not all one level.
Ok. when it comes the time to set the table, it's very important that you put things in a certain order so there's flow.
Exactly. So there's flow, so obviously starts with nice big buffet plates. And then your entree is next. I think it's so nice to get... They can be simple but really nice platters because there's nothing worse then when you 're showing beautiful food it was on kind of so-so platter , and nice serving utensil looks like jewelry, I think .

OK. After the main course then the sides
And. exactly, the two sides.
And then I noticed you have, you know, a nice little menu frame just tell people what you have.
Exactly. Instead of..., I think people like to know what they're gonna eat if it's dark they can't really see the food. It's nice to sort of have a candle by the menu. It was a nice personal touch like we did over the bar.

Ok, so we got the sides and the last stop obviously

It's your silverware . And I think it is fun to put it in something unusual. Again I just took a black platter. I took some oversize white napkins tied them up with some ribbons that I bought. And I think that just looks really fun and special and carry the black and white theme all the way through you can also do something like this with the napkin rings too.
Now I noticed there is no dessert over the table or salt and pepper. What do you do for that?

Well, you don't want to have too many things here. I think dessert can be somewhere else. It's sort of fun after the buffet after the main course, every one get up and move to another area. And grab a plate of Brownie, have something already set up there but in another place, and salt and pepper and glasses and wine can already be at the main table where everyone is eating.

Perfect, I love it, and that’s all.
Thanks so much
Thanks so much Julia, I’m very glad to be here