Recently, my brothers and their wives threw a surprise engagement dinner at Il Tiramisu restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California, and I thought I would share with you some engagement party ideas that they implemented at our dinner. Plus I would love to tell you about our dinner party menu and how it fit within the theme for the party. The first thing to think about when planning an engagement dinner is your budget and guest list. This budget and guest list were easy for us since it was a surprise but some things to think about at a restaurant party such as Il Tiramisu are the cost of the dinner, tax, tip and guest count. Depending upon the guest count is where the restaurant will seat you. Do they have a private dining room or are you seated in the main restaurant or a portion of the restaurant? In our case, we were seated on one side of the restaurant at one long table. Some engagement party ideas to consider are the seating arrangements and whether or not to bring in your own wine. Our hosts used heart shaped cookies as place cards which added to the table decor as well as small dishes of candy that were placed down the center of the table. Bringing in the wines was a great idea since it saved money and also provided a variety of choices. Since the guests were mostly wine collectors it also provided a great conversation starter since no one knew one another prior to the engagement dinner. Other engagement party ideas to think about are the invitations and the party theme. Since we are honeymooning in Italy, the theme of the evening was Italy. Not only the restaurant choice but also the Italian wines selected for the table and the invitations for the event were all centered around Italy. Our dinner party menu at Il Tiramisu was a four-course engagement dinner. We started with a pasta, Crespelle di Zucca, a crepe filled pasta with butternut squash and ricotta cheese in a light cream sauce then the house salad. Our third-course was a choice of Salmon Cipriani, Veal Scallopini Marsala or Chicken Picata. And of course, Tiramisu for dessert. The food was great as well as the service and every course was well-paced giving us plenty of time to converse and enjoy our meal. When thinking about your dinner party menu, remember to select a variety of dishes to please every palette as well as to make sure dietary restrictions and allergies can be accommodated. What I liked about Il Tiramisu is that when they started to take our dinner orders they asked each guest about diet or allergies and were to able to accommodate each guest's dietary needs. I can't believe my wedding is less than three weeks away! We had such fun at our engagement dinner at Il Tiramisu and I hope you picked up some engagement party ideas from this article. Until next time, remember the Budget Bash mantra: make it simple, stylish, fun and economical to all!
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