hostess anxiety

One of my super-vague New Year's resolutions was to have more fun this year. Try new things, host more parties, be more adventurous. In an effort to do that, a friend and I are starting a cooking/entertaining club with a few co-workers. The idea behind it is to get people together, learn to cook new things, try out some fun entertaining techniques, and socialize. I sent out the invite today, planned for March 18. Sian and I are cooking this time (since it's our first activity), and I am hosting at mi casa.

We have a lot of shindigs at my place as of late, but the cooking requirements have been minimal, so long as there is beer and Doritos, we are set. It's also always been a pretty different crowd... But now... I'm panicking. My kitchen is too small. My dining table is too small. I might screw up the food. I don't even OWN wine glasses. We don't have enough chairs. Etc. etc. So, this post serves a bit as a pre-party to-do list, and also, I'm soliciting any entertaining tips you might have for a slightly more formal dinner party. Feel free to send them my way! Until then, here is the list:

1. Plan a menu and delegate half to my co-hostess. Print out each recipe on cards to hand to guests. So far I've only planned the appetizer: these Cheese and Parsley Phyllo Triangles. YUM.
   
2. Buy some barware. Pier One has stemware for $2 per piece. I guess I need about 12 versatile glasses, but I have no storage for these... I'll work that out later.
3. Decide how to configure the table situation. I'm thinking of moving my dining room table to my living room, and setting up a similarly-sized folding table {luckily I own this already} and throwing matching linens/ centerpieces/ etc so hopefully it's not painfully obvious we are low-brow like that. {Though I will probably not only point it out but also apologize for it upon each guests arrival no matter how cleverly I am able to disguise it.}
   
4. Plan a color scheme and try setting the table a couple different ways. {I like this post about table setting.} My only dishes are Fiesta Ware, so I don't plan on making everything super colorful. Maybe something that unites all the colors as centerpieces and keep everything else plain.
5. Send a reminder one week before.
6. Random house-related to-dos I've been putting off. Hosting a party is GREAT for inspiring sudden motivation to tackle the random tasks. I have a few pictures to hang, surfaces to de-junk or rearrange, and if I'm lucky, Jonathan can install the stair runner I ordered today. If so, I'll definately be posting on that later.

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