Mary Killen Mary Killen

Dear Mary: How do we stop our friends springing a formal dinner party on us?

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issue 04 February 2023

Q. We have some friends whom we have casual suppers with on a fairly regular basis, just the four of us. Recently they sent a text inviting us ‘for supper’ and we turned up on the appointed evening to walk into a room filled with 20 other guests and formal tables set up. Not only were we mentally unprepared for such an evening, we were also under-dressed. Although my husband ended up loving the party, he works a 12-hour day and would definitely have said no had he known the scale of it. Our host knows this and so I feel he slightly ambushed us. How can we stop this from happening again?

– G.L., Edinburgh

A. A few days before the next ‘supper’, send your host a text suggesting that you contribute a pudding as you have a fabulous new recipe.

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