Ideas for dinner party table

[misty]

What are the nicest/most unusual things you have found/done when at a dinner party? I've got some friends coming for dinner in a few weeks, menu now sorted but want to come up with something original to put on the table.

Also any ideas for drinks/music/ways of serving things would be great!

I went to a restaurant the other week where they'd scattered red rose petals in a sort of drift down the centre of the table and put tealights in among them which looked really pretty.

My golden rule is not to put anthing on the table (eg flowers) which breaks up the eyeline between people.

Hope you have a lovely party.

Do you have any photos of the guests? I went to a party where they'd cut out pics of us and used them instead of place names

mumblechum thanks so much, that sounds lovely!

Iklboo - that thought did cross my mind, although they are all good friends they are fairly new ones (within last year or so) so don't have photos of them unfortunately. Great idea though!

It's a bit of one-upmanship really - in the nicest possible way - all the others have hosted dinner parties for us, and we are the last couple .

Any other?

any others