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If you have an invitation for dinner at eight, do you arrive bang on time, or fashionably late?
If you've been invited to a dinner party at 8, are you one of those people who will arrive at 7.59 or are you more likely to turn up at least half an hour later?
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October 16, 2009 11:01 PM
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I try to be a couple minutes early if anything. Always on time. Too early could be a hindrance to the host and late to me, is always rude. I wouldn't ever want to think that everyone else was waiting on me to get started.
I also don't want to be the guest that everyone jokes is always late or the person that has to be told 10 minutes earlier just to ensure that you'll actually be on time. I don't think anyone likes people that are late to anything.
I also don't want to be the guest that everyone jokes is always late or the person that has to be told 10 minutes earlier just to ensure that you'll actually be on time. I don't think anyone likes people that are late to anything.
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• Thats a good point about being early, getting there too early can be as annoying as being late.
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October 16, 2009 10:00 PM
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When I am invited to a dinner party, I try to get there a few minutes early so that I can help if needed. I think that being late is very rude, unless there are extinuating circumstances.
When I give a dinner party, I always tell my guest to be there within a time frame. So it I am planning on serving dinner at 8pm I tell my guest to come for 7:30-7:45 pm. That gives me 15 minutes to get everyone situated and 30 minutes for anyone who will be late.
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When I give a dinner party, I always tell my guest to be there within a time frame. So it I am planning on serving dinner at 8pm I tell my guest to come for 7:30-7:45 pm. That gives me 15 minutes to get everyone situated and 30 minutes for anyone who will be late.
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October 16, 2009 10:59 PM
Similar to your idea, when I have a dinner party, I suggest a time frame about an hour to an hour and a half before I would serve supper and serve appetizers and aperitifs. If I am invited to a dinner party an if appetizers will not be served, I usually try to show up about 10 minutes early with a host/hostess gift of candles,flowers, wine, or a combination of those.
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October 16, 2009 10:13 PM
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I would arrive on time, it is the corteous way to do it, when there is time given it must be honored as sign of respect too. Arriving late ,is embarassing to me, i don't want to be the 'center of distraction' not 'attraction', maybe the people will notice and focus on me when I arrived but after that ,my being late will stick on their minds especially to the host/hostess, I will be tag always as the unpunctual guest. Also, I will not like that and would be upset if I am the one who gave the invitation. Punctuality is a good virtue.
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October 16, 2009 11:47 PM
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As people are saying, it really depends. If there are drinks and appetizers at 8, then I would not feel bad at all showing up a little late. This is the kind of question I would usually clear up beforehand, though.
If the dinner is actually starting at 8 then clearly it is important to be on time. Nobody wants to sit down to eat if a guest is missing, and it would be pretty rude to delay everyone else!
All that said, I'm currently living in Guatemala, and the way people deal with being on time here is completely different to the way it works in the States. In summary: they aren't on time. Ever.
There are exceptions of course, but the way things work here is that everyone is late to everything. As soon as you get used to it, it really works out fine. To plan a dinner party, though, the preliminary period of drinks and socializing would be NECESSARY or else many guests would just plain miss dinner. Now that I'm used to it, I really like the flexibility of the system here. When I'm trying to do business, though, sometimes it is pretty annoying that nobody ever shows up when they say they will.
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If the dinner is actually starting at 8 then clearly it is important to be on time. Nobody wants to sit down to eat if a guest is missing, and it would be pretty rude to delay everyone else!
All that said, I'm currently living in Guatemala, and the way people deal with being on time here is completely different to the way it works in the States. In summary: they aren't on time. Ever.
There are exceptions of course, but the way things work here is that everyone is late to everything. As soon as you get used to it, it really works out fine. To plan a dinner party, though, the preliminary period of drinks and socializing would be NECESSARY or else many guests would just plain miss dinner. Now that I'm used to it, I really like the flexibility of the system here. When I'm trying to do business, though, sometimes it is pretty annoying that nobody ever shows up when they say they will.
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October 17, 2009 03:15 AM
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I would definitely aim to arrive at least 10 minutes early, and would probably actually end up coming 5-10 minutes before. It's never fun to show up to a get-together to see that everyone's already seated and they're waiting for you. I don't ever want to be "that" guy. At the same time, as others have mentioned above, it's always nice when people give you a time frame rather than an actual start time so that people can arrive at different times and take advantage of appetizers and chit chat before dinner.
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October 17, 2009 03:17 AM
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I always WANT to be on time, yet somehow never am. I don't run 30 minutes late though; usually I get to my destination about 5 or 10 minutes later than I wanted to be. I am not sure how this happens; I do live in LA so often the traffic plays a role, but somehow time just gets away from me even if the traffic is good. And dinner parties are no exception.
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October 17, 2009 11:26 PM
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I try to arrive on time, but realistically speaking, I don't. I'll either arrive early or late. When I arrive early, things are usually a bit awkward -- I'm often the first one there -- and I wish I had put it off. It's on me to try and make myself feel welcome, and I'm not great at doing that.
Oddly enough, nobody seems to mind when I arrive places late. In fact, it's more comfortable for me. All the conversations are already started and I can just sidle in, if that makes any sense. Maybe there's something to "better late than never" or "fashionably late" after all!
If it's an invitation for just me, though, I'll try and be on time or early. There isn't anyone else to pick up the slack.
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Oddly enough, nobody seems to mind when I arrive places late. In fact, it's more comfortable for me. All the conversations are already started and I can just sidle in, if that makes any sense. Maybe there's something to "better late than never" or "fashionably late" after all!
If it's an invitation for just me, though, I'll try and be on time or early. There isn't anyone else to pick up the slack.
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