How To Start A Supper Club

One of the most common questions I’m asked anytime I post about Supper Club is “how does your Supper Club work?” or “how do I start one?!”

It’s hard to believe this group of girls have been gathering around dinner tables together on a monthly basis since 2015!!!

There are lots of ways to create a dinner club. Here are all the details on how we got our dinner club started and how it works…

How Supper Club Got Started

I’ve always been a people gatherer. Bringing people together is a passion of mine and it always has been. In high school I loved hosting my best guy friends on the football team over for pancakes on game day mornings. In college I led bible studies for my sorority. On winter breaks I hosted annual pasta parties back home with my best high school friends. I’ve always been the party and vacation planner of all my friend groups — and I love it.

After graduation I moved to Charlotte where I knew NO ONE — and so the pursuit began for some solid girlfriends. Lucky for me, I made some pretty incredible friends right away through my new job. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have met my husband! I also joined a bible study and made a few more friends there. And I made friends with their friends. Then Matt and I moved to a new neighborhood and made a few more friends. And so I was feeling pretty good about all these wonderful groups of people in our life and we found ourselves planning vacations with these friends, hosting them over for dinner, going out for drinks together and more.

And then I had a baby.

Shortly after Caroline was born I quickly recognized how much less time I had in my life for hanging with friends. Things changed so much after a little person came along and began monopolizing all my time not spent at work. Then my friends started having babies too and it seemed like getting together was nearly impossible. And honestly, it was a bit lonely. I missed my friends. And I definitely missed late nights of funny, inappropriate conversations over too many glasses of wine. My biggest challenge was making time for each group of friends — work friends, bible study friends, neighbor friends, etc. It was difficult to keep up with them all regularly and still have time for my family.

Then one night I told Matt I was going to start a Supper Club — and he loved it and encouraged me to do it. And it’s honestly been one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

So I approached each friend separately and asked if she would be interested in joining a supper club. Through these discussions I learned that I wasn’t alone in feeling like regular fellowship with gal pals was certainly missing. And although some of the girls did not know each other well, there was a resounding “YES!” from them all to kick off the club. And so I did…

How Our Supper Club Works

Once I rallied enough girls together we flushed out the organization and the process.

When we first started in 2015, we had exactly 12 girls (one for each month) and while it was nice to have a different host each month, it was challenging to fit larger groups around dining tables, so my recommendation would be to start with 8 members max (unless everyone has the ability to host larger groups). There were many years I needed to borrow chairs and folding tables to make it work when I hosted! And it’s a lot more fun when everyone can sit together instead of spreading out across multiple dining spaces.

Timing & Organization

At the beginning of the year each member selects a month she would like to host Supper Club in her home. We like using Sign-Up Genius to plan out the year because it’s first come, first serve for grabbing a month and the website automatically sends reminders to the host when her turn is coming up.

We also agreed on the third Thursday of every month at 7 pm so the timing is consistent and the girls could plan accordingly (several of the girls have husbands who travel and need to secure babysitters for the night). If the third Thursday falls on a holiday, school break, or coincides with something else, the host is responsible for polling the group for a new date for her month.

Supper Club Hosting

A few weeks before Supper Club the hostess sends out an evite so she can collect RSVPs and plan for the night. The fun part about hosting is you can literally do whatever you want — create an ultimate salad bar, require pajama attire, make a large pot of chili, go fancy, celebrate babies, throw a party under the stars, grab takeout, celebrate birthdays, etc. The only rule is the hostess provides all of the food and each guest brings a bottle of wine. It’s that easy!

I should also note that all of the girls in our group LOVE to host and very much look forward to planning a fun dinner each year. We see it as a fun opportunity to break out our favorite dishes, arrange pretty flowers, and whip up a delicious meal (or order from a restaurant). Each of us does it a little different too which makes it even more fun.

Themes & Activities

I personally love picking a theme, color scheme, or activity for my Supper Clubs. In fact, I wrote an entire post sharing some of My Favorite Supper Club Themes over the years!

Sometimes my theme will coincide with a holiday (like Halloween!), I’ll lean into a season (like Spring or Fall!), focus on a fun food activity (like roll-your-own sushi!) or drink activity (like a Rosé Wine Tasting or Sauvignon Blanc Wine Tasting)!

Supper Club Sushi Night — ROLL-YOUR-OWN-SUSHI SUPPER CLUB

Mahjong Nights

With so many life changes, kid and work commitments, and friends moving away, the energy of the group has ebbed and flowed over the years. When our group dwindled to 6 members, I thought we might consider wrapping Supper Club up in a bow, thanking it for all it’s done for us over the years, and dissolving the group.

And then something magical happened that completely re-energized our group…

We learned to play mahjong together.

All of us have fallen so in love with the game and almost always play a few rounds after dinner each month. It has been SO MUCH FUN learning and playing this game together.

Now, for the months throughout the year we do not have a dinner host, we fill it in with a casual game night. These are so fun to sprinkle in between our fancy dinners because these are the complete opposite! Our mahjong game nights are played with fun snacks in every corner (usually candy, crackers, and cookies) and the attire is always “no pants with buttons”…AKA athleisure or pajamas…or yes, even robes.

It’s a really fun way to mix things up throughout the year and I highly recommend doing this if you want to fill in the vacant months with an activity!

If You’re Thinking About Start Your Own Supper Club

If you aren’t in a Supper Club, don’t be afraid to start your own! I can speak for our entire group when I say that this club has been a blessing to each of us. So many friendships have evolved over the years — from weddings to birthdays, we’ve celebrated countless events together, welcomed dozens of babies, we get kids together outside of dinners, share a group text filled with mom questions, product links, and funny stories, been there for each other in the toughest of times, vacationed together, and many of our husbands even get together.

My Previous Supper Club Gatherings

Pam

Monday 22nd of April 2024

I love this idea, I like to host too! Question though, where do your kiddos go if it's your night to host? My kids would want to be right at the table with us and never go to bed 🤪

Christina

My kids usually grab dinner out with Matt and then when they get home they go straight upstairs for showers/bedtime! We don't start until 7 pm, so they aren't awake for very much of Supper Club.