5 Tips to Throwing a Great Wine & Cheese Party (Without Breaking the Bank)

Shortly after moving to Chicago, I met a couple of great friends that I wanted to invite over and get to know better. Since I didn’t have a job at time time, I needed to think of an impressive way to entertain at my apartment and not force myself into bankruptcy in the process but we can get help filing for bankruptcy easily nowadays. I’ve always thought that wine and cheese parties were a cool idea, but knew that they can get super expensive.

I figured I’d give it a shot and see if I could throw one on a budget. I ended up succeeding and I’m very excited to share what I did and how I was able to entertain 8 people on only $50!

Here are my 5 simple tips to throw a great Wine and Cheese Party without breaking your bank:

1) Find the cheeses that are on sale, but make sure to go to a couple of locations (to ensure variety)! I went over to Whole Foods and Marianos and asked them which cheeses they were featuring that week.  Usually those cheeses are sold at a heavy discount and still super high quality! In total I spent only $30 and had 7 cheese varieties at my party.

I recommend having at a cheddar, goat, blue, a spreadable and brie. Anything additional is just a bonus. You want to aim to have about one cheese per person (depending on the size of the cheese).

2) Include other inexpensive hors d’oeuvres to help supplement peoples appetite. Since cheese can get pretty expensive, try having a couple of other less expensive dishes on the menu to fill them up! I made deviled eggs, truffled popcorn and a homemade KILLER caesar salad that would knock your socks off (I promise I will post that recipe once I’m ready to part with it). In total, all three of those items cost me less than $10 to make.

3) Pay attention to the details! Entertaining is not just about the food! I think a party is great when people are still talking about the cute details the next day.

For this particular party, I made little labels for all the different cheeses and other food stations so that guests knew what they were eating! It was super simple. All I did was type out the names of the different cheeses and dishes, print them off and tape them to a tooth pick! The guests loved them and it literally took me no time or money at all!

4) Use up what you already have! Having any party is a great time to use up some of the things you have leftover or items in your fridge/pantry that you don’t use very often. For my wine and cheese party, I used some crackers, pretzels, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a couple of jams and jellies that would pair nicely with the cheese.  I also had some leftover salami and pepperoni that went perfectly with the theme of the party!

Also, since I had just moved-in, I didn’t really any serving platters. Instead of going out and buying them, I just used cutting boards for my cheeses and breads and and some colorful plastic plates I had leftover from a college party a few years ago!

5) Ask each friend to bring their favorite bottle of wine! Not only is it a fun way for everyone to learn about different wines,  but it saves you a lot of money from buying tons of bottles. As a bonus, you also ensure everyone has something to drink that they like!

For my bottle, I just picked up a great $10 bottle at Whole Foods.

So that’s it! I hope you enjoyed reading about my way to throw a fabulous wine and cheese party on a serious budget! Do you have any great entertaining tips? I’d love to hear about them!

Love always,
Erica