Outdoor extravaganza wows guests

: I’ve invited a group of prospective clients over to my home for dinner, and I want to really impress them. How can I make the party memorable?

A: To make a huge impression on your guests, do something so unexpected and dramatic, that they will be wowed by your ability and sign that contract on the spot. Here’s how: Take it outdoors. My backyard has been the scene for some of my most exciting and impressive events, and yours can be too.

Now, I’m not talking about your garden-variety backyard barbecue here, with red-and-white-checkered tablecloths, torches and throwaway plastic plates. I’m talking about an outdoor extravaganza that will make your guests’ jaws drop to the floor. Let me take a minute here to caution you — this will not be a 15-minute decorating job. You’ll need to invest a few hours and tap into oodles of creativity to pull off a fabulous look. But every minute you put in will be well worth it when you wow your guests, whether they are important business clients, family or treasured friends.

The secret to creating an impressive display out back is to fashion an outdoor room that’s loaded with drama. Your goal is to replicate the elegance and comfort of your dining room against the magical backdrop of your garden.

I’ll be doing the same thing in a few weeks when I dress up my courtyard for a dinner party we’re throwing to benefit a local college. The first thing I’ll focus on is creating killer lighting. To bathe the evening in a soft, romantic glow, I’ll hang several candle-burning candelabras from the lowest branches of the large tree that canopies my courtyard. If you have exterior electrical outlets in your garden, you can use electric chandeliers instead. To add more magic, I’ll hang glass votive cups from the branches of the smaller trees that rim my courtyard, where they’ll twinkle like fireflies. If you don’t have large trees to hold candelabras, you can hang a single chandelier from the top of a gazebo, arbor or party tent.

In the past, I used real candles in my outdoor entertaining, but now I’m sold on battery-operated candles. They look just like the real thing, but the wind won’t blow them out, they won’t spill wax on tablecloths or guests, and they can’t catch anything on fire. Plus, you can turn the candles on several hours before dinner so you have one less thing to worry about in the last moments before guests arrive.

Next, create a stunning dinner table that will shimmer in the candlelight. Do it up big, bringing out your china, silver, crystal and fine linens. If you’d like a centerpiece that’s stylish but not stuffy, try this: Place a gorgeous candlestick in an aged garden urn, hold it in place with potting soil (cover the candlestick with a plastic bag to protect it from the soil), then plant the urn with trailing ivy.

If you don’t have a table large enough to seat all your guests, make one by cutting plywood to the desired shape, resting it on saw horses and disguising it with a floor-length tablecloth or yards of fabric.

Be sure to make your outdoor buffet every bit as inventive as your table. When I hosted a garden dinner once, I created an over-the-top buffet guests raved about. I found an old outdoor table, cut a layer of plastic to fit the top, then covered it with a blanket of live grass sod. I rested garden urns on the grass and topped them with silver trays filled with food.

Add a final kick to your food service by using outdoor garden pieces in clever and unusual ways. For instance, line a flower planter and fill it with ice to keep beer or shrimp cool. Drape a birdbath with beautiful linens, then fill it with dinner rolls. Put breadsticks in a small urn; ice down drinks in larger urns.

Now you’re ready to throw the kind of impressive event that will close the sale.

Mary Carol Garrity owns three home furnishings stores in Atchison, Kan., and wrote several books on home decorating. Write to Mary Carol at nellhills@mail.lvnworth.com. Her column is syndicated by Scripps Howard News Service.