Be realistic in planning your cook out. Evaluate your space and determine what it will take to get ready and how many visitors you can accommodate. It’s better to have a small, successful cook out than a huge bash that goes down the tubes. Even one couple or one family can be a lot of fun and be a good chance to learn and grow as a host.
Break your event down in steps. Stagger jobs. Do things ahead that you can. Making lists can help a lot. Just check off the items and move through the tasks. It’s a lot more do-able to do jobs in chunks than to mentally tackle the entire project over and over as a whole.
Allow a little time right before the last minute party jobs to relax. Do something you enjoy and clear your head. When your head is clear, you’ll be ready to deal with things that come up. If you stay in hyper drive, then every minor problem becomes monumental. It’s easier to remember that almost any difficulties can be addressed and corrected when you’re calm rather than stressed. Maybe you did forget to buy napkins. Someone can pick up a pack and be back in minutes.
Once the cook out starts, keep an eye on things but don’t be so involved in making sure things are perfect that you aren’t really a part of the event. Your guests will overlook a lot of things if you are laughing and talking and a real part of the party. They came to spend time with you—not to watch you wait on everyone.
When things wind down, enlist some help on clean up. Have trash bags and such on hand. When everyone pitches in, it takes only minutes to clear up after a cook out. If you decide to be the martyr, then you will be left with a whale of a lot of clean up and no one to talk to while you do it. Having another cook out later won’t look as attractive, and that is a no-win situation for everyone.