Dear Gala Guru

Dear Gala Guru,I recently hosted a potluck at my home for a professional group, inviting members and their families. One attendee brought her husband and four children (ages 6-12), whom I had never met. While the children were generally well-behaved, I encountered a situation that left me unsure about my actions:Two younger boys brought food […]

Dear Gala Guru, Help!  My family reunion is coming up.  My first in about three years, and I am filled with anxiety.  I typically dread attending family reunions because, well…it’s family, and someone always goes off the deep end.  There are usually close to 30 people in attendance, which is a lot of people to […]

Dear Gala Guru, My 5th-grade grandson has not had much of a turn-out for his birthday parties since before the pandemic. His birthday is in June, right after school is out for summer. He doesn’t like the idea of having an early birthday celebration in May because he thinks it’s cheating. I’m also ticked off […]

Dear Gala Guru, I have good friends who lean both right and left (at this age, probably literally and politically!) and I cringe before social gatherings at the thought of having to witness a tense conversation about the upcoming election.  I recently hosted a group of friends over to play bridge (again, showing my age), and all was […]

Dear Gala Guru, I am a wedding planner in the greater Philadelphia area.  First off, thanks for your blog and the opportunity to share stories.  I wanted to let you know that I recently took on a bride who was a nightmare.  Nothing pleased this young woman.  Her outlook on everything was so negative.  She […]

Dear Gala Guru, I have an awkward situation for you.  Recently, my wife and I attended one of her many fundraiser dinners.  As a newly minted Dermatologist, I have been working hard to get my practice off the ground and was looking forward to the diversion of this black-tie event.  It was for a good […]

Dear Gala Guru, I love hosting dinner parties, using my good linens, crystal, silver, and china. However, sometimes my guests insist on “helping” clean up for me. First, I don’t like strangers in my kitchen since they don’t know where everything goes. Second, they don’t know how to load my dishwasher. Third, I have had […]

Happy Labor Day. Whether you plan to sleep in, shop the sales, or barbeque with friends and family, let us never forget the meaning of this day. Labor Day is when we honor the efforts of those who fought for workers’ rights in the late 1800s.  Their struggles led to benefits we now enjoy, such as […]

Dear Gala Guru, We have been planning our class 50th reunion, but there was some friction when some members of the class wanted to include class members from the years before and after ours. Others felt this reunion was special and should be limited to our classmates and their plus-ones, especially since the number of […]

Dear Gala Guru, Help! What should you do when your dinner guests are early birds and show up half an hour early to your party? Should I ask them to leave and return at the appointed time? A lot still needs to be done in the half-hour before a party. Not Ready! Dear N.R. Well, […]

Dear Gala Guru, I recently volunteered at a fancy fundraising event attended by many of the local elites. At the end of the evening, as the last guests were leaving the ballroom, much to my horror,  one well-known and highly inebriated attendee stopped to pee in a potted palm. I was so shocked I froze. […]

Ah, August! We’re leaping into what I call the “Frog Days of Summer,” when even the most energetic feel the slower pace. I have a giant desert toad in my yard, whom I have affectionately named Teddy. He hangs out in the bird bath every day reminding me that in this magical time when the […]