International socialites agonize over it at balls and charity luncheons, most American women grapple with it during family holidays, and some hosts deal with it at least once a week: seating more guests than they have table space for. Evidently in perpetual denial that their dining room is the size of a Mini Cooper.
Most people own dining tables that seat up to eight people "comfortably," but they can also accommodate 10, or even 12, "strategically." Cramming in as many as four extra spots is like working on a jigsaw puzzle: All of the pieces will fit if there aren't any gaps in between.
Forget what the world's most highly paid party planner tell you—every guest does not need a thronelike dining chair and 18 inches of table space. And besides, spatially challenged dinner parties are always more fun and sexy than dinners with acres of empty territory between each guest. When you're forced to interact, things happen.
