You've cooked up a fabulous feast complete with all the trimmings - from carefully chosen wine and perfectly prepared starters to a mouth-watering main and a luscious dessert that's sure to leave all your dinner party guests singing the praises of your culinary capabilities.
What's more, your dining room looks stunning, with a carefully laid-out table, some fresh flowers as a centrepiece, the napkins folded into delicate swans and you've even broken out the good silverware and polished it until it sparkles under the candlelight.
Now it's just time to slip into a fabulous frock, check your hair and fix your makeup. But before you do, you might want to take one last look around the house to make sure everything is spic and span - and that anything you don't want seen is hidden away.
This suggestion comes after insurance company Sheilas' Wheels carried out a survey which found that nearly one in ten of the people questioned confessed to looking through their host's personal items during dinner parties.
And it turns out gents are more likely to be the ones snooping around, with ten per cent of men admitting to the behaviour, while just seven per cent of women said they would have a nose around when their host wasn't looking.
Etiquette expert and headmistress of Ladette to Ladies, Gill Harbord, criticised the conduct, saying: "The idea that guests set out to go on a self-guided tour of their guest's home is just awful behaviour! If guests want to see the house they should always ask their host first and never engage in an uninvited snoop."
Shockingly, the survey indicated that dinner party guests are forgetting their manners in other ways too, with 28 per cent saying they have shown up without a gift and 19 per cent admitting to texting or making calls while in the presence of their host.
So what can you do to prevent your guests from making any embarrassing discoveries while you're slaving away in your cute cotton apron?
Prevention is probably the best policy - so make sure anything private is properly put away and out of your guests' reach before anyone arrives.