There is a scene in 200 Cigarettes in which Martha Plimpton's character Monica (thank you, IMDB) is bemoaning the fact that no one has shown up for her party. She has gone to all the trouble to prepare food, a festive atmosphere, and invite all her friends, and nobody has come.

I have this same problem. I throw parties and then become miserable when no one arrives in the first thirty minutes. People always do come, but there is that moment of despair in which I feel that I must be the most boring and despised person alive. I have to fight the effort to drink all the wine and eat all the cheese I've provided for my ungrateful friends.

Then they show up and we have a great time.

I had a great idea for a party recently -- I think it would be fun to ask each invited guest to bring their best single friend of the opposite sex. Even if you are married, you still have single friends that you think would be a fun date for someone else, and that way you would not end up with only one or two single people at your party, or even worse, a swordfight or a gaggle of single girls who don't know each other.
I did a search and found that a couple of other people had had this same idea. One called it BYOB (Bring Your Own Bachelor/Bachelorette).