Will You Be On Time for Dinner?

I recently attended a post holiday dinner party. What I found most interesting was the time the guests chose to arrive. We all knew what time dinner was to be served and the host announced that we could arrive up to four hours before dinner to socialize, play games and such. I showed up an hour and a half before dinner time, assuming I would be the second or third to arrive. It turns out I was the first to arrive. The next guests to show, came at exactly the time dinner was to be served, then everyone else showed up between thirty minutes and an hour and a half after dinner was ready. Now I can see if this was a very large event, it would make more sense, but this was a small event with only ten guests.

The host thanked me for arriving BEFORE dinner and we had a discussion about modern culture. Is this the norm? Is showing up exactly on time or late for dinner supposed to be an alright thing in modern society? We went back and forth on this topic for a while and it seems there are a few schools of thought.

For me personally, when the host said the event would officially begin four hours before dinner, I assumed we were expected to be there early to socialize and whatnot. Other guests that I spoke with said they only paid attention to the actual "dinner will be served" time and figured they would not be missed if they came a little late because everyone else would be there covering the social aspect.

I have fairly strong opinions about this. If I were the host of the dinner party, I would hope people would show thirty minutes before dinner and no later than thirty minutes after the serving time, unless they told me at least a day in advance that they would be late. Anyone who couldn't do that, probably would not be getting another invite. But that's just me. I would love to hear your opinion on this topic if you'd care to share in the comments. But in the meantime...please be on time for dinner!