UncategorizedDay One: Party Basics June 28, 2012Hey y’all! Thanks so much for joining me today on Day One of my little series. If y’all didn’t see yesterday’s, I’ll catch you up to speed: As I said yesterday, I’m no expert. But my mom, sister, and myself love throwing parties. We’ve made a party out of any event for as long as I can remember. Today, I want to talk about party basics. What I mean by party basics are the bones of each party. As much as we love throwing parties, if we tried to buy everything new for each party we want to have, we would go broke. If we tried to host each party in a different spot, we would go crazy! I know some may be able to do that, but for us, it isn’t an option. And I’m okay with that. So, the best advice I have for being able to entertain often and actually afford to do so, is to come up with your party basics. You’ll notice that although our two recent parties had very different themes, these two parties still have some things in common: {Our Memorial Day Party post} {Our Nautical Party post} First thing in common: the setting. While I know this seems obvious, putting thought into a party space at your home will make each party you host more developed. You can always set up a folding table somewhere outside and throw a tablecloth over it. But if you’re going to be entertaining a lot, put some thought into a more permanent situation. My parents built this large picnic table and benches that will hold fifteen people or so. It sits down in between some beautiful trees, so the setting itself makes each party seem like we did more than we actually did! It’s beside a large rock fire pit and some adirondacks, so those add to the feeling of the party. Look around you yard and see if there is a little spot you can designate for entertaining. If you know that each party will be held there, you could do some more permanent things there that will enhance each party. For example, you could rig up a string of bulb lights overheard or hang a lantern or some sort of candelabra from the trees. The possibilities are endless! Something like this could be done for each individual party, but why not do something that you will use over and over again. Always having it in the same place helps with automatically knowing how you will set things up. That’s not to say you can never mix things up, but if you throw parties together quickly like we do, having the lay of the land helps. With these two parties, the table definitely stayed in the same place, but we used the same serving table location. We decided to put it here so that you could hang “pretties” from the tree overhead. Here is the view at our Memorial Day Party: Up close: The view at Dad’s Nautical Birthday Party: Up close: Again, totally different party decor, but since we knew the space pretty well, we quickly came up with ideas to personalize each one. Last piece of advice on party basics: find a good white tablecloth that fits your table well. I love white tablecloths. They go with any decor that you’re going to use and always looks classic. The best idea that my mom came up with on the tablecloth was to use a white sheet. Since her table is so large, a white sheet fit it better and it’s easy to just throw in the washer between parties! These party basics are simple, but they go such a long way in developing a beautiful event. Once you’ve designated a party or entertaining spot, decked it out a bit, and found a good white tablecloth, adding on the themed decor and extras is an easy step! Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about party themes: how to choose them and carry them out in throughout the party. See y’all then!
Lorri says June 30, 2012 at 9:08 am Such a fun idea! Can’t wait to see what you come up with each day! I love your dad’s bday party table setting so much I’d love to include a pic in my “4th of July” post…! Reply
Kelly @ Talk of the House says July 1, 2012 at 9:42 am What a wonderful thing to have that picnic area with the HUGE table. One day I want to do a candlelabra overhead at an outside party. Right now we have lights strung (and they are nice). I just think the candles would be more romantic..ha ha. Reply
Ashley says July 2, 2012 at 10:16 am Mom and Dad do have the perfect outdoor party space for our family, don’t they?! 🙂 I loved both of the parties we had there to christen the new table. Reply