Entertaining at Home for the Holidays – the outdoor dinner party
Happy November friends! Welcome the season of holiday parties! This month and next month are probably the most common time of year that even those who are really into hosting will host some sort of holiday gathering. Thankfully for me, I have tons of experience in the event planning world since I used to own an event planning company BUT I know we all don’t have those skills so I thought it would be helpful to start this new series of Entertaining at Home for the Holidays.
During this series, I cover all sorts of fun tips and showcase different type of at home parties from a fancy backyard party to a more traditional dinner part setting in your dining room. You name it, I’m sure I’ll cover it. :). Plus, you will be getting some fun cocktail and dish recipes along the way — YEA!
Let’s go ahead and kick this series off with one of my favorite types of parties to do this time of year as long as the weather permits — an outdoor dinner party under the stars (and my outdoor bistro lights). For this highlight we are going to cover a few things to do to make your backyard outdoor party a success from the table and chairs to what to serve.
Setting the Mood
A huge part of having a successful outdoor dinner party is the setting the dinner party mood. Meaning, you need to think lights & music. Things to consider are:
- Feel: What type of feel am I going for? I always suggest a swanky event with slower music, soft lighting and a beautiful tables cape (don’t freak out on that word we are going to talk about table basics here in a moment).
- Music: music plays an intricate part in hosting a party. For any type of dinner party I do suggest slower softer music in the genre you think your guests will like. 90’s pop music is on hold until dinner is over.
- Lighting: depending on where you are eating outside you will need to consider a few different lighting options. If you are eating on a porch I would shy away from just using an overhead light unless it can be dimmed. Nothing worse that jail house blinding lights at an evening dinner party (seriously! Ha!). Think candles (go with battery powered ones like these from Amazon, click HERE) on the table and around the entire space, if you have fun outdoor bistro lights or holiday lights they would be perfect to illuminate the evening, also tiki torches are a good option and easy to pop in the ground to really change a space.
The Tablescape
I don’t care what anyone says, everyone DOES notice the tablescape at any type of event. The holiday season is the perfect time to learn how to mix and match different elements to have a gorgeous and welcoming table. For an outdoor tablescape, we are going to focus on a few areas — bringing the indoor outside, personalized touch, fabrics and florals.
- Bring the Indoors Outside: Don’t be scared to bring some of your inside elements outdoors –for example my last dinner party I brought my gorgeous velvet dining chairs outside to use instead of a traditional outdoor chair. This brought not only a layer of glamour but also extra comfort for our guests. A few other ideas would be to bring an inside table outside –I love our transformer table for this –, add a rug under the table outside or bring an few tall lamps out to illuminate the space.
2. Personalized Touch — I highly highly highly suggest having seating cards on the table even if your dinner party is for guests that have been to your house a million times. It gives your guest confidence of where to sit without waiting on the host to tell them. Plus everyone loves to see their name “in lights” 🙂 Another cute idea is to have menu cards that also have their names on it.
3. Fabrics & Florals — Now here is the creative part, adding different fabrics and florals to elevate the space. The best part is that if you aren’t a DIYer you can order a centerpiece from your local florist or stayed tuned as I will be showing this month a couple of easy centerpieces you can put together. (check out the video below from last year for some inspiration). Another idea if you aren’t a floral person is to just use decor of the season — mini pumpkins in November or tons of mini Christmas trees in December. To add softness I suggest using real cloth napkins and a table runner.
What to Serve
The beauty of hosting a dinner party of any sorts in this day and age is that if you aren’t into cooking you can order takeout / catering from pretty much anywhere. My big suggestion if you go this route in ordering food is to make sure you remove the food from the restaurant containers and place them on platters to look more polished and homemade. This will add that elegant feel to the party.
If you are into cooking the dinner yourself, I have tons of amazing recipes you can snag right here on website. Some fan favorites that you can also make ahead of time and just keep hot until serving (this way you can enjoy your guests) are my Holiday Red Wine Roast , Crockpot Pork Tenderloin , and my Short Ribs! Just click on each main course prior and it will take you to the recipe link.
