HOSTING A SUMMER GARDEN PARTY

My Humble Abode
Aug 29, 2017
4 min read

Last weekend we hosted our first party in the new house and it was everything we hoped for and more. As well as having glorious sunshine (most unexpected with the recent weather) we had all of our dearest friends and family together for a day of good food and a celebratory tipple!

We've been planning the party for about six weeks now, looking at everything from small details and decorations like jam jars hung in trees to the day's menu and even beer pong! It hasn't just been the party we've been working on, as the lounge and dinning room needed decorating too. We wanted it to be the big unavailing for those who hadn't seen our new place and for those that had visited to see the changes made from moving day. Each weekend leading up to the Bank Holiday weekend had been spent tirelessly painting of the faded magnolia and eradicating the deep red colour in the lounge. It's now made such a difference and is really starting to feel like our house now. Expect a new blog post next week for an updated look at our lounge!

We ended up having about 30 guests at the party and this was definitely something I underestimated. This of course meant I needed 30 sets of plates, cutlery and glasses but thank god for IKEA, it really is a brilliant place for homeware. I mean where else can you get 20 new plates for £1 each? (That's almost cheaper than paper plates). I also picked up cutlery for £2.50 a set, including 4 sets of forks, knives, big spoon and little spoon. Not the best quality but far nicer to serve real cutlery rather than plastic that breaks instantly. Definitely head to IKEA if you're planning a party. Here are a few of the bits I stocked up on. Take a look at 'My Humble Abode' on Pinterest for all of my pins.

Next was time to plan the menu and start the epic online food shop! Pinterest was my first port of call for party planning and immediately I was swamped with an array of delicious and easy to make recipes. I wanted to keep the barbecue simple cooking burgers and sausages to serve alongside lots of different salads and accompaniments that could be made ahead of time. I knew that serving 30 people could be difficult and would require a lot of food but trying to make as much as possible before really helped to keep everything under control on the day. Here are some of the recipes I used or was inspired by. You can see the final spread in some of the pics below.

As for decorations and aesthetic, I wanted to keep to a boho feel and host most of the party in the garden (whilst praying for a dry day!). Again Pinterest was where I found most ideas and came across some beautiful ideas using blankets and rugs on the grass and easy decorations such as wild flowers in glass bottles or jars. Here's just a few of my favourites pins...

I was really inspired by the beautiful images of lit tree canopies covering a low seating area with blankets, candles and cushions. There's a space at the top of my garden that was simply perfect! I already had picnic blankets and spare rugs to use, I just needed a few wooden pallets to create a low table - luckily my Dad helped with this. I then bought a new white and pink table cloth from HomeSense and lots of cushions from IKEA. I hung 20m of fairy lights in the trees to create the feel of a night sky and ordered jam jars from EBay and to make these cute hanging candle holders. I absolutely love the final outcome and it's exactly how I imagined it to be. Unfortunately I didn't get an image an night when the lights were on, but you get the feel.

I also bought a couple disposable cameras from Amazon. I really wanted to capture enough photos of the day and I wouldn't have time to run round being photographer so what better way to do it than with disposables. I haven't managed to get them developed yet but I'm sure there'll be some brilliant and awful pics alike. I'm also planning to pop them in a photo album, mainly because I can't remember the last photo album I made and it'll be a lovely keepsake for the future.

All in all it was a fabulous day! If you have the time, space and effort it's always worth while and everyone who came has said how lovely the day was to spend time together. I won't be planning another for a couple months now though or if I do I'm going to cap the guest list and not get too carried away. Here's to Christmas at ours, kind of?

Have a scroll below of some of my favourites snaps before the party started!