Who, What, When?
This past May, I had the opportunity to help host an outdoor graduation dinner party for my niece in Auburn, Alabama. Celebrating friends and family is a great reason to have a dinner party!
I am sharing images and items I used recently for this dinner party. The hosts for this event included family and close friends. Our group got together to plan this event by first getting some ideas from our guest of honor! She loves barbecue (especially cheese biscuits)! We had a theme!
Planning the Event
We created a list of items we needed and began designing this event. My niece’s school colors were blue and white. Wanting the event to be casual and fun, I looked for items that would express this design direction. Wooden tree stump trays, galvanized metal items, blue and white gingham table cloths and napkins, natural woven placemats, and white hydrangeas made up the design list. We used lime green as an accent.
To inspire a design, take into consideration who your event is for and the guests. What is the event celebrating and what time of day and / or season is your event?
The Set Up
We had over sixty guests and set up round and rectangle tables in the backyard of one of the hosts. We used rattan folding chairs and white tablecloths as our base. The table design varied from using the wooden tree stump trays on the round tables to burlap runners on the rectangles food, dessert and beverage tables. Details such as clear, tall water bottles and small glass vases with votives were used on the tables. I had several inspiration images using rattan vases. We knew we wanted to use 10-12 of these on the tables. Using a clear glass mason jar, we wrapped a piece of rattan around the jar and held the sides together with fishing line. This was an easy, less expensive way to create this look and still be able to use the jars and material in other ways. We used green and white flowers in the clear and galvanized vases to add natural elements to the table design. Pictures of the guest of honor from childhood to her senior year are displayed on gold place card holders to add personal expression.
Final Thoughts
When I am creating a design for an event, I am always looking for ways to build a kit of parts and use it for various designs. This party was a good example of securing many of those basic items that I have and will continue to use for more events. More to come on this topic so make sure to subscribe for new posts!
We had a beautiful spring night for our event! The barbecue, mac and cheese, baked beans, and cheese biscuits were a hit! Of course, we could not have a barbecue without lemonade and southern sweet tea. The dessert menu included a Marshmallow Fudge Brownie dessert (I will share in upcoming post) and “diploma cookies”. It was a perfect night for an outdoor gathering to celebrate friendship, family and a graduation!
Get the Look / Collect the Basics
13″ Woven Water Hyacinth, Seagrass place mats, Natural
Burlap Table runner (used on long rectangular tables for food, beverages, desserts)
Blue and White Buffalo Check table cloth (used on the food table over white tablecloths)
Acrylic Beverage Dispenser (we used 3 of these, sweet tea, lemonade, water)
Galvanized bucket, large (used for flower arrangements on round tables)
Galvanized bucket, small (used for condiments and extra utensils)
Galvanized 3-tiered display stand
Acacia Wood round serving tray / tree stump (used on round tables)
6 1/2″ Blue and White large check napkin
9″ Blue Dinner Plate, rectangle
9″ Blue and White Checked Dinner Plate
Natural Kraft paper silverware bags
Table card holder, gold (used to label food and hold pictures of our guest of honor on tables)
Black index cards (labelled food, beverages, desserts)
Mason jars (added the cane webbing and used as vases)
Natural Rattan Cane Webbing (cut / wrapped around mason jars, used as vases)
Dandelion, Green (added to flower arrangements)
60″ ht Shephard hook (we hung vases / candle votives on the shepherds hooks and got extra to hang votive tea lights in small vases with wire in surrounding trees)
Matte Black S Hooks (used to hang flower vases / candles on shepherds hooks)
Hanging jars (can be used to hang flowers and / or votives on hooks, hangers can also be removed to be used as vases on tables)
Rectangular Table Cloths, white (table cloth calculator line below, this one fits both 6′ and 8′ tables with a drop)
120″ Round Table Cloths, white (table cloth calculator link below, this one fits 5′ diameter table to floor)
6′ plastic folding table, white
Williams and Sonoma Table Cloth Guide! (This is a great resource when you are trying to figure out what size table cloths to buy or rent for the table size you are using).
Another good resource for calculating table cloth size to floor (also allows you to input table dimensions and drop you prefer).
