After the hustle and bustle of the holidays, we tend to keep things a bit more casual when it comes to hosting parties over the winter months. An easy yet elegant dinner party is kind of the way to go! (Or a rowdy game day party with lots of snacks. I’m flexible!) Today I’m walking you through my tips for setting the table for just such a dinner party. Think sweet and simple with a casual vibe that will make your friends feel right at home!
Dinner party
We host Thanksgiving every year at our home and it’s something Bob and I both look forward to all year. Keeping the Thanksgiving celebrations going all weekend long is one of my favorite ways to spend the holiday weekend as we transition into the holiday season. It’s my favorite time of year and filling the house with friends all weekend long makes my soul happy. So today we’re talking Thanksgiving leftovers! Namely, how to use them up along with how to host your friends for a day after Thanksgiving party featuring a menu starring all your favorite leftovers. Today I’ve teamed up with Dixie Plates to share my seriously epic leftover stuffing dumplings and how you can turn your Thanksgiving weekend into a weekend-long holiday extravaganza!
Late summer is one of my very favorite times of year. The sun hangs low and golden, the produce is at its best and the evenings get just a teensy bit cooler, promising of fall. Now that the kids are back at school and everyone is working back into old routines, casual dinner parties at home replace big barbecues as my party of choice. Today I’m teaming up with my friends at Prairie Organic Spirits and sharing my take on a farm to table dinner party, inspired by your weekly CSA share or a trip to the farmer’s market. This is summer at its very finest!
If you’re reading this chances are good that you’re pretty well versed on my love for entertaining. Bringing people together over a great meal is a true passion for me, and luckily my husband agrees. The result of two people who love to cook and spend time with friends? We entertain a lot. And by “a lot,” I mean as often as a few times a month. I get asked all the time about how we do that, and the answer is that we keep it simple! Sure, there are times that we cook an intricate meal, but most of the time I’m a huge advocate of pulling together a spread that is wow-worthy without taking all day to prepare. One of my favorite entertaining ideas is any kind of “make your own” food station, in this case an awesome pasta bar that I created shopping exclusively at Walmart! The beauty of this pasta bar is how quickly it comes together, how amazingly convenient it is to pick everything up in one shopping trip and how tasty the end results are! Your friends and your kids will go crazy for this one, and the prep time is totally minimal. This is my kind of dinner party!
Back in late July you may recall that I hosted a party in our backyard with Sutter Home. At the time I shared a couple of the DIY projects, a sneak peek at the decor and the prettiest dinner party printables designed by my lovely friend Maddy of The Proper Type. Late last week the first of several videos was launched on Sutter Home’s Facebook page and I have to say, seeing that video really brought it home just how amazing an experience throwing this party was for me both personally and professionally. In a nutshell, we filled our backyard with a ton of family and friends, incredible food, an abundance of great wine and live music by John Driskell Hopkins, who is also a member of the Zac Brown Band. Then, an incredible production crew complete with director, videographers, photographers, art directors, sound guys and stylists took over our house for the day and after an early morning hair and makeup session the day kicked off and didn’t stop until the wee hours of the morning. I’ll be sharing all the other videos, recipes and photos with you as they roll out, but it would mean the world to me to have you take a few minutes to go watch the first video, or the appetizer video as Sutter Home has so cheekily dubbed it, and appropriately so. Getting to share my life’s passion in this way and on this kind of platform means so much to me it almost brings me to tears seeing it all come to life. Click through for loads of behind the scenes photos that Alice captured on what our friends, family and neighbors have affectionately come to refer to as Sutter Home Day!
A few times over the summer I’ve eluded to the fact that I had some big projects in the works and today I am so excited to share one of those with you! A while back the folks at Sutter Home reached out to me and asked if I wanted to team up with them to throw the ultimate backyard party. Because I can never turn down a reason to throw a good party, I had to yes, naturally. Then they asked if they could bring in live music, have a bunch of our friends and neighbors show up and film the whole thing. And again, my answer was an enthusiastic yes! Today is the day it’s all going down so you can follow along with me on Instagram Stories all day long to see how it’s all coming together and witness the fun for yourself. In a few weeks we’ll be sharing all the details right here, but in the meantime I wanted to share a bit of my planning process including some really gorgeous printables and a fun DIY project I incorporated into the mix!
Friends, this easy cheesy broccoli cornbread recipe is seriously incredible. Have you ever made cornbread with Jiffy mix? Because that’s the basis of this recipe! One of my friends made her version for our chili cook off Super Bowl party a few weeks ago and it was a huge hit, so naturally I had to give my hand a try at giving it my own twist and serving it up for you guys.
I seriously love getting to share gorgeous parties and today’s engagement party is particularly special because Bay area photographer Krista of Krista Marie Photography was not only behind the lens but also one of the guests of honor! Krista and her fiancé Jon met when they were just 12 years old and have been best friends for over …
Every once in a while I think it’s fun to dig deep into the nearly six years of archives and share an oldie but goodie from the 1000s of posts I’ve written and shared since 2008. Today’s post takes us back four summers ago to this gorgeous dandelion themed dinner party, designed around a love …
While I love a colorful glittery party more than any 31 year old woman should admit, I have a confession to make. In all honesty, it’s casual yet beautiful at-home entertaining that is my true love. You don’t need balloons. (Although I really really love balloons.) You don’t need fancy garland or oversized piñatas. (Although …
You guys know by now that I love a good dinner party. Those gatherings of friends, good food and plenty of laughter that are really just about celebrating the every day. That’s what this gorgeous dinner party is all about. Shared by Veronica Lola, this rustic dinner party was a Friendsgiving celebration that Veronica and …
I’ve always loved the work of Aleah and Nick of Valley & Co. but today I’m especially excited to share this dinner party they recently planned. Hosted in honor of Aleah’s mom’s 60th birthday, they planned a dinner party in a big open field on a teeny tiny island in the Pacific Northwest. The birthday girl …