Essentials for Your End of Summer Dinner Party 🕯️

Late August is an ideal time to host a backyard dinner party.

Dinner parties offer a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the outdoors before the weather turns cooler and are perfect for reconnecting with friends and family you intended to see before summer's busy schedule took over.

From the table settings, incorporating fresh flowers, the food, and the ambience, here is some inspiration for your next al fresco event.

Decorative Flowers

Fresh flowers or flower patterns are an easy way to dress up your table. Flowers can be used in a place setting to introduce subtle colors and textures. Edible flowers can also be used as a garnish for food or as an ingredient in a dish.

For the table setting for this dinner party, snow on the mountain flowers were picked to go in the napkin arrangement. A blend of edible flowers became garnish for tea cookies. Floral designs on the plates and tablecloth additionally helped create a light, summery atmosphere.

Let Nature Be the Honored Guest

Another essential element for crafting the ideal summer dinner party ambiance is ensuring that your decorations—such as the table settings and lighting—do not outshine the true guest of honor - the surrounding landscape.

For this dinner gathering, we opted for a simple white color scheme for the table and chose chairs and an umbrella that harmonized with the surrounding forest.

Positioning the dining area against a scenic backdrop is also a simple way to align your decorations with the natural environment.

This way, your garden flowers, potted plants, and backyard trees will truly become the main attractions.

Add Elements that Take the Party From Day to Night

To transition your dinner party from a bright afternoon to a cozy evening, you'll require some lighting elements.

One simple way to incorporate light without completely obstructing the natural atmosphere you created is to incorporate candles as a centerpiece. In the image below, tea lights were placed in vases filled with water to add some light as the evening darkened. You can also add light to your space by hanging lights or lanterns around trees and on deck umbrellas.

Be Strategic About Your Menu

The menu for a dinner party often receives the most attention. Striking a balance between dishes that are simple to prepare (whether homemade or catered) and those that cater to everyone's tastes and dietary needs, including vegetarian options, can be quite challenging, and heavily based on your particular facts and circumstances.

However, a few suggestions as you think through your menu include keeping it simple and incorporating fresh ingredients.

To "keep it simple," consider dishes with simple ingredients and serving dishes family-style so guests can choose dishes that fit their preferences. To "incorporate fresh ingredients," we recommend using fresh seasonings and vegetables from a local farmer's stand.

Here, out menu included stuffed artichokes, cucumber tea sandwiches, olives and cheese, a mix of sparkling drinks, and flower tea cookies.

We hope this post helps you plan you next summer dinner party,

Cheers to end of summer celebrations! Xx