Now that warmer weather is finally here many people will be thinking about hosting garden parties. You can make these as fancy or as carefree as you want. All it takes is a little bit of planning, some delicious food, some pretty garden decorations and some delightful guests to make your party a hit this season.
First, lets look at the main ingredient, the food. If you want to keep this simple, stick with the basics, hamburgers, hotdogs, potatoe salad, chips, dessert and teas. If you want to be more sophisticated try adding a variety of fruits, maybe even a fruit salad mixture. You can have salads of all types, from the green leafy salads, to salads with meats, cheeses and surprises added to them. As for the meats, if you don’t want to serve just the usual meats on the grill, you can try some deli meats such as turkey and ham or even bake a chicken or even a casserole dish. Anything can go for an outside garden party. If you decide on a theme party, you may even want your dishes to match. For example, if your theme is country, you should consider fried chicken and potato salads. If you want to do a fun hula theme, you may want to do a lot of fruit dishes. Have fun with the food choices.
You should also have fun with the decorating. Add a lot of candles, these can serve many purposes. They can help save on electric (we all are suppose to be doing our part for the environment). They add a nice ambience to the party and they can help fight off outside annoying bugs, especially the citronella ones. If you like the look of candles, you may even like the look of lanterns. You can scatter these on tables or hang them on poles. Speaking of poles, those bamboo poles that you fill with citronella o oil is always a party favorite.
Of course, you may want to spend some money on electric lighting in the way of string lights. You can string these along the whole area of the outside party area. You could use colored lights or just plain white lights. If you want them to look extra special, use the lights that blink on and off, just be sure that a blinker light is included with your set.
To save on time from washing dishes after your party, use paper plates and utensils. You may even want to use paper table clothes, so you don’t have to worry about any ruined cloth ones. If you don’t want to place everything on paper plates and bowls, you can buy many colorful and festive plastic bowls and plates, of all styles, colors and sizes. These are inexpensive, so you don’t have to worry about them getting ruin.
As for your invitations, you can make life easy and send most of these through your email. If you do want to go the traditional paper route, think about making your own with your computer. You can find many templates online. Or buy some inexpensive fill in the blank invitations at any dollar store.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money to host a garden party. And you don’t have to become all stressed out planning one. Just stay calm, make some simple plans and then enjoy yourself.
