End-of-Summer Soirée

Decor:

Flowers: The T Shop || Garland: Martha Stewart  || Honeycombs: Amazon   || Wooden Crates:   Distressed White Wash Boxes || Burlap Table Runner: Amazon  || Mason Jars: Ball Canning Jars  || Paper Straws:  Amazon || Paper Plates: Amazon   ||  Napkins: Amazon  ||

Menu and Recipes:

Snacks: Cheese Platter || Caprese Bites || Garlic Hummus || Chicken Salad Sliders || Buffalo Chicken Sliders || Potato Salad ||

Sweets: Cream Cheese Cookie Fruit Cups || Strawberry Lemonade Cheesecake || S’mores Cookies

Sips: Strawberry Basil Infused Vodka and Jalapeno Cocktail

There is nothing better than a summer party with good food, good friends, and an outdoor patio to enjoy a wonderful cocktail. Because of the Texas heat in July and August, my roommates and I decided to wait until it cooled down a bit  to host an end-of-summer soirée and take advantage of the outdoors a little more.

We went for a classy, casual, summery theme with lots of bright and vivacious colors. Between the flowers, the table runner, paperware and pom pom banners, we were able to incorporate different shades of pinks, purples, yellows and greens. Our amazing flower arrangements came from the T Shop and completely tied all of our decor and colors together perfectly! The shop worked with us in advance to make sure that the flowers and vases coordinated with the purple gingham styled table runner and burlap overlay. It is all about the details, my friends! 

We had a beautiful buffet style layout with tables for “Snacks,” “Sips,” and “Sweets.” I positioned the tables throughout the house to encourage mingling and prevent any gridlock. I also wanted to incorporate a fun interactive game of some sort that would still encourage mingling! Due to the “summery” nature of the party, I found the perfect “life size” jenga set that I even had personalized with TCU colors. I cannot wait to bring this out again at TCU tailgating parties or for more backyard picnics!

Of course, the menu planning was one of my favorite parts. I didn’t want to serve a full dinner, but wanted to make sure we had enough appetizers that no one went home hungry. We also had a lot of friends in town for the party, so I wanted to be able to spend as much time with them before the party as possible, so I opted for more cold appetizers rather than warm. I knew that warm appetizers would require my entire day spent in the kitchen, so with this menu I could do most of the food preparation the night before!

The caprese bites, garlic and red pepper hummus, chicken salad sliders, potato salad and strawberry lemonade cheesecake were all prepared the night before and only required a little bit of assemblage time the day of the party. The slow cooker buffalo chicken sliders are also super easy and only take 5-10 minutes of early morning prep and then the crock-pot takes over for the rest of the day. Therefore, the only real things I had to prepare the day of the party were the cream cheese cookie fruit cups, the s’mores cookies, the cheese platter, and the strawberry basil infused vodka and jalapeno cocktail! Not too bad for a party of 40+ people!! Plus I still got to enjoy my guests for the entire weekend!

The evening was an absolute blast! It was so much fun catching up with old friends and introducing them to new ones. The food was delicious, the cocktails were better, and the laughter was contagious!

Tips and Tricks:

When planning a dinner party or cocktail party of any size, there are always tons of last minute to do’s that you don’t think of until crunch time. No matter how prepared I am, I find that it is almost impossible to avoid the last minute crunch of a party whether it’s because you forgot to do something or there’s not enough oven space! Since this is unavoidable, don’t leave anything to the last minute on purpose. Give yourself 25% more time than you think you will need to complete all your tasks.

• Always decorate the night before and layout all of your serving platters and trays that you are planning on using. This will help you visualize your space and make sure that you have serving space for all of your dishes. This will also allow you extra time to improvise if something doesn’t hang just right or you need a different table cloth, etc!

• If you have time, prepare as much as you can the night before. Whether this is just chopping ingredients and keeping in the fridge overnight or preparing your cold dishes in their entirety, this will save you tons of running around time on day of your party.

Relax and enjoy your party! Don’t worry about cleaning up or doing the dishes while your guests are still there. That can wait until they leave! Have a cocktail, or two or three, and enjoy – you’ve worked hard!!

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