Summer entertaining suggestions and information invite vibrant color, easy entertaining tips, and fun home decor touches to the party.
Photo by Joseph Sun
Summer nights frame the art of entertaining with a canvas of color and hosting ease.
Invite the wow factor to your summer soiree with these DIY party ice buckets and ice cubes.
Ice ice baby too cold, too cute!
Fresh mint ice cubes are easy to make, delicious to taste, and talk about pretty in a pitcher or glass or both.
Place gently rinsed fresh mint leaves into each individual square of the ice cube tray.
Fill squares with water.
Pop tray into freezer until cubes are solid.
Enjoy!
Creating an evening under the stars atmosphere begins with bringing down the house lights and illuminating the summer night with soft accent lighting.
Photo by Laura Adai
Casual elegance is easily achieved by strategically placing kerosene lanterns or glass jar luminaries along a walkway.
For extra ambiance wrap, hang, drape or string white twinkle string lights from trees, in shrubs and around columns.
Stunning!
Tiki torches, table lamps on loan for the evening from your interior home decor, garden chandeliers, and decorative paper lanterns also make great options in the quest to create a comfortable and inviting atmosphere.
Ball Jars prove a versatile party decor darling. Light them up, fill them up, or chill them down.
Ball 4pk Glass Regular Mouth Rose Vintage Mason Jar with Lid and Band
Your midsummer night’s entertaining dream becomes a reality with these quaint and stunning homemade hurricanes.
Simple and affordable combine decorating forces to add subtle yet palpable charm to a perfect summer evening scene.
Give me a reason to turn a flower pot into a serving piece and it is summer soiree party on.
Hard to forget the look I got the first time I announced we were having pot brownies at our pot party to a co-hostess. I don’t believe I have ever clarified something so quickly before or since then.
Anywho, clay flower pots are an inexpensive and summer appropriate alternative to traditional serving pieces.
Baked beans, barbecued wings, Creole seasoned French fries, baked Vidalia onions, s’mores fixins- all great “pot” options.
Elevate an otherwise average patio table to party perfection by topping it with a stylish outdoor tablecloth. Layer the look with chairs, cushions and outdoor pillows decked out in bright summer colors.
Decoristas have long had a trusty trick up their sleeve… home decor accents and furnishings that work gorgeously inside the house will rock an outdoor living space like a Led Zeppelin concert!
Love your inside dining chairs and know they will be the key to pulling the entire outdoor tablescape together, but don’t want the chair legs to get dirty?
Wrap the bottom of each chair leg with clear plastic wrap.
Perhaps a tad time-consuming, but it will save time on the clean up end of the party.
Be as pre-party proactive as possible with certain tasks. It’s a summer entertaining essential skill for the host and/or hostess to hone.
DIY summer citronella candles how to video from Southern Living show us how to make a DIY bug-be-gone candle that is not only visually impressive, but an essential must for comfortable summer soiree nights.
Photo by Tasso Mitsarakis
At the point in the party when the food and drink has hit the spot, the music is summer smooth, the outdoor party life is kicking up a notch, and the company and the conversation is hitting all the right notes, now is the perfect time to hand out summer refresh party pails.
Fill plastic beach pails from the dollar store with his or hers flip-flops, individual aluminum spray bottles filled with chilled homemade rose water (the guys love this stuff almost as much as the gals), cold cucumber slices in freezer bags and Burt’s Bees Cucumber & Sage facial cleansing towelettes (love the scent).
Assemble party pails beforehand, adding chilled and cold items to pails right before handing them out.
Enjoy the colors and celebrations of the season.
What better excuse for throwing a stylish summer entertaining soiree!
