One of the things M and I had wanted to do last Summer was to host an outdoor dinner and board games night in the backyard, under some twinkly lights, with some of our couple friends. We had set fairy lights up in the backyard for Paige's 21st and left them up for a week hoping to do so, but that week it just rained and it was cold (in Dec!?) so we ended up just taking lights down and never got around to hosting that gathering -sad face! So we were pretty excited to host one this summer, and it was so much fun it might just have to become a yearly event! The night before our little party was also my dear friend Katty's
birthday, so although it wasn't exactly labelled a 'birthday party', we did
surprise her with a birthday cake, a little present on her chair, some happy birthday wishes and I made some fun feather crowns for all the girls to wear too, which were just the right amount of crazy :)
I wanted the gathering to be a little fancy (you should know by now that I never do things by halves!) but also super easy and non stressful to put together. And somehow I think we managed to accomplish both!?!? For the decorations I just used everything I already had on hand in gold and burnt orange/amber colours. The plates, cutlery and silverware were from Paige's twenty first, and the feathers and lace were actually leftover craft supplies from our wedding! The table was made by my dad and the chairs were from our dining room setting and also the chairs we used for our bridal signing table (which I found on the side of the road). The only things I bought were the white napkins (on sale from my work), some gold sequin trim to make our bohemian inspired headdresses and some fresh flowers, which kept cost down too - yay! I was inspired by
this party and wanted to go with a bohemian/feather/fancy mismatched china/anthropologie look. The only crafting I did was to attach some of the feathers to the polka dot straws and napkins with a bit of glue and lace.
I tried to keep the food both fancy looking but easy too. Which was easy because I am currently 'looking after' one of mum's
thermomixes (she's a consultant). It got a pretty decent workout for this party! We served cheese, bikkies, carrot + celery sticks and a yummy home made
cashew and capsicum dip,
This cous cous salad and
this tomato, bean and feta cheese salad and
chicken + halloumi and
beef kebabs. I also made two
pizza breads and
tzatziki in the thermo too. The drink in the dispenser is actually a bottle of Lipton Peach Iced Tea with a few orange slices thrown in (you should try this, its so easy and yum!) and some friends bought along some other drinks too. For dessert I made a red velvet cake (from a packet to keep it easy, and if I'm honest cause I kinda suck at baking (hello bouncy banana cupcakes of 2012!) and some raspberry
fruity dream with tea and coffee.
After dinner and dessert things got a little crazy as Bryan had bought along some sparklers and we all started taking silly photos and dancing around the yard to the music, sparklers in hand. It was one of those really great moments that you don't plan but they just happen and they are so fun! The boys captured some fun shots on our camera. We made some pretty pictures, although I'll spare you the ones the boys had way too much fun making (think toilet humour and fart bubbles) oh dear! Because well this is my blog after all and it's for pretty things only ;) After we calmed down (a bit) the board games came out and I am a little bashful to say that my competitive side may have come out in a big way (oh no!) It was so much fun to end the night with silly games, lots of laughs and just general sillyness. And I'm pretty sure it's safe to say all had a good time as we were still sitting out in the yard playing Articulate till 1:30AM!! I'm so thankful for sweet friends who we are lucky enough to spend lovely times like this with. What a beautiful blessing friendship is!
^'Jesus'
^Someone just really enjoyed writing his name! ;)
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