How to Host a Summer Dinner Party

We hosted a dinner party a few weeks ago with our friends and their kids. It was a socially distant evening as our tables were ten feet apart. but it was a wonderful summer dinner party.

We finally did it. We hosted a summer dinner party for our friends.

Actually, my husband and boys get the credit for the party idea.  It was my birthday and they thought it would be fun to host a dinner party with our closest friends.

It worked perfectly and we socially distanced the entire time. We set one table for each family.

It was such a joy to have dinner with friends. Even if we were ten feet apart the entire time.

The boys sent out a group text and invited some of our closest friends. One thing that I hadn’t realized is that most people aren’t really doing a lot these days. No one is going out to dinner or parties or taking a vacation. So everyone could come!

The boys set the tables out and then I kind of took over. I think they said that “I hijacked their party”. Which is true. But they were relieved. I am sure of it.

The photo below highlights my fifteen-minute flowers. I call them that because that is how long it took me to arrange them. The flowers were picked out by my Instacart shopper (we still aren’t shopping at the grocery store yet) and I think they look great. All I said was, “only choose pink”. 

I did add the hydrangeas from my garden.

Setting the Tables

Next, I set the tables using my chargers, vintage plates, paper napkins, silver, and ball glass drinking glasses. We also added some citronella candles to help ward off the bugs (please note, we live in Southern California and the bugs are pretty mild anyway).

We added one small table next to each of the larger tables. We made a “beverage bucket” for each table so that each family had cold water, sodas, and wine to enjoy throughout the evening.

I did decide that I wanted to make some sort of place card for each table. So I went to my Cricut machine and cut out some words from cardstock.

I decided to name each table with the last name and the word “family”.

Of course, I used pink. But doesn’t this look awesome?

The “family place cards” worked out so well!

The next thing we knew, it was almost time for the party to begin.

 

The Menu

Since it was my birthday and we were socially distancing, we decided to order family meals from my favorite restaurant, Julienne’s. Their special “family meal” was fish tacos and we ordered four family meals or one for each table.

We put each meal for four on platters and served one to each table. We also served platters of appetizers (from Julienne’s) but I forgot to take a photo of those.

I did make the dessert. My berry cobbler recipe is so easy to make and always very well received.

You can make the cobbler with frozen or fresh berries. Surprisingly, I prefer using frozen berries by far.

 

Our guests arrived at 6:00 pm. Look how cute these guys are! All of their masks say “Happy Birthday Leslie”.

I thought that was so clever!

 

The evening was so much fun. For all of us, this was the first time we were at a dinner party with friends since March.

We all enjoyed some wonderful dinner conversation, even though we stayed at least ten feet apart.

It was the perfect setting.

It was also the most wonderful birthday. 

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