Weekend Recap (a bit late...)

Happy Wednesday Everyone! Officially half way through the work week :)

Our dinner party turned out to be a big success, but I will get to that soon!

Friday afternoon was spent going from grocery store to grocery store collecting all of the ingredients for Saturday night. There were four stores in total, luckily Friday nights aren't exactly a happening time to be food shopping! The one item which was the hardest to find was Okra, I almost gave up and went with another green, and then Whole Foods came to the rescue!

After we shopped, we came home to clean the house. It was one of those move all the furniture to vacuum, dust the ceilings cleans, which are basically the bain of Oliver's existence but he happily (I knew he was faking) played along.

We woke up Saturday morning to a limping puppy, it seemed he had broken his nail, so off to the vet we went. They pulled it and gave us some antibiotics, he immediately stopped limping which made me feel better. However I spent the rest of day giving him extra treats to make up for it!

Then the cooking began, I have to say it went incredibly smoothly. I had time to nap, curl my hair and get my eyebrows done which is unheard of in our house on party days! Oliver always teases me that I worry too much about things being perfect, my response: "I get it from my Mom!" I don't think there is one party she has thrown that wasn't perfection!

When our guests arrived I was so happy to see everyone! The food turned out amazing (thanks to Oliver) and the company was the best! We have had a lot going on lately, so it was amazing to have a night to forget about all of that and be with people who make us laugh!

 Here are a few (I need to be better about pictures!) from our Southern Inspired BBQ! Hope you enjoy :)

I re purposed the burlap from Thanksgiving and used my favorite Anthropologie napkins. These fresh blooms were a great addition thanks to Trader Joe's!

 I was the bartender a lot of the night, my signature drink was Old Fashions. I used my favorite Kate Spade His & Hers glasses, good whiskey drinking glasses! also made Southern Spiked Sweet Tea & Vodka Lemonade. I will admit I cheated on the lemonade and used already made lemonade (I felt guilty but there just isn't enough time in the day!)

 

Our Christmas Party!

The Saturday before Christmas we hosted a little party. I attempted to keep things simple, but I then realized my "simple" and others perceptions are not the same! Luckily Oliver knew what I meant, he wasn't shocked by my vision or party prep plans. We prepared lots of appetizers and desserts, setting up the bar cart for wine, bubbly, beer, & a signature cocktail!

Surprisingly even to me, I went for a white and silver theme. I have been really into gold tones so I wanted to switch things up a bit for this party. I decided on winter white with silver and sparkly accents. For flowers I went with hydrangeas & Ranunculus with a bit of holly for green and pops of red. I made several arrangements and had them spread throughout the house. I also took leftover ornaments from the tree and placed them in tall vases filled with greenery to continue to theme throughout the house. The tree had white, silver and grey ornaments with a white tree skirt. My wrapping theme this year was also silver, I went with a shiny silver paper with white snowflake tags.

I placed all the food on the dining table with the leaf in it to extend the space. I used various platters to give the table some height and visual interest. Luckily my registry items played well into this theme as we have the "Roulette" setting from Crate & Barrel. My Mom also recently gave me these beautiful trays she bought in Italy so I used those as well.

For appetizers we made bacon wrapped asparagus, crostinis, homemade pretzel dippers with a bourbon cheese sauce, shrimp cocktail, bacon-onion dip, spinach & artichoke cups, a meat & cheese plate, onion dip with homemade bread to dip. My sister in law made almost all of the desserts which was super helpful. She did a great job! Oliver also made this cinnamon bread wrap which was incredible!

We had so much fun preparing for the party as well as seeing everyone! We played heads up which was a total blast! I think it was a huge success and I look forward to next years party! :)