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Home » Do It Yourself Garden Party tips and tricks

in Entertaining and Parties· Outdoor Entertaining· Recipes· Tablescapes· weddings

Do It Yourself Garden Party tips and tricks

I absolutely love entertaining and when I can do it outdoors it is even better! Today I am showing you Do it yourself garden party tips and tricks.

Here are a few of my favorite outdoor parties I put together. A rustic outdoor fall wedding reception with pumpkins and cornstalks. This small easy backyard wedding reception that I put together quickly and easily. Plus a pretty romantic outdoor dinner and a picnic under a tree I love it all!

They all have super inexpensive ways to get a lot of bang out of your decorations.

Do it yourself garden party

Begin garden party with tables and linens

With 20 or so family members coming we needed a fairly large space. The very first thing to do was to figure out where to put three long tables.

Out in the garden was perfect!

We did another garden party for 20 of our friends! You can read about it here.

Neutral textural tablecloths for garden party

I used 3 creamy textured tablecloths on the tables. Then layered them with another oatmeal colored tablecloth that has a black stripe at the bottom. I bought these from Ikea but they don’t carry them anymore 🙁

Texture and neutral colors just lends itself to a Garden party theme.

Our yard slopes a bit so here is a tip-

Put little pieces of wood under the legs of the table on the slope side to bring your tables level.

Mixing up your chairs for the Garden Party

I don’t know about you, but I don’t happen to have 20 matching chairs.

Grabbing chairs from all over the house and from the patio created a fun casual look.

How to set the table garden party

Placing the chairs in a pattern just says garden party to me. No matchy matchy.

If you want a matched set here is a set of 4 white chairs from Amazon

It really does not need to be perfect!

Garden Party Centerpiece

For the centerpiece I gathered some cut glass wine bottles and hurricane glass candle holders from my closet. I used clear glass because I didn’t want a super fussy centerpiece because I wanted the garden to be the star.

Less is more. Don’t you agree?

gather glass bottles and hurricane candle holders

These glass hurricane candle holders are so awesome I used them in this outdoor dinner for two tablescape too.

clear dollar store bottles with cuttings from yard

What do you put in a skinny bottle opening? This is such a grea tip! I used cut herbs from my garden!

Fresh mint …which grows like wildfire and believe it or not onion blossoms!

The little white flowers are blossoms are from my onions!

All these cuttings were from my yard and FREE!

Look around your yard for bushes, vines and herbs to use!

Natural Garden Theme Place Settings

In keeping with the garden theme I wanted texture, white and simplicity.

My woven placemats and plain white dinner plates fit that look perfectly! I use both of them everyday!

Natural place settings woven placemats

Placing a white napkin in between the plate and and placemat is such a pretty look! Bubble glass goblets reminds me of dew in the garden.

Of course I don’t own 20 bubble glass goblets so I mixed them with plain glass goblets that I picked up at the thrift store!

Glass vases with candles

Tip- Lay some honeysuckle vines down the middle of the table. Place them in between the hurricane glass candle holders and glass bottles to bring in more of the garden theme.

Again these clippings are FREE if they are growing in your yard or your neighbors 😉

Add lighting to your DIY Garden party

Lighting whether it’s candles or twinkling lights makes a huge difference. This pic was taken after everyone had left so you can’t see how it looked all set up but trust me when everyone was there it was magical!

My hubby had to figure out how to create this lighting magic for me. He used wood 1 x 2 boards and pounded them into the ground, then he zigzagged the string of lights over the table.

The lights were a little too heavy for the wooden boards. He figured out a way to attach string to the tops of the boards and secured them to the ground or trees. Kind of like you would do to secure a tent if that makes sense.

P.S. I the picture below if you look closely you can see the piece of wood underneath the leg of the table that I talked about earlier to keep the tables level.

lighting outdoor garden party

It totally worked and everyone loved it!

Making Memories With the Family

Fun was had by everyone at my do it yourself garden party.

There is just something special about being out in the garden eating dinner with lots of family.

Family fun at garden party

I loved putting this outdoor garden party together for my family but this would also be such a great idea for a small wedding reception too!

Do it yourself garden party tips and tricks

Cousins enjoying a yummy grilled chicken dinner.

garden party
Family garden party

You can find the recipes by clicking on the menu item- Grilled chicken, Grilled Vegetables, Spinach Salad and Couscous with yams! SO GOOD!!

Grilled chicken corn veggies and spinach salad

Our silly little grandsons 🙂

Recently we celebrated the grandson on the right with a Pirate themed birthday party that was so fun to do.

cute boys at the garden party
outdoor garden party with family

Here are some of my favorite herb infused lemonade recipes.

Raspberry lemonade

The whole gang! Sisters, Brothers, Cousins and Aunts and Uncles.

We love them all!

Karins Kottage Do it yourself garden party

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Do it yourself garden party

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Comments

  1. Rachel says

    July 6, 2022 at 11:39 am

    Beautiful and thrifty ideas here, Karin! I love each one. The greenery is so lovely paired with the simple fabrics on the tables!!

    Reply
  2. MaryJo Materazo says

    June 8, 2021 at 5:13 pm

    So lovely and clearly everyone enjoyed themselves which is always the key to a successful gathering. Well done friend. XO- MaryJo

    Reply
    • Karins Kottage says

      June 9, 2021 at 9:06 am

      MaryJo is was so amazing to have that many cousins all together for dinner outdoors like that. It is something I will always remember 🙂 Thank you for your sweet comment.

      Hugs,
      Karin

      Reply
  3. Julie Briones says

    May 24, 2021 at 6:56 pm

    Your garden party tips are great, Karin… and I love the fresh look of the garden party, too. My fave are your centerpiece bottles with mint and ONION FLOWERS! That is awesome! Loved seeing the family photos, too. Reminds me of our family get-togethers. Pinned, and I’m excited to be featuring you tomorrow at Tuesday Turn About!

    Reply
  4. Kippi Ohern says

    May 7, 2021 at 11:05 pm

    I am hosting a tiny garden party need week, and I love your idea for using mint with flowers on the tables.
    Happy Mother’s Day,
    Kippi

    Reply
  5. Clearissa Coward says

    April 28, 2021 at 12:25 pm

    Wow! How nice, you made it look so easy. Your table was just not enough. Not over the top. Casual but lovely. Thanks for sharing at #omhgww. See you next week

    Reply
    • Karins Kottage says

      April 28, 2021 at 1:57 pm

      Thank you so much Clearissa! 🙂

      Karin

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. How to style a Coastal Grandmother tablescape - Karins Kottage says:
    June 11, 2022 at 12:05 am

    […] After laying down the green paint paper table runner, I added fresh greens clipped from my yard, I always love to scout out my yard for flowers, greens and herbs to use in my centerpieces. Like I did for this garden party for 20 here. […]

    Reply
  2. How to set up an outdoor garden dinner party - Karins Kottage says:
    August 25, 2021 at 5:44 pm

    […] You can find more tips about how to set up an outdoor party on my do it yourself garden party tips and tricks post here. […]

    Reply

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