Joyful Weddings and Events » seasonal season parties

Seasonal Season Parties: A Spring Picnic

Courtney — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:23:34 +0000

If you are new to the blog, I’d love to introduce you to our family tradition of seasonal season parties. At the beginning of each season, we have a party with friends celebrating that time of year. We have seasonal treats, I decorate and my husband puts together killer playlists of songs. Last month, we had our Spring party, which we do picnic style.

With not much time to prepare or even think about the party, I decided to make it super simple. We had our guests bring their own picnic lunches and we provided beverages and desserts. I made a tiny bit of decor and it was fun and cheery without being stressful for me. There is something that is just so nice about sitting around in nature with your friends that makes you smile.

Here is a peak at the party!

We served white sangria and sparkling lemonade and I found an excuse to finally buy that white drink dispenser I had been eyeing at target for months. For dessert, we made angel food cake and whipped cream, as well as coconut milk whipped cream- mainly just for me since I cannot have dairy right now, but it was tasty!- for our guests to make strawberry shortcake.

Sweet, simple and springy.

If you want to see our last spring party, you can hop over to our old blog to take a look. If you want to get a head start on some summer party planning, you can see one of our summer parties over there too.

Wait- can you believe that it is almost summer? How did that happen?

Our Seasonal Season Parties: Fall Party 2010

Courtney — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 19:27:08 +0000

Last month, we had our annual Fall Party. For those of you who are new to my blog, here is a bit of background. Two years ago, my husband and I started the tradition of having a party at the beginning of each season to celebrate our favorite things about that time of year. Fall was our first party, so this party is always extra special for us. You can see photos of past seasonal parties here and here.

This year, I got much of my inspiration while shopping during our trip to New York. I fell in love with a super soft tan and white striped yarn at Purl Soho and knew that it had to be incorporated into the party. I also found a great fabric there with a neutral leaf print and brought some home with me. I went with a more neutral feel, bringing in burlap fabric and ribbon along with my New York finds and accenting with color from fall produce. My goal was to use things that I already had for decor- no buying flowers this year. Only items already in my supply as well as produce from the market that I could reuse. Here is the result:

Guests were welcomed with white pumpkins from Trader Joes, stacked on vintage crates. I also made a garland out of the yarn and paper circles and hung it on our front porch.

I lined our window sill with large mason jar candles accented with yarn:

I created centerpieces out of pieces of tree trunks borrowed from a friend, as well as some flowers I already had, squash, pomegranates, pods and candles.

I am in love with the little felted acorns I bought from etsy seller greenbaboondesigns. They are just so cute!

On the third table, I put a fairy tale style pumpkin (also from Trader Joes) on a vintage pepsi crate and set jars filled with fall items on the sides.

I used burlap strips, yarn and fabric as trim on the vases:

White and brown base linens were provided by Fusion linens and I made the runners out of burlap.

For drinks, I used mason jars and cut strips of brown paper shopping bags to wrap around them. I added a little yarn and then had guests write their names on the paper to claim their glasses. Essentially free and way cuter than sharpee on a red plastic cup!

I also wrapped glass water jugs from Ikea to match. The green striped paper straws were left over from an event earlier in the week. I purchased them from etsy seller HeyYoYo.

I scored this oversized mason jar at Target on clearance and love it:

Our seasonal parties are always potlucks, so it is fun to see what seasonal inspired creations our friends bring. I only got a couple of photos of the food, but here is a peak:

Since we have little ones at the party, I always try to think of decor that is safe for them on the coffee table. This year, I put on some burlap with cut paper circles they could play with and not break.

At the last minute, I decided to throw together a quick wreath. I wrapped a cardboard wreath form with strips of burlap and then added a yarn bow and hung it with the same yarn. Super quick.

At each party, we give out a mix of songs that fit with that season. In addition, we gave out little sachets of mulling spices as well. This is such an easy and cheap favor! I bought mulling spices from Trader Joes, wrapped a small amount in cheesecloth and then wrapped that in a piece of burlap and tied with yarn.

We set up a photobooth for our guests to take photos, which was a fun addition to the night. I hung burlap and then made fabric letters to hang.

Our seasonal parties are so much fun and we love sharing this special tradition with our friends. I already cannot wait for Winter!

What happened to our Seasonal Parties?

Courtney — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 21:14:38 +0000

If you are a long-time reader of my blog, you may have noticed that we have not featured our Spring or Summer party yet. For those of you who are newer to the blog, for the past two years, my husband and I have hosted a party at the beginning of each season for our friends. It has become a really fun tradition for us and is always a great chance for me to get creative.

I wanted to share the reason that we have not shown you photos of the past two seasons. We actually skipped spring this year. I know, I know. How could we? Here’s the scoop: I really did not enjoy the winter party. I was very stressed, did not have time to prep and put all of this pressure on myself to make it an amazing party. As a result, I was crazy the day before and the day of the party, did not get things set up in time and just did not enjoy myself at the party because I was exhausted.

This made me realize that I had forgotten the whole reason we started these events: to celebrate the change in seasons with our friends. Not to out-do my past events, not to get it featured on a blog. I had put too much pressure on myself and had missed the point. Because of that, and the fact that Spring was crazy busy with weddings, we decided to skip Spring.

When summer rolled around, we definitely knew we wanted to throw a party. This time though, I decided to focus on my main goal: to have fun with friends and celebrate what we love about summer. So we had a bbq and bonfire at the beach. Zero decor. Again- gasp! Courtney threw a party with no decor? Yep. It was refreshing and we had a ton of fun.

Never fear though- the tradition will continue in it’s normal style from now on. Although Southern California seems to be confused on what season it is (temperatures of 114 this week!), it is in fact fall and we will be having our fall party in a couple of weeks. The fall parties are always my favorite and I cannot wait to put it all together.

Just wanted to update you all. Thanks for your patience

If you want a little fall inspiration to hold you over until I have my party, I was honored to be a judge for a fall decorating challenge that the lovely The City Cradle put on last week. To see all of the fun ideas, you can look through her archives here. Here are a few fun photos to give you a glimpse of the creative ideas:

Winter Party Playlist

Courtney — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:34:15 +0000

As I mentioned in my recap of our Winter Party, we always send our guests off with a playlist of songs that we relate to that season. It is one of my husband’s favorite things to do and, although every seasonal playlist has been great, I have to say that this one is one of the best.

Here is the rundown of what we included this year:

*”Your Ex-Lover is Dead” by Stars

*”No One’s Gonna Love You” by Band of Horses

*”Mushaboom” by Feist

*”You and Whose Army” by Radiohead

*”Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap

*”Her New Disaster” by The Heart Strings

*”I am Still Running” by Jon Foreman

*”Men of Snow” by Ingrid Michaelson

*Hafsol” by Sigur Ros

*”Re: Stacks” by Bon Iver

Our Seasonal Season Parties: Winter Party Number 2

Courtney — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:59:42 +0000

Those of you that have followed my blog for a while know that my husband and I throw a party at the start of every season. We invite some of our close friends, have a potluck, decorate with details that celebrate that season and my hubby creates a stellar playlist and we give a copy to all of our guests. It has become a favorite tradition in our group of friends and we always look forward to the upcoming parties. You can see our past seasonal parties here and here.

Since it is almost Spring, I decided I better shape up and get the Winter party up here.

This year, I had literally one day to prepare everything, so it was definitely the most stressful seasonal party to date. I tried to keep my crafting simple, but ended up a bit over my head. Even still, it was a wonderful party and I am happy with how things turned out. Here is a little look, with photos taken either in terrible light or the day after the party.

I love paper cut art, so I wanted to have the feel of that throughout the party. I used my cricut to cut out words related to winter and stuck them all over the long tables where guests sat.

I created a runner by placing different sizes of doilies in the middle of the table. I jazzed up some old votive candles I have by covering them with glitter, flocking powder or yarn. Other than that, I grabbed whatever pillar and taper candles and holders I had in my supply and stuck them on the tables. I also whipped up some turquoise yarn balls and scattered them amongst the candles.

I hung some tissue poms and string orbs (which you will be seeing again, very soon!) from the ceiling and each guest had their soup bowl, spoon and napkin waiting for them at their seat.

Just like our last winter party, dinner was a soup potluck. Each couple brought a different type of soup- which is so fun! Most of us had multiple servings so we could try all of the different varieties. I made little labels so we would know what each soup was and had the cooks fill in the information.

I will be back on Monday with our Winter playlist, which is one of my favorites to date. A big thank you to Classic Party Rentals for providing all of the wonderful rentals.

Fall Party Music Playlist

Courtney — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:48:10 +0000

“That song is such a winter song”. “Oh, that is definitely a summer song” I am going to guess that most of you do not categorize music by seasons, but in our house, that is completely normal. For every seasonal party, my husband puts together a big playlist of songs that feel like the season we are celebrating. It usually contains a couple of hours full of songs and we play them throughout the party. He narrows the list down to 10 favorites for that season and puts them on a CD to give all of our guests.

Since I shared my part of the pary, the decor, I thought I would share a bit of my husband’s side with you. Here is our Fall Playlist for 2009:

1. “Us” by Regina Spektor

2. “My Love for You is Real” by Ryan Adams

3. “The Funeral” by Band of Horses

4. “You and I” by Wilco

5. “Satellites” by The Doves

6. “Grapevine Fires” by Death Cab for Cutie

7. “Let Down” by Radiohead

8. “Are We There Yet” by Ingrid Michelson

9. “Wake Up” by Arcade Fire

10. “One Day Like This” by Elbow

If you missed our Fall Party, be sure to check out our blog post, or take a look on Hostess with the Mostess.

Seasonal Season Parties: Fall Party 2009

Courtney — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:37:02 +0000

It is finally feeling like Fall in Southern California (except for the 90 degree weather this weekend!)- as I look outside my window, I can see the wind blowing our tree and causing sweet little leaves to fall onto our front lawn. I am wearing a sweater and have already eaten some pumpkin pie. There is just something so comfortable about fall.

A few weeks ago, we had our second annual Fall Party. For photos of last year’s event, click here. I went for a bit of a different feel with the decor this year and loved the result. Here is a glimpse into our festivities, with photos by the wonderful Jenetta Lea Penner:

For this year’s decor, I found a few fabrics I loved from the Arcardia Line and built much of the design around that. I made a banner for our front porch and a larger matching one for our living room.

I got all of the flowers at our town’s Famers Market. I especially love the pumpkin branches!

I used the fabric throughout the decor. The little bottle tree below was one of my favorite pieces:

We have a large back porch, so we seated everyone outside. I went for a more rustic feel this year, utilizing mason jars, twine, bundles of sticks tied with fabric and organic feeling flowers.

All linens were from Fusion Linens, with the exception of the brown linen overlay which I scored at Target for $7!

Just ignore that I had the wrong date on my block calendar from Anthropologie. I did not realize that it was wrong until two days later. Oops.

The food table set up (without any food!):

I filled a train trunk with wooden utensils by Paper Cup Design, purchased at Anthropologie, and eco friendly paper plates from Target.

I created a little dessert station on my vintage ironing board:

A little candy corn and pumpkins to start Fall off right, placed in cut mini cupcake cups from Layer Cake Shop:

I baked these cookies using my new favorite sugar cookie recipe, found on the Blonde Designs blog:

The rest of the menu included: cheese and crackers, risotto, salad, yummy bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, apple pie, homemade whipped cream and homemade apple cider.

I couldn’t resist sharing some personal photos, because they are just so cute! My little man and his future wife:

I just love him:

My two favorite guys in the whole world:

Happy Fall!

Fall decor ideas

Courtney — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:03:29 +0000

It finally feels like fall today here in Southern California. I know that it will be summertime again by the end of the week, but I am enjoying the gloomy skies, cool breeze and even a few leaves falling in my front yard.

Since I am loving the weather so much, I thought I would share photos from our Fall Party last year. This year’s fall party is coming up this friday, so be sure to check back soon for all of the details and photos!

Photos by Jenetta Penner. A big thank you to the Pepper Design Blog for featuring this party, which they found on Hostess With the Mostess.

To see more photos from last year’s fall party, click here.