By Alex Hendrickson

Source: Style Blueprint

Sitting down to dinner as the sun dips into the horizon for an evening of flowing conversation and bites of the season’s fresh flavors in homemade dishes … that’s our idea of a memorable summer night. As the hostess, unwinding and admiring a job well-done evidenced in the smiles across your guests’ faces? That’s the goal!

The art of effortless entertaining does require some planning ahead, but hosting the ideal fête is not impossible to pull off. From menu planning to décor and every detail in between, these insider tips from some of our favorite Southern entertainers can help you map out your event to ensure you coast into the affair with time to spare.

Styling My Everyday’s Katie Jacobs — author, stylist, photographer, graphic designer, foodie and entertainer extraordinaire — offers a party planning checklist, plus advice on planning a summer menu, including tips on what to serve for dessert. Floral designer Mary Pinson shares creative ideas on arranging flowers and centerpieces. And finally, Mary Spotswood Underwood reminds us of ways to make summer entertaining fun, easy and interactive.

Party Planning Timeline

By Katie Jacobs, Styling My Everyday and Author of So Much to Celebrate

One month to two weeks before: 
✓Choose a date
✓Choose a theme (this helps bring your entire event together and guides your menu)
✓Send invitations

Two weeks before:
✓Account for place settings needed
✓Begin planning decorations
✓Plan the menu/start testing recipes (never serve a recipe you haven’t tried before)

One week before:
✓Deep clean the house
✓Create a detailed shopping list

Three days before:
✓Arrange the furniture as needed
✓Stow items you don’t want to be seen
✓Go to the grocery store (this gives you a little leeway in case you forget anything)

One day before:
✓Set the table
✓Prep all food (marinate the meat, chop all ingredients that won’t wilt before tomorrow, and make anything that’s acceptable to make ahead of time)
✓Last-minute cleaning

Day-of: Showtime!
✓Get ice
✓Empty the dishwasher so it’s ready to load after the party
✓Put up last-minute decorations
✓Change into a party outfit (get ready an hour before the party because there’s always someone on your guest list who shows up 15 minutes early)
✓ENJOY!

Menu Planning

By Katie Jacobs, Styling My Everyday and Author of So Much to Celebrate

Plan a summer menu.

“When planning a menu for a summer event, remember to keep it light,” advises Katie. “Now’s the time to highlight local seasonal fare like tomatoes, corn, peaches and greens. Go to the farmers’ market and create a crudité platter around what looks fresh with homemade hummus and pesto from the garden. Serve a salad with grilled fish as your main (remembering no one wants a heavy meal in the heat of the summer), and surprise guests with glasses of champagne served with popsicles for dessert.

Impress guests with dessert.

“Summer is a fun time of year to get creative with dessert. I love elevating seemingly simple classics like ice cream sandwiches, or a fruit cobbler into an elegant dessert to wow guests,” shares Katie. “Create homemade ice cream sandwiches with mini blackberry hand-pies, peach cobbler in individual ramekins with pie crust latticework, key lime pie popsicles, or over-the-top milkshakes large enough for a group to share.”

The Décor

Tips from Mary Pinson

Use hydrangeas.

“Group together the same flower in mass for a big show,” suggests Mary. “And nothing screams summer like hydrangeas. They are readily available and look clean and crisp in collected milk glass containers. I always look for flowers from my yard (or a neighbor’s) or from the local grocery store when entertaining. Many times you are entertaining out of town at your lake house or mountain home, and no one wants to be hauling flowers from home.”

Mary also suggests skipping the floral foam, which is terrible for the environment and is not biodegradable. Instead, try chicken wire. “I used a small piece of chicken wire (available at any hardware or garden store) and clear floral tape to secure in the container. Filling up containers with water is a must! Of course, [you can put the arrangements together] the night before or the morning of the event. If your event is outside, keep flowers inside until the event.”

Use candles.

“Candles are a must for dreamy ambiance. I love the color drip candles (available from Amazon) in collected champagne bottles from special occasions,” offers Mary. “It’s an instant conversation starter as well!”

RELATED: 3 Summer Spritzers to Enjoy This Season

Think outside the box.

Don’t be afraid to think outside the box for floral containers. “I love these Pamp Fizz rosé cans for vases,” says Mary. “They are bright and fun and carry a big bonus: you must drink the rosé before you can transform into a vase! They also make the perfect parting gifts for your guests (and they fit right in a cup holder for transport). Look for bunches of the same flower (hydrangeas, sunflowers, roses), and don’t be afraid to buy a mixed bunch of flowers and deconstruct them into smaller bouquets.”

Create an Experience

Tips from Mary Spotswood Underwood

Plan something interactive.

“I love to create menus that can be done mostly ahead of time but are also interactive for my guests once they arrive,” shares Mary. “Guests love being part of an experience, and one of my favorite menus during the summer is a Carolina low-country boil.” (Scroll down for her recipe that can be adjusted easily to suit 2 to 200 guests.)

“I make skillet cornbread, cocktail sauce, whole-grain mustard sauce, and the dessert in advance,” Mary continues. “I make the boil just until the point before I add the shrimp and reheat the other ingredients before the guests arrive. So, all I have to do are the final steps and the big reveal once they arrive.”

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Source: RealSimple

For a truly stress-free outdoor party and outdoor entertaining experience, you want to keep the pests—and the guests—from buzzing in your ear. Here’s how to create an oasis for a backyard party where the revelers are satiated and no one gets eaten alive. With any luck, you’ll be able to check everything off the party planning checklist and have some fun, too.

The best kind of backyard party has sharp outdoor décor ideas and fun outdoor activities, sure, but it also has plenty of food, abundant drink, and a slew of functional furnishings, including plenty of seating and dependable outdoor lighting. Pulling all these outdoor party must-haves together may seem like an insurmountable challenge, but—most of the time—it only needs to happen once every spring or summer.

Consider the first few consistently warm weeks your sign to start prepping your outdoor space. Tackle everything from replacing bulbs for the outdoor lights to cleaning outdoor cushions in one big push, then prepare to sit back and enjoy your splendid outdoor party place. Once the heavy lift is done at the start of the season, all you’ll need to do between soirees is a little refreshing; your outdoor space—whether it’s a backyard, a terrace, or a courtyard—will stay in good shape all season long, barring any major summer storms.

As with anything, hosting superb backyard bashes gets easier over time. The first one may be a major challenge; by the end of the summer, you’ll be able to pull together an outdoor party to celebrate the end of Little League, a graduation, a birthday, or whatever other toast-worthy event has just happened at the drop of a sun hat.

Whether you plan to host one backyard party or one hundred, this ultimate guide to outdoor parties will help you get there with minimal stress.

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By Marisa Casciano

Source: Elite Daily

Whether you’re getting married or celebrating your bestie saying, “I do,” one thing is on your mind: the bachelorette party. This is a weekend or a night spent at a dreamy hotel that’s meant for you, your girls, and a bottle or two of champagne. It’s meant for exploring a new city like Nashville, Las Vegas, or Charleston, throwing glitter in the air, and dancing until past midnight. So far, you’ve prepared for it by sending out itineraries to the rest of the bridal crew, and deciding on the outfits you’re going to wear. You’ve looked into rooftop bars, and made reservations for brunch, too. But, you still need clever bachelorette party picture ideas that are anything but cliché.

Don’t stress — I’m a self-proclaimed expert of all things related to social media and Instagram. That means I know exactly what props you need to pick up before you start celebrating the bride-to-be, and the filters that’ll make your pics glow brighter than the sun. I know the trends that are so overrated, and the ones that are timeless, like mirror selfies, captions with puns, and snaps of the wing of an airplane.

Most importantly, I have a strong imagination that can come up with an endless amount of ideas for photo shoots and Instagram-worthy experiences for your bachelorette party. (Weird brag?) Right now, I’m thinking you and the “I do” crew need to recreate these five ideas that your followers will love, because they are anything but cliché.

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By Dom Brazeau

Source: Collegian

As summertime approaches, BBQs and other parties will be in full effect. Whether you’re hosting these parties or have been given the aux, making the perfect summer playlist can be important.

When you think of summer you think of sunny skies, warm weather and feeling good. All of these create an upbeat sensation. Many artists have made a career off summery sounds such as Calvin Harris, Drake and DJ Khaled. All of these artists have songs with a tropical sound.

Songs like “Passionfruit” by Drake, “Slide” by Calvin Harris, “Signs” by Drake and “I’m the One” by DJ Khaled all have a tropical vibe that can act as the backbone of a playlist. Now that you have a start, you can add a variety of moods with modern songs in the other tracks. Laid back tunes to play with the windows down or a song entitled to be played at full volume are both acceptable options. Songs like these include “Drip Too Hard” by Lil Baby and Gunna “Provider” by Frank Ocean, “Sauce It Up” by Lil Uzi Vert or “Sunflower” Post Malone and Swae Lee.

Finally, a playlist can’t be complete without a couple of throwbacks. Whether it’s from the 1980s or the early 2000s, every playlist has some older tunes. Songs like “So Fresh, So Clean” by OutKast, “P.Y.T” by Michael Jackson, “This Charming Man” by The Smiths and “Santeria” by Sublime are universal crowd-pleasers. No one wants to hear the same song over and over again. Make sure you have a wide range of songs and artists. The playlist can be as big as you want.

Most importantly, you need to make the playlist your own. Add the songs you personally love. Add the songs that remind you of summertime. A song or album that you listened to all of last summer is a great choice. A song that you and your friends love is another option. Music is totally based on taste, so add your taste.

Hopefully, this helps you enjoy your summer with the perfect playlist to relax in the sun with. See my summer playlist below.

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By Rashelle Isip

Source: Life Hack

Are you thinking about throwing a surprise birthday party for your best friend?

Maybe you want to organize a special retirement luncheon for your longtime coworker.

The easiest way to keep track of all the different tasks and activities associated with planning a function is to simply create lists. Splitting up your list into smaller ones allows you to focus on specific items at any given time.

Here are 10 lists to create to help make your next event or party a success.

1. Theme list.

Are you going to have a specific theme for your party or event? Are you having a historical costume party, an under-the-sea event, an ’80s dance party, or a black-tie silent auction or raffle? This list is a good place to start collecting all the different details surrounding your particular theme, from special food, to props or decorations to purchase or rent. You can further break out all these different list items into any of the lists mentioned below for even more detail.

2. Budget list.

How much are willing to spend for your party or event? Is it a little…or is it a lot? You can approach building this list from two different angles. The first is to decide on the total amount of money you’re willing to spend for the whole event and start to divvy up your funds according to food, decorations and the like. Your second option is to start to price out the individual costs of food, decorations and rentals and come up with the total amount of money it will cost to throw your party.

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