How to Host an Outdoor Garden Dinner Party

It seems the older we get, the faster Summer goes by. These past several years, I’ve been making a concerted effort to slow down Summer and make it last as long as possible. Sure, I can’t control the length of the days, the weather, or the length of Summer, but… I CAN make each Summer day count by making it as special as possible. A Summer filled with activities we don’t normally do, and one spent with friends, definitely feels endless.

In addition to our Outdoor Movie Nights and other Family Fun Nights, I wanted to host an Outdoor Garden Dinner Party with some of our closest friends.

I think dinner tastes better when eaten outdoors – especially when under a favorite tree or in a garden. A place you can linger long after dinner to watch the billions and billions of stars appear in the night sky – and share dinner with dear friends. It makes the evening magical.

Here’s how to host your own Outdoor Garden Dinner Party. I hope you find inspiration in my ideas and put them to use! Gather your friends, and make Summer seem endless.

(Click photos to enlarge them, and click any of the links for more information about the item mentioned.)

The links in this post may contain affiliate links. I’ll receive a small commission (at no expense to you) if you make a purchase after clicking on my link. 

Outdoor Garden Dinner Party

Planning and prepping for our Outdoor Garden Dinner Party was really a lot of fun. Here are the things I came up with for this party.

Choose a Location

Location. Location. Location. Yes! It IS all about the location.

Under a Special Tree

We have a very special tree in our yard – a large Marietta Catalpa Tree. My Mom owned a nursery and landscape company for many years. She gave us this tree when we first built our house and began landscaping our property, and it has grown and thrived every year since. This tree is not only very special to me because my Mom gave it to us, but also because her name was Marietta. The way the tree is growing, it has created a natural ‘cove’ beneath the tree. When you stand in this area, you feel like the tree is wrapping its branches around you in a loving hug. I knew this tree had to be the location for our dinner party! Our patio table fit perfectly in this ‘cove’.

Here are some additional ideas of where you could host your party.

• In Your Vegetable or Flower Garden – Yes. You CAN set up a table and chairs smack dab in the middle of your garden. It makes for a really lovely setting!
• In the Middle of Your Yard – You don’t have to have a special tree or a garden to enjoy dinner outside with friends. Just set up your table in the middle of your yard, and it will still be magical.
• At a Park – If space is limited where you live, you could also choose to move your dinner party to a local park. This will require you to pack and haul everything to the park, but think of it as a picnic.

Lighting

Since our dinner party was in the evening, I knew I wanted to incorporate solar lanterns and candles into the setting.

Lights in the Tree

We hung a string of large outdoor Chinese lanterns in our Catalpa tree. They turned on automatically when it was getting dark, and the lighting was very soft yet bright enough to provide just the right amount of mood lighting.

Candles on the Table

I found a bunch of mismatched votive candle holders at a local thrift store that are in the shape of flowers. I placed a votive candle at each place setting and we let the candles burn all night. A nice soft light to dine by, and the candlelight was soft enough that it didn’t deter from our night sky viewing later in the evening.

Light the Path

To light the path from the dining area to our house, I made lanterns out of saved tin cans. To keep with the garden theme, I drew leaves onto the cans, then used a nail and hammer to punch holes along these lines to make the lanterns. (A tip from a friend – freeze water in the cans before hammering in the pattern. This will help keep the cans from crushing.)

Since these lanterns were set in a line in the grass, I didn’t want to use real candles (in case of fire), so I used solar flicker votive candles instead. The tin can lanterns turned out great, and provided just the right amount of light to light the path and keep with the mood of the evening.

Setting the Table

Of course, the table and how you decorate it plays a large role in a successful party. Here are the things I did for our table.

The Table

We used one of our patio tables with some of our all-purpose outdoor chairs as the ‘bones’ of our dining table. While the table itself is nice, I spiffed it up to make it look more classy.

Table Cloth 

Since the ‘theme’ of this party was an outdoor garden party, I wanted something sort of rustic to serve as the tablecloth. I ended up using a natural canvas painters drop cloth as the main tablecloth.  We threw the cloth in the washing machine, then when it was dry, I just cut the cloth to size and left the raw edges as is.

To make the canvas look fancier, I added a long piece of sheer moss green gauze at a diagonal on the table. Between the natural canvas and the moss green, it really did look right at home as a ‘garden’ table.

Rock Doily Weights 

I wasn’t sure if it would be windy on the night of our party, so I used vintage doilies I got from our local Buy Nothing Group, and decoupaged them to rocks we picked up from a local river. These rocks had a boho vibe and worked perfectly as decor and table weights. Click How to Make Doily Rocks to learn how to make your own.

Charger Plates

I bought charger plates at a local thrift store (also available at the Dollar Tree) and decoupaged them with the kraft wrapping paper I saved from my son’s birthday gifts a couple days before our party. I wanted the charger plates to have the look of leather with an earthy feel. They turned out great, and they definitely grounded the table!

Place Settings 

We used a set of vintage floral embossed/edged plates (also found at the thrift store), along with antique green glass plates (for dessert) that I got at an auction. The plates were topped with vintage ink bottles filled with green flowers from one of my gardens. These ink bottles belonged to my Mom. Our sons used to pick flowers from her nursery and she would put the flowers in these ink bottles on her desk. I loved using the bottles for our party!

I used vintage linen napkins at each place setting, along with a vintage linen cloth in a vintage wicker basket with leather handles to hold the baguette bread.

Vintage hobnail glasses were used for the water glasses and guests could add ice from a vintage ice bucket to the glasses, then pick from all the potted herbs I had set out to flavor the water. I potted the very fragrant herbs in clay pots that I painted to look aged with minerals and moss. Flip-top French glass bottles were filled with spring water, then placed in the cooler to chill.  Each diner picked a bottle, poured water into their glass, added ice and herbs – a unique way to serve water!

I really (really) love mismatched beverage glasses. I used a different glass at each place setting. Ignore the short glass of wine sitting on the table in this photo – it wasn’t one of the cool glasses – just a glass of wine I was finishing while preparing the table, LOL.

The Centerpiece

The centerpiece was made with my Mom’s vintage white McCoy planter and a huge bouquet of fresh-cut flowers from a local cut-your-own flower farm. There were more than 40 stems of flowers in this vase, and they ALL looked amazing!

Party Area Decor

Doily Banners

I used a bunch of vintage doilies from a local Buy Nothing Group and made the garland that we hung in the ‘cove’ of the tree. I didn’t have the heart to cut the doilies in half, so I just folded them in half, then hand-stitched them to bias tape to make the garland. It will be very easy to remove the stitches to save the doilies, in case I (or someone else) would want to use the doilies for some other project.

Garden Plants

Since this was a garden party, I bought a bunch of fragrant herbs and unique garden plants to use in our water and as decor. I bought new clay pots (couldn’t find beautiful old distressed pots), and then painted them to make them look old and distressed. I used white craft paint to mimic the look of mineral deposits that form naturally on these pots, and then used mossy green paint and a cloth to paint the look of moss onto the pots. The pots were set out on a small table (covered in a piece of the drop cloth) and on the rocks around the Catapla tree. Guests were able to pick leaves off the herbs to add to their water glasses or beverages, plus the fragrance from the plants added to the overall ambiance of the party area. I also had a beautiful ornamental white pepper plant, Pentas with beautiful white flowers, and a gorgeous Kale plant as decor. I would have liked more plants around this area, but finding garden plants at local garden centers this time of year is pretty hard. What we had definitely did the job. Herbs that work well for this are Mint, Basil, Lemon Balm, Rosemary, Lavender, Chamomile, and Cilantro.

The Food Cart 

I wanted to have all the food outside near the table so that we wouldn’t have to run inside the house to get everything. So, I turned our laundry trolly cart into the food cart (this cart gets a lot of use)!

The top shelf of the cart held a chafing dish that kept the meal hot until guests arrived. Let me tell you, if you entertain a lot, you need a chafing dish! I bought this chafing dish specifically for this party, but I know it will get tons of use, and I only wonder why on Earth I didn’t buy one before now. I also had the ice bucket on the top shelf, so we could add ice to our beverages.

The middle shelf of the cart held all the makings for s’mores, which served as our dessert. I found a really cool old wood round tray at a local thrift store and it worked perfectly to hold all the s’mores fixings.

The bottom shelf of the cart held our way-cool stacking cooler. I didn’t want the bright red of the cooler to detract from the overall decor of the party, so we used part of the drop cloth as a cover for the cooler. We just made sort of a ‘sack’ out of the drop cloth and then put the cooler into this sack. There was also room on the bottom back side of the cart to hold our Thermacell mosquito repellers (which worked perfectly, as always).

Dinner

Dinner can be anything you want to serve. I do recommend that you make something you’ve already made at least once before, and is something you have enjoyed. This is not the time to try out a new recipe!

For our dinner, I wanted to keep things easy and something that could be made ahead of time, so we wouldn’t be tied to the kitchen when our guests arrived. I made one of my family favorite dinners – steak and vegetables on sheet pans. We used baby gem potatoes, fresh asparagus, and beef tenderloin.

Line two sheet pans with foil. Cut baby gem potatoes in half and arrange on one sheet pan, cut side down. Drizzle with olive oil, course sea salt, and cracked pepper. Heat in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, add a second sheet pan with asparagus and a large cut of beef tenderloin. Sprinkle course sea salt, cracked pepper, and shredded parmesan cheese on top of the asparagus. Add salt and pepper to the bottom of the beef tenderloin and keep the bottom side up. Add the beef and asparagus sheet pan to the oven, while keeping the potato sheet pan in the oven. Heat another 10-15 minutes. This is the time to light the burners on your chafing dish to get the water to boil. After the 10-15 minutes for the beef, flip the beef tenderloin. Add salt, pepper and parmesan to the top of the beef, then put the beef sheet pan back in the oven and broil until the preferred doneness. Once the beef is done, remove both sheet pans from the oven. Slice the beef at a sharp angle into thin strips, and transfer the meat, vegetables and potatoes to the chafing dish and cover. The meal will stay warm in the chafing dish for at least another hour, but I recommend you eat dinner as soon as possible for best flavor.

Right before the beef is done, add fresh baguette bread to the oven to heat. Remove the bread before turning on the broiler. Cut the bread into slices and put into a linen cloth lined basket to help keep the bread warm before serving. Serve with softened butter.

Dessert

After dinner, we used our tabletop firepit and made custom s’mores for dessert. You can make traditional s’mores with graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate bars, but you can also make them with orange curd and lime curd. Just spread a layer of orange curd or lime curd on one graham cracker, add a roasted marshmallow, then another graham cracker, and you have a delightful dessert! Pair the orange curd or lime curd with a piece of chocolate for an even tastier treat.

A side note – don’t forget the old-fashioned butter mints! Set a bunch of white butter mints in a bowl on the table for your guests to enjoy after the meal. I don’t know why, but these mints always make me smile and remind me of Summer days from when I was a kid.

Launching Lanterns 

After dinner and dessert were finished, we launched paper Chinese lanterns in honor of those we’ve loved and lost. It would have been fun to launch even more of these lanterns, but the way the very gentle wind was blowing, made the lanterns fly over our house and out of sight. Had the breeze been out of the North, we definitely would have launched more and would have been able to watch them as they flew for miles and miles and miles to our South. Next time. 😉

All Good Things Must Come to an End

We sat outside under the stars all evening (into the early morning hours) and got to see the Milky Way, billions and billions of stars, more than a handful of shooting stars, and even some lightning off in the distance. The night was magical!

We feel so incredibly fortunate to have special friends that took time out of their busy schedules to join us. I wish I had taken more photos of the evening, but we were living in the moment, and I think our phones were the last things on our minds – as it should be.

This was definitely a Summer evening I won’t forget. Here’s to awesome friends!

I hope you’ve enjoyed these ideas! If you decide to try any of them, let me know how it went in a comment below – I’d love to hear from you!

Save on Pinterest!