Stress Free Entertaining

Hosting parties is one of my favorite things!! Big or small, I always enjoy gathering friends and coming up with a reason to celebrate! One of the things my husband and I were most excited about when it came to moving into our new home was having the ability to be able to host larger groups of people! At our old home, we had a super small round dining table that sat 5 people max and no room to entertain! I guess you can say, were making up for lost time and hosting at every chance we get!! 

I had the honor of hosting a girls dinner for one of my very best friends this week! (Ya’ll know her as Brooke, our YWF bachelorette!) I found these adorable blue and white bowls and platters at a Chinese grocery store in Chinatown in Houston! (The same place we brought home Hoppy, our frog that we saved from the fish market!!) I have looked all over the internet for this set and cannot find it, so sadly can’t like this for ya’ll. However, blue and white dinnerware is definitely trending and any blue and white set would go great with this tablescape! 

I found a this gorgeous table runner from a shop on Etsy for $63. They have several sizes, but I went with the largest one since we have a pretty big dining table! I snagged two set of these blue and white bud vases for $20 from amazon and filled them with tulips from Trader Joes. You can also find a similar large bowl that I used for the hydrangea centerpiece from amazon as well, linked here! The wooden sushi boards are another amazon find, and so are the white hemstitch napkins ($18 for 12) and the gorgeous geode + acrylic napkin rings! ($18 for 4) The beautiful blue wine glasses with the gold rim are from Anthro, ($64 for 4)  and my favorite island wrapped tumblers are from Amanda Lindroth! ($64 for 4) I have been dying for a set of bamboo flatware, but couldn’t stomach the cost! I found this set at an unbeatable price on amazon and ordered these as well!! ($26 for 4 sets) They of course, aren't real bamboo, but accomplish the same look for a fraction of the cost and they are dishwasher safe! For the balloon garland, I ordered this $14 kit from amazon and used my handy dandy automatic balloon pump and made this garland in 30 minutes! The kit comes with everything you need to make a gorgeous balloon garland, and the automatic pump makes filling up the balloons super quick! All you do it pull the balloon ties through the holes in the clear balloon tape that comes with the kit and voila!

I know hosting parties can feel a little bit daunting or stressful, but the more you do it the easier it gets!! My tips to hosting successful, stress free parties can be summed up in one phrase our favorite tennis shoe brand has coined…

Just do it! Plan the dinner, invite your favorite four couples, dust off your wedding china, grab some florals from Trader Joes, and order in pick up from your favorite Italian restaurant! It doesn’t have to be super formal or pricey to host a fun dinner! You can even split the take out cost between couples to make it more feasible! We do this all the time for casual gatherings! Hosting can add up, so this way, you feel like you can do it more often without the financial stress! It ALWAYS ends up being cheaper than going out, and people usually prefer dinner at home because we all know that at large tables at loud restaurants, you only end up being able to talk to the two or three people seated right by you! Home dinner gatherings are much more inclusive and always way more fun!! 

There you have it, now grab your phone and set a date with your besties and make it happen! Let’s get hosting, ladies!!