Girlies in the Garden: A Summer Dinner Party Menu & Hosting Ideas

It’s been one full week since hosting a dinner party in my backyard for a friend’s birthday. It was such a fun night, and it took me about a week to recover from all of the cooking, hosting, and setup! But the summer to autumn tablescape was such a dream, and the night went exactly how I imagined it would. Friends laughing into the midnight hour under the garden lights and plates filled with round two of desserts.

I’m sharing all of the photos from our Girlies in the Garden dinner party in case you’re looking for tablescape design ideas, hosting tips, or the perfect farm to table inspired menu for your next get together. And hopefully, this post is a little reminder that you don’t need a fancy venue to throw a fancy dinner party! A backyard, a pretty table, good food, and your favorite people can make for the most special setting. From the flowers and candlelit table to the appetizers, dinner, and desserts, I’m sharing all the little details that made this night so memorable.

Summer Dinner Party

I asked one of my best friends what she wanted to do for her birthday, and I mentioned maybe throwing her a Girlies in the Garden party at my house. We had already been talking about having a dinner with some of our favorite moms on the block, and this sort of felt like the perfect excuse to get dressed up in cute garden style dresses, light some candles, and enjoy good food together.

And when I have an idea, I don’t think too much about it. I hurry up and execute. I wish I were like that with other things in life, like laundry! I had her send me her guest list, made a cute Evite invitation, hit send, and just like that, I had a few months to pull this whole thing off.

Designing a Summer to Autumn Tablescape

But if you know me, you know I love a good table design. If you look back at my Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other dinner parties with friends, setting a dramatic table is one of my favorite things to do. I even go all out for our cookie decorating nights!

My friend and I went to Hobby Lobby one night to look at candles, flowers, and different colors for the table. We wanted it to say summer, but also welcoming to autumn, so we landed on a mix of girly pinks, warm beiges, soft greens, and creams. It gave us all the pretty garden party colors we wanted while still feeling warm and cozy enough for the end of August.

I linked almost everything I used on the dinner table on my ShopMy account.

Planning the Girlies in the Garden Menu

When I started planning the menu, I wanted the food to feel just like the table. Fresh, colorful, a little fancy, but still relaxed and approachable. Since we were eating outside at the end of August, I leaned into a farm to table inspired menu with lots of fresh vegetables, herbs, fruit, grilled meats, and seasonal flavors.

I also wanted the table to feel abundant. I love a dinner where there are lots of different dishes being offered and everyone can go back for a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Instead of planning one main dish with two sides, I created a menu with several appetizers, grilled proteins, vegetables, pasta, salads, and, of course, plenty of dessert.

There was definitely a moment while I was cooking when I wondered why I thought making this much food myself was a good idea, but seeing the table completely covered in colorful dishes made it worth it. And thankfully, almost everything could be prepared or partially prepared ahead of time so I wasn’t stuck in the kitchen once everyone arrived.

Appetizers & Small Bites

Prosciutto Wrapped Cantaloupe with Balsamic Glaze – was inspired by this dish during our trip to Verona Italy
Sourdough with Lox and Whipped Lemon Garlic Cream Cheese
Jalapeño Bacon Deviled Eggs
Heirloom Tomatoes with Fresh Mozzarella and Basil

From the Grill

Grilled Marinated Chicken
Garlic Shrimp
Kielbasa with Peppers and Onions

Pasta, Vegetables & Sides

Creamy Grilled Zucchini Ricotta Rigatoni with Peas, Pancetta & Lemon (recipe coming soon)
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes and Carrots with Garlic Aioli
Charred Asparagus with Whipped Mascarpone Feta, Lemon and Pistachios
Fresh Cucumber Salad with Dill, Greek Yogurt, Snap Peas and Red Onion (recipe coming soon)
Peach & Arugula Salad with Candied Pecans, Balsamic Glaze and Goat Cheese (made by my neighbor!)

Dressings & Extras

Whipped Pesto Garlic Butter
Orange Shallot Vinaigrette
Sourdough Bread
Pepperjack Sourdough Bread
Crackers

Something Sweet

Lemon Berry Olive Oil Cake
Orange Ginger Cookies
Layered Tiramisu with Edible Flowers

Serving the Garden Party Menu

Since we were eating outside, I decided to keep all of the food inside and let everyone make their plates before heading out to the table. This ended up being one of the best decisions I made! I wanted the outdoor table to stay pretty and uncluttered with just the flowers, candles, glassware, and place settings. There was already so much happening on the dinner table that adding serving dishes would have taken away from the tablescape. Plus, if you live in the South, you know flies are always a problem.

I set up the food buffet style on our dining room table and used little cards to label each dish. Everyone could grab a plate, make their way around the table, and then head outside to eat. It also made going back for seconds easy, which we definitely did!

Keeping everything inside also meant I had easy access to the kitchen for refilling dishes, grabbing serving utensils, and cleaning things up throughout the night. If you’re planning an outdoor dinner party at home, I would absolutely do it this way again.

How I Chose the Menu

When I started putting together the menu, I wanted it to feel colorful, fresh, and a little rustic. I kept thinking about the kind of food you’d find at a beautiful farm to table dinner. Fresh herbs, summer vegetables, grilled meats, creamy cheeses, fresh bread, and lots of dishes meant for sharing. I also wanted there to be enough variety that everyone could fill their plate with a little bit of everything.

I Definitely Made Too Much Food

Did I make too much food? Absolutely. Would I probably do it again? Also yes. I would always rather have too much than worry about running out, especially when I’m hosting a larger group. Plus, leftovers from a dinner party like this are never a bad thing! I sent neighbors home with food boxes and we still had plenty left to eat off of for the entire week.

And you definitely don’t need to recreate this entire menu to have a beautiful garden dinner. Pick one appetizer, a main dish, two colorful sides, and a dessert and you have yourself a dinner party. The point isn’t to spend three days cooking. It’s to make something you’re excited to serve and then actually sit down and enjoy it with everyone else.

Choosing Foods I Could Prep Ahead

One thing I tried to be mindful of when planning the menu was choosing dishes that didn’t all need my attention at the exact same time. Some things could be completely prepared ahead, while others just needed to be assembled, warmed, or grilled closer to dinner. If you’re hosting, I highly recommend looking at your entire menu and asking yourself what actually needs to happen during that final hour before everyone arrives.

My friend requested one of my personal favorites, my lemon olive oil cake with whipped mascarpone buttercream. I made the cakes the night before and frosted them the day of the party.

A Little Something to Take Home

I always love sending friends home with a little something after a dinner party. For this one, I made homemade orange ginger granola and packaged it up as a little “thank you for coming” treat. After a night filled with rich food and plenty of dessert, I thought granola would be something everyone could enjoy for breakfast the next morning.

The orange and ginger flavors also felt perfect for that transition from summer into autumn and tied right back into the seasonal feel of the dinner. It was a simple little addition, but I love having something waiting by the door for everyone to grab on their way home.

The day before the party, I drove about an hour out into the country to pick up chairs I found someone renting on Facebook Marketplace. It was definitely a commitment to drive all that way, especially knowing I’d have to make the drive again the next day to return them, but I think the chairs were SO worth it!

They completely pulled the entire table together and gave me the garden dinner party look I had pictured in my head. Renting them was also much more affordable than purchasing enough chairs for the party, and I didn’t have to figure out where in the world I was going to store them afterward. Sometimes it’s those little details that make the biggest difference in bringing a tablescape together.

Setting Up for the Dinner Party

The morning of the party, I focused on getting the outdoor space ready. We set up the tables and chairs, hung the garden lights, and made sure everything outside was in place. I wanted to get all of the bigger setup out of the way early so I could spend the rest of the day focusing on the food without worrying about moving tables or hanging lights at the last minute.

I actually waited until about an hour before everyone arrived to fully set the table. By that point, the food was finished, the kitchen was cleaned, and I could finally switch from cooking mode to party mode! I added the linens, plates, glasses, napkins, candles, and flowers and watched the whole idea finally come together.

One thing that made this SO much easier was having everything for the tablescape organized several days before the party. I had the linens, plates, glassware, candles, napkins, and decorations gathered and ready to go, so I wasn’t running around the house trying to find things while also finishing dinner. If you’re hosting a dinner party, this is one thing I absolutely recommend doing ahead of time. Decide what you’re using, gather it all in one place, and make sure everything is washed and ready. There is already enough to do on party day!

What you didn’t see:

I can’t forget to mention my greatest help throughout all of this: my mom! She is an absolute powerhouse. She helped me with so much of the setup, cleaning up the garden, getting the house ready, and somehow helping me with both kids in between it all.

None of this would have been possible, or at least nearly as easy, without having her there with me. So while you see all the pretty flowers, candlelight, food, and finished tablescape in these photos, what you didn’t see was my little fairy godmother working behind the scenes and helping me pull it all together.

The Table Setting:

The table setting turned out even better than I imagined. Watching the vision finally come to life was probably one of my favorite parts of the entire night. I couldn’t have been happier with how it all came together, especially because I did a lot of it on a budget.

And you know what that means. I dug through the bins of wedding supplies in my attic! Some of the candle jars, glass chargers, and even a few of the candlesticks on the table were actually from our wedding. I love finding a reason to bring those pieces back out, and it made the table feel even more special knowing some of the details had already been part of such an important day in our lives.

I’ve always loved designing tables. I even designed the table for my own wedding! We only had 14 guests, so creating a beautiful, intimate table was something I really cared about. Give me a table, some candles, flowers, pretty dishes, and an excuse to gather people around it, and I am in my happy place.

It’s also proof that you don’t have to buy everything new to create a beautiful dinner party tablescape. Shop your own house, dig through those boxes in the attic, borrow pieces, rent what you don’t have, and spend your money on the few details that will make the biggest impact.

The Perfect Evening for Dinner Outside

I don’t think we could have asked for a better evening. It has been HOT in South Carolina. Like, really hot. The night before the party, while I was right in the middle of prepping food, we actually lost electricity for about two hours. It definitely put a damper on some of my party prep plans, but all I could think was, can you imagine if that had happened the night of the party? I think we would have had to cancel the whole thing!

Luckily, party night could not have been more different. It was around 80 degrees, the humidity wasn’t too bad, and we could actually sit outside comfortably and enjoy ourselves. The sky even decided to show off for us with the most beautiful golden rays and little pockets of pink peeking through.

I intentionally planned the dinner for a little later in the evening because I wanted to catch that gorgeous late summer sky. I also knew I didn’t want everyone sitting outside in pretty dresses, eating warm food with the harsh afternoon sun beating down on us. Starting later gave the garden time to cool off, the lighting was beautiful, and by the time the candles and garden lights started glowing, everything felt so cozy.

It was one of those rare summer evenings where the weather actually cooperated with the plan, and I was VERY thankful for it!

The Drink Bar

My next door neighbor, who also made the gorgeous peach salad, is really close friends with the birthday girl, and she offered to take over the drink bar for the night. It ended up being such a hit with everyone, and she did the cutest job putting it all together!

She made little printed instructions for the drinks, perfectly sliced all of the fresh fruit and garnishes, and made sure there were both cocktail and mocktail options so everyone could make exactly what they wanted. It was colorful, interactive, and fit the garden party theme perfectly.

It was also such a good reminder that you don’t have to do every single thing yourself when you’re hosting. Having her completely take the reins on the drink station was one less thing I had to think about, and she made it even better than I would have!

The Garden Party Flowers

Originally, I planned to use flowers straight from my garden for the table, but this time of year can be a little unpredictable. Some of my flowers are getting lanky after a long summer, while others are just starting to grow for the fall season. I really had no idea what would actually be in bloom when the party rolled around, and I didn’t want to leave such a big part of the tablescape up to chance.

Instead, we found the most realistic faux flowers at Hobby Lobby, and honestly, they were SO good that a few people actually had to ask me if they were real! Using faux flowers also made setting the table so much easier because I could have everything arranged and ready well before the party instead of worrying about buying, cutting, and arranging fresh flowers that day.

And the best part is that I can reuse them over and over again for future dinner parties, holidays, and tablescapes. I linked all of the flowers I used in my ShopMy if you want to recreate the look!

You Don’t Need a Fancy Venue to Make It Special

My backyard wasn’t a rented event space. Some decor came out of my attic. The chairs came from Facebook Marketplace. My mom was behind the scenes helping. My neighbor ran the drink bar. I cooked the food inside my own kitchen. It ended up perfect.

The Playlist

Setting the Mood with Music

Music was another thing I made sure we planned ahead of time, and I put the birthday girl in charge of creating the playlist. She did such a good job keeping it chill, nostalgic, and perfect for the occasion. It gave us something fun playing in the background without being so loud or distracting that we couldn’t all talk around the table.

She and I are both big pop punk fans, which probably wasn’t exactly the soundtrack you’d imagine for a candlelit garden party. We tried to keep things a little more fitting for the evening, although a few of our favorites definitely managed to sneak their way onto the playlist!

Having the music ready ahead of time was also one less thing to think about once everyone arrived. I just turned it on, and we had the perfect background music going for the rest of the night.

Girlies in the Garden!

Confirm Your Guest List:

A few days before the party, I sent out one final RSVP reminder asking everyone to confirm whether or not they were coming. Since I had sent the invitations a few months earlier, I wanted to make sure I had an accurate headcount before doing my final grocery shopping and setup.

I also asked everyone to make sure they officially declined the invitation if they could no longer make it. When you’re planning a seated dinner, even one or two people can make a difference! I needed to know exactly how many chairs to rent, how many place settings to set, and, most importantly, how much food to make.

Having that final number a few days ahead of time took away so much of the guessing. Don’t be afraid to follow up with your guests! Plans change, especially when invitations go out months in advance, and getting a final headcount makes those last few days of planning so much easier.

Finally Sitting Down:

It felt like such a relief once we all finally sat down and everyone was eating, drinking, and laughing. I had one of those little moments where I looked around the table and thought, I actually pulled this off!

And to be completely honest, I did not start preparing as early as I should have. I’m just not very good at getting things done when there’s no pressure. I like to get dangerously close to an event, let the stress kick me into high gear, and then somehow watch it all come together while simultaneously sweating over all the little things I absolutely could have done days in advance. 😂 But hey, that’s what you get when you’re a Type B gal!

So once I finally sat down at the table, I felt this huge wave of relief and excitement. The cooking was done, the table was full, the candles were lit, everyone had a drink in their hand, and there was nothing left for me to do but enjoy it. After spending so much time imagining what the night would look like, getting to actually sit there with everyone and take it all in was probably one of my favorite moments of the entire party.

You’ll have to go to my Instagram to see some of the photos come to life in the videos, or watch the video inserted in this blog post.

Staying Organized Before the Party

One thing that really helped as I got down to the wire was making a checklist for everything. I had my menu, grocery shopping list, food prep, and a plan for what could be made in advance versus what needed to be made the day of the party. When there are that many dishes and little details floating around in your head, writing everything down makes such a difference.

I also set out all of my serving platters ahead of time and placed the printed menu cards with the platters so I knew exactly which dish was going where. This was SO helpful when the food started coming together because I wasn’t digging through cabinets looking for the right bowl or realizing at the last minute that I needed three more serving dishes.

I tried to eliminate as many little decisions as possible before party day. My outfit was picked out early, the house was cleaned the day before, everything for the table was organized, and I even did a mock up of the tablescape on my dining room table beforehand to make sure all of the colors and pieces worked together.

I may be a Type B, wait until the pressure hits kind of person, but apparently my solution is to prepare for my own procrastination. 😂 Having those little things decided ahead of time meant that when the final few hours got hectic, I could focus on finishing the food and getting myself ready instead of worrying about all the tiny details.

My sweet boy woke up and my mom brought him down to hang out for a bit. He was such a cuddle bug.

What I Would Do Differently Next Time

Would I do it all again? Absolutely. Would I start preparing earlier next time? I’d like to say yes, but I know myself.

If I could change one thing, I would spread the food prep out over a few more days. I made a LOT of food, and while I loved having such a big, abundant spread for everyone to choose from, I probably didn’t need quite as many dishes. Next time, I might simplify the menu just a little and choose a few more things that can be completely finished the day before.

I’d also get some of those tiny tasks done earlier. They’re never difficult on their own, but when you’re a few hours away from guests arriving, suddenly every little thing feels urgent. Anything that can be washed, chopped, printed, organized, arranged, or checked off the list ahead of time should be!

But I honestly wouldn’t change much about the actual party. I’d rent the pretty chairs again, set up the buffet inside, go overboard with the candles and lights, make dessert and coffee a whole event, and probably still make too much food because apparently that’s just who I am. 😂

If anything, my biggest lesson for next time is to do more ahead of time so I can enjoy the process as much as I enjoyed the party.

The Autumn light was definitely showing as the sun set.

My Favorite Part of the Night: Dessert & Coffee

One of my favorite parts of the night was hitting play on the coffee maker, setting out all of the mugs, singing happy birthday, slicing the cake, and then heading back outside with a big plate of dessert and a hot cup of coffee. By then, it was completely dark, the candles and garden lights were glowing, and we could just sit around the table talking and going back for seconds.

Dessert after dinner is my favorite part of any dinner party or event. There’s just something about lingering around the table with something sweet and a cup of coffee that I love. And I firmly believe it is always acceptable to drink coffee after 9 p.m. when dessert is involved!

The tiramisu was a huge hit, and watching everyone go back for another round of dessert made all of that cooking completely worth it. This was exactly how I had pictured the night ending when I first dreamed up Girlies in the Garden months earlier.

And then all was quiet.

Lighting Made All the Difference

Lighting was one of the most important parts of creating the atmosphere I wanted for the night. Since I planned the party for later in the evening, we were able to start dinner with that beautiful golden summer light and then slowly watch the backyard transform as the sun went down.

I hung string lights around the garden and used lots of candles throughout the table, including tall candlesticks and smaller candle jars. I loved having different levels of light instead of relying on one bright outdoor light. Once it was completely dark, the candles and garden lights gave off the prettiest warm glow and made our backyard feel so cozy and intimate.

If you’re planning an outdoor dinner party, don’t underestimate the lighting! You don’t need anything elaborate or expensive. String lights and lots of candles can completely change an ordinary backyard once the sun goes down. I think it was one of the biggest reasons our simple backyard setup ended up feeling like such a special little dinner venue.

And by dessert, when we were sitting around the table with hot coffee and the candles had burned down a bit, the lighting was probably my favorite it had looked all night.

Clean Up Before You Go to Bed

It doesn’t matter how tired you are, do as much cleaning as you possibly can that night! Trust me, your morning self will thank you. Once everyone left, I gathered the linens and threw them in the wash, loaded and started the dishwasher, washed the remaining dishes, wiped down the counters, cleaned the floors, and started getting everything back in order.

After hosting and cooking all day, cleaning is obviously the LAST thing you want to do, but waking up to a disaster makes the post party exhaustion so much worse. Even if you don’t have the energy to put every single thing back where it belongs, at least get everything clean and ready to be stored away.

There will still be chairs to return, linens to fold, decorations to pack up, and plenty to do the next day, but waking up to clean dishes, clear counters, and a clean kitchen makes such a difference. Clean it now, organize it tomorrow!

I hope you enjoyed all of the photos and hosting tips from our Girlies in the Garden dinner party! I had so much fun putting this night together and even more fun sitting around the table enjoying it with some of my favorite people. If this post inspires you to do anything, I hope it’s to gather your friends, set a pretty table, make some delicious food, and create your own reason to celebrate. Remember, you don’t need a fancy venue or a huge budget to make an evening feel special. Sometimes all you need is your own backyard, a few twinkle lights, lots of candles, good food, and even better company. Until the next dinner party! 🙂