A Botanical Garden Party

6.07.2013

Sometimes living in Northern California it's hard to tell where spring ends and summer begins.  We're blessed with mild weather throughout much of the year, which makes outdoor entertaining a joy.  June is my favorite month of all... the flowers are in full bloom and everything still looks so lush and green.

Last weekend I took advantage of the season and hosted a small party for a friend's birthday in our backyard. I knew I wanted it to have a botanical feel after I saw the new Sweetgrass collection from Martha Celebrations, and I decided to mix it up with some bright bursts of California Poppy orange. 

This was an informal gathering so I set our picnic table up as a buffet with a green + white striped fabric that I often use as a tablecloth, and hung the lovely fern paper lanterns from the trees above.


To add a little extra orange color, I was inspired by this post to make some hand painted terra cotta pots.  I used washi tape to mask off varied heights and, after realizing the orange craft paint was going to get totally soaked up by the terra cotta, I remembered that I was supposed to put down a layer of white paint first.  As you can see it really helped the color pop.  I also framed a few botanical prints that I found here and spruced up in photoshop.  Fun, right?


I adorned the table with a garland of... handmade fringe napkins actually. Pretty sure this was the most fun and easy craft project I've done in a while... and it's a great way to make your party supplies do double duty!


How to Make a Fringe Napkin Garland: Hold your napkin so the fold is facing up & away from you.  Take your scissors and cut up about 3/4 of the napkin height, leaving at least a 1/2" space at the top.  String through your ribbon and secure the center of each napkin with a glue dot or double stick tape. Done and done.

As is always the case when I'm in need of a cake, I reached out to my friend Michele of Cakewalk Baking.  She created a delicious white birthday cake with buttercream frosting, along with her classic vanilla cupcakes (and even stayed to help me put everything together because she's just that awesome).  I topped the cake with a variety of ribbons tied on skewers, fresh California poppies from our yard and added pretty butterfly picks to the cupcakes that coordinated with the wrappers.


There was also an assortment of little sandwiches (who doesn't love little sandwiches?) along with tea cookies and some candy treats.  The drinks were served out of weck juice jars on this vintage bamboo tea tray that I scored at a thrift shop.


I sent my friends home with these darling faux bois favor boxes filled with mint chocolate maltballs.  The boxes are great because they come flat so you just fold as many as you need and save the rest for future gift giving...

photos + styling © cake. 2013

We coudn't have asked for a nicer afternoon... sadly the pictures I took don't begin to do it justice.  As nice as the weather was, dappled sunlight sure does make for some challenging photography!


If you enjoyed this party, be sure to check out the #LetsCelebrate pin party and take a peek at what some of my favorite bloggers did with their Martha Stewart Celebrations products.

All of the Martha Celebrations at JCP products featured in this post were provided by the Editors at Martha Stewart Living, a team that loves a good party and deeply admires the bloggers who throw them. All opinions featured in this post are my own.

These images are for personal use only. If sharing them on your site, please credit CAKE. events blog and link directly to this post.

6 comments:

Christine {Pure Joy} said...

Love your DIY touches (the fringe napkin garland is genius) and pops of orange. Simply gorgeous!

Sharon Garofalow said...

Love this!!! There is something so lovely about all the natural elements with the plants. Dying over your painted terra cotta pot and the napkin fringe garland!!! Great details!

Jen | Something Turquoise said...

So very pretty!!!!

Unknown said...

I think the photos turned out great!! So pretty! I love Martha!! She makes me want to throw a party for EVERYTHING. It drives my husband crazy ;)! Gorgeous job!!

Rayna McGinnis Photography said...

I absolutely love all of the green and how you've incorporated plants and flowers into the design. Gorgeous!!

Chris @ Celebrations At Home said...

Love what you did with this Becca. The pops of orange are great. Reminds me of a relaxing spa party :-)

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