Our Summer Garden Party: Flower Arranging, Friends and Festivities

We hosted a garden party for our friends and family to celebrate a big birthday. Preparations began in earnest the day before. Mother came over armed with large bunches of cut flowers from her magnificent garden. We dusted off antique stoneware pots and set up on the dining room table ready for flower arranging fun.

Cut Flower Arrangements

We combined a few shop-bought flowers with flowers from the garden and lots of foliage. The shop-bought flowers offered a pop of instant colour in the form of bright orange roses and pink carnations.

For the outdoor table flower arrangements we used a combination of stoneware pots and bottles in cream. We mixed daisies, celery stems as foliage, and a whole host of flowers that were in bloom at the time. We wanted to add colour and a splash of fun to the tables as decorations, and avoid using anything single-use and disposable.

For the larger floral arrangements we used big antique stoneware pots and added larger flowers like the beautiful bulbous white hydrangeas from the front garden. We dotted in some bay leaf stems from the trees in the back garden too. Our approach was fairly organic, wild, unstructured and we had great fun arranging the flowers.

Garden Party Food

When planning the garden party food, we wanted colour and freshness in abundance. We made a vegan chilli, a simple antipasti platter, crudités platter, large jasmine rice, homemade potato salad, chips and a vat of homemade salsa.

All the food was served in our collection of antique blue and white Willow Pottery bowls and platters. The yellow of the lemons looked particularly pleasing against the blue dish. We used lemons for the drinks and for adding flavour to the vegetables.

Sister Theresa pitched in and created around 40 skewers of roast peppers, tomatoes, courgette, red onion and halloumi. Vegetable skewers are an easy, simple and quick way to add colour and flavour.

The crudités platter was perfect for children, who love to grab a breadstick in each hand or carrots to dip into humous, plus it’s easy to prepare and adds a pop of colour to the table.

Amidst the dining, friends and family gathered in the garden. The British summer, was, well fairly ominous with the looming threat of rain, we were very relieved that we had ordered a marquee for the day. We hired the Marquee from Marquee Party and they were very efficient setting it up the day before and taking it down the day after the event.

Of course, it’s not a party without a cheeseboard. We used the Spode blue and white cheese knife set and served a selection of cheese and fresh baguettes on a large breadboard. Alongside the cheeseboard we added bowls of grapes and walnuts, as well as a variety of mustard including the delectable Grey Poupone.

The large birthday cake created by Sweet Messages Bakery in Withington Village was a real centrepiece and was decorated with real edible flowers. Incredibly the cake was both vegan and gluten-free!

Sister Theresa outdid herself baking the most incredible gluten-free brownies. We piled them high and added a few strawberries.

A huge thank you to our friends and family who came to the garden party and shared in such a special and memorable day.