Exploring the best of Toronto and Southern Ontario.

Happy Sunday, all! I hope you’re having a great weekend.

If you’ve been following along with my blog recently, you’ve no doubt read a post or two about Italy. I’d like to thank those of you who followed along with my Italy trip series. I truly hope those posts were helpful to those of you planning your own trip there – or at the very least, that they provided a healthy dose of escapism! (Am I the only one who reads travel blogs on places that I’ll likely never visit, just for the fun of it??) As much as I’ve loved reliving our vacation over the last few weeks, I’m really excited to catch you all up on what I’ve been doing since I’ve been home!

One exciting thing that happened since I’ve been back: I turned the big 3-0! I know some people get anxious about their 30th birthday, but honestly, I felt nothing but excitement. I’ve heard from some older friends that their thirties were their best decade, and I’m looking forward to experiencing them for myself. Plus, when I woke up on my actual birthday (July 12) I didn’t see any more wrinkles than I had the night before… so there!

To celebrate the occasion, Tania and I threw a dinner party in our backyard. I can’t tell you how amazing it was to ring in a new decade with my nearest and dearest friends – some of whom came from as far as Peterborough and Orillia to celebrate with me! You know those moments that just make you feel warm, fuzzy and loved? This was one of those. I love my people so much, and I feel truly blessed to have every one of them in my life.

We had 24 people come, which is the largest group we’ve ever hosted in our home – so needless to say, I was a bit overwhelmed with the planning! So today, I thought I’d do a post on how we planned everything, which I hope will be helpful to those of you hosting your own shindigs this summer – or anytime!

For dinner, we set up folding tables and chairs in the backyard, and draped them with plain white tablecloths. These folding tables from Costco are so convenient, reasonably priced, and don’t take up much storage space. If you host often, I recommend buying a 4-pack and splitting the cost with family or friends. If you go in with three others, you can each store one table, and borrow from the others as needed. Each table seats eight people.

We have a set of 24 dinner plates and 16 silverware settings, so we borrowed some extras from family. I got these fun sparkly plastic wine glasses from Amazon, so we didn’t have to worry about anything breaking outside. I’d considered cloth napkins, but in the end, decided to keep it simple and use paper napkins which I got from Dollarama (they actually sell some really pretty designs!) The table décor was simple but lovely: IKEA tealights in glass votives and pink carnations in bud vases. I just bought two bunches of carnations from Fortino’s in two different shades of pink – $25 for the pair – and mixed and matched.

You all know I’m all about the photos – and I wanted this celebration to be one to remember – so I knew we needed some sort of fun backdrop for people to pose with. I love the look of a flower wall, but you’re usually looking at a minimum of $300 just to rent one for the night. Instead, I created my own version of a flower wall on our fence by mixing and matching these strands of faux roses and wisteria, then I added some sparkle with this cute banner. It just goes to show you don’t have to spend a ton to have nice table settings or decorations!

Guests started arriving around 5pm, and we served dinner at 7. To tide everyone’s appetites over until dinner was ready, we put out two charcuterie boards and a veggie tray, which we replenished as needed. (Always good to have lots of appetizers and snacks on hand, especially when guests are drinking.)

We kept the dinner menu simple by prepping a few easy-to-make dishes in large batches: chicken drumsticks, a kale quinoa Caesar salad, a pesto pasta salad, perogies and roasted potatoes. My tendency is always to want to cook several different dishes, but when you’re hosting more people, it really simplifies things if you just pick a few dishes and make a lot of them. Tania’s mom helped out by making the perogies and potatoes for us, and picked up dinner rolls from Cordi’s Bakery. The rest of the dishes were prepped ahead of time and stored in the fridge, so all that was left to do that evening was pull out the salads, bake the chicken, and reheat the perogies and potatoes. Instead of fussing with fancy serving dishes, we put everything in aluminum foil roasters from Dollarama, which minimized cleanup. We kept everything in the kitchen, and everyone served themselves buffet-style.

For dessert, our friend Patricia – who is a very talented baker – made me the most beautiful strawberry shortcake! We also served cookies (some macadamia nut cookies that Tania’s mom made, and some chocolate chip cookies from Fortino’s) and lemon squares that I made using this recipe. We also had friends bring doughnuts and more cookies, which was unexpected but much appreciated!

Unfortunately, despite the forecast calling for sunny weather the entire week prior to party day, everything suddenly changed the day of. That evening, the skies turned gray and cloudy, and while we managed to avoid a torrential downpour, it was drizzling lightly on and off throughout the evening. While people did float between the house and backyard throughout the night, some people ended up eating inside instead. It was a bit of a bummer as we’d worked so hard on the table settings, but at the end of the day, you can’t change the weather! Everyone still had a fabulous time, and after dinner and cake, we gathered in the living room and stayed up late playing games.

Our first time hosting a larger group in our home may have been stressful, but Tania and I both had a blast, and learned some helpful tips to take away for the next time we host. I thought I’d share the best of them with you, and I hope they’ll be helpful to anyone planning their own house (or backyard) party this summer.

• Start planning early. I started planning this party back in April, three months ahead. That may seem excessive, but it’s always better to err on the side of caution and leave yourself more time rather than less. You don’t have to sort out the nitty-gritty details until later on, but it’s never too early to start brainstorming décor, menus and guest lists. And speaking of invitations, it’s always best to send them early. I sent save-the-dates out in early May. Summer gets so crazy and people’s schedules fill up quickly!
• Keep yourself organized with lists. I made a list of everything that needed to be done for the party, from the high-level planning (think about a décor scheme) to the last-minute details (make beds for overnight guests.) I had timelines for when everything needed to be done, from three months to three days before the party, and I checked in with myself regularly to ensure all was going according to schedule.
• Let go of perfection. As a die-hard perfectionist, this was a tough one for me, but it’s also a must. Not all our chairs and plates matched, the tablecloths got wrinkled, and at the end of the day, everything got rained on anyways. Guess what? Nobody cared and everyone had fun regardless! Most of the time, you’re the only one noticing those pesky details. And even if things go wrong, I promise you that as long as the food, wine, and most importantly – the company – is good, your guests won’t care. And neither should you!
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Whether that’s by asking friends or family if they can help with food prep, lend you some extra chairs or table settings, or run to the store last-minute to pick up something you forgot, many hands make light work. If you’re like me, you may be hell-bent on doing it all yourself, but there’s no need. People will offer to help out: let them!
• The larger the party, the simpler the food should be. This isn’t the time to make nine different salads or try out complicated recipes – particularly ones you haven’t made before. Stick to simple dishes: ideally ones with few ingredients that can be made in large batches ahead of time. And speaking of large batches…
• Make more food than you think you’ll need. We didn’t exactly run out of food, but we did run out of some of the more popular dishes! While you don’t want a ton of leftovers, you should also err on the side of ‘more’ when it comes to portion sizes. You can even find some handy portion calculators online. We learned our lesson with this one – we’ll definitely make more food next time!
• Lastly… have fun! Instead of stressing when the food doesn’t turn out perfectly or it rains all over your beautiful table setting, just relax and enjoy the moment for what it is: celebrating a great time with the people you love. (Perfectionist me is still struggling with this one… but I’m improving!)

I hope these party planning tips have been helpful! It’s a funny thing about hosting… I was so stressed the week leading up to this party that I told Tania we’d never host anything again. Well, it took about two days for me to miss the energy of people in the house, and start making plans to host a big Thanksgiving potluck. Typical!

I feel truly blessed to have celebrated the start of a new decade with my nearest and dearest. It ended up being a whole week of celebrations! Tania spoiled me with brunch at a fancy Toronto restaurant, and my parents took us to the beautiful Casa Loma Gardens for a special dinner, which I’ll write about in my next post. And, I got TWO birthday cakes this year! My mom baked me a Betty Crocker cherry chip cake with Barbie-pink frosting, which I’ve requested every year for my birthday since I was a kid. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Needless to say, my 30th was filled with lots of fun, food, love, laughter and all-around awesomeness. If this is any indication of what’s to come in the next decade, then bring on the thirties!!

I hope you all have a relaxing rest of your Sunday, and a lovely week ahead.