Hosting: The Perfect Summer Soirée
Summer is in full swing and there’s nothing more enjoyable than long warm nights in the garden sampling good food and beverage with your friends and family. It’s the right time to share with you my tips for the perfect summer soirée.
Summer Soirée Theme
It’s always nice to set a theme because it gives direction to setting the menu and selecting decor and playlists. Recently, I hosted a birthday soirée for my Gemini wife, Lynette and her sister Sabrina—who flew in with her husband from Seattle along with other guests from near and far. We settled on a Spanish theme which made planning a lot easier. Other theme ideas include nautical (think seafood towers, anchor print cocktail napkins accented with blue and white stripped dinner napkins and so on), a bubbles party (decorate by placing clear pool balloons in the pool or filing with helium and placing around the party area, serve champagne and sparkling water mixed with fresh pressed juice); summer camp chic (elegant s’mores station, camp lanterns, BBQ).
A few simple ideas to bring your theme to life:
Cocktail/Dinner Napkins: When entertaining outdoors— as is my go to in the summer—I leave the linens for indoor dinning and find quality paper napkins for the outdoors. A brand I really like is Caspari. In addition to being high quality, they offer a variety of fun designs that will help drive your theme home. You can use the same design for cocktail and dinner or mix and match.
Bring a fun accent to the table: for our Spain themed birthday soirée, we ordered Spanish hand fans and included them at each place setting. They helped set the mood of the theme, were functional for a warm summer evening, and the guests enjoyed taking them home at the end of the night. For a camping theme I might have a Magical Flames packet at each seat to toss in the fire pit, for a bubbles theme it would be a split bottle of champagne, for nautical theme you could have decorative compasses.
Print Menus: There are a few online printing services that make selecting a design and adding your personalized information simple. I used Zazzle, there were some spacing issues on the final print so review carefully. We went with bold blue and gold because the design reminded my wife of an abstract bull which fit the theme perfectly.
Candles. Since we’re talking about outdoor entertaining, it is key to remember those citronella candles. I’ve been using table torches similar to this citronella torch that are really effective and look elegant. For our Spanish themed party I needed to amp the citronella up because we were using all of our ample outdoor space and we wanted candlelight for the mood too. These citronella candles came in tins that accented our theme for the evening. This is another area where functionality can meet theme.
Finally, remember to incorporate flowers. Whatever the gathering, whatever the season, I’m a believer in including florals. Bouquets really set the theme and can be as simple as a few daisies in mini glass vases or a few bouquets of roses in a color to match your theme at the table.
Summer Soirée Menu
As a professional chef, it is really hard for me to not go all out with the menu. Lynette suggested we do a lot of simple Spanish tapas which was a great idea, but, me being me, we had tapas, paella, duck, and steak. I have trouble reeling it in. If you love to cook go all out, but I have to admit, even though everyone loves a professional spread of delicious food it’s pretty stressful cooking at that level for a larger gathering. So my advice, and what I hope to incorporate more in my life, is to serve a lot of bite size food. Stick with your theme. We had charcuterie with meats, ne) uts, and cheeses from Spain. Gazpacho, Gambas al Ajillo (garlic shrimp), patatas bravas, and so on. Some general popular favorites include:
Peach and Brie Crostini
Watermelon, arugula, feta bites with balsamic drizzle
Grilled shrimp skewers (you could add grilled pineapple)
Summer Soirée Beverages
Signature Cocktail:
It’s always good to have one or two signature cocktails that can be prepared and served in large format pitchers. For example, we had Sangria which is the perfect summer drink and fit the theme. We stayed on theme offering a variety of Spanish wines.
Remember your under 21 crowd. I created an alcohol free “sangria” and what tends to be the littles favorite: all the fixings for Shirley Temples.
Offer Plenty of Water
Remember, especially in hot weather, to have a large beverage dispenser filled with ice water infused with some refreshing flavor elements. I used lemon and cucumber slices. Other options include mint, basil, strawberries, etc. In addition to kicking up your water, infusions have a nice visual aspect. I also filled a beverage tub with individual bottles of sparkling water.
Summer Soirée Dessert
Since our most recent summer party was a birthday party, we ordered the always stunning and delicious cakes from Sant Ambroeus. My sister-in-law Sabrina ordered these personalized cake toppers that added to the festiveness. Not included in the photo, we hit up the Sag Harbor Farmer’s market the day before our soirée and picked up an apple pie. It was a huge hit. Local pastries are always a good dessert idea. For summertime, a sundae bar or cotton candy machine are always fun options.
Last word…don’t be limited by your theme. We wanted to incorporate karaoke into our party which isn’t exactly on theme. We just created an indoor space with a lot of balloons and our mics and had a blast into the wee hours of the morning.
Summer Soirée Party Favors
It’s really simple to stay on theme and ordering a sweet delicacy that matches. We ordered chocolate dipped dates filled with sea salt caramel from Spain. It was a sweet way to send guests home.
