Summertime Wine Tasting Dinner Party

Summer has been full of so much fun. One of our favorite parts of the season is entertaining outdoors and taking advantage of the warm nights! Tara of One Stylish Party did just that when she threw this wine tasting dinner party. What could be better than a backyard soiree, sipping wine with all your besties? Tara shares all the details with us below!

Summertime means warm weather, longer days, backyard gatherings and making memories with good friends. I love hosting parties for all of life’s special milestones, but sometimes I like hosting parties just because, which was the reason behind this sunset wine tasting party on a warm summer evening in my backyard for a small group of friends.

I was inspired by the colors of the sunset when planning the details of the party. The tablescape included an overflowing floral arrangement with lush greenery and pink and yellow peonies which sat on top of a vintage crochet table cover. Each place setting included an appetizer board that I customized with a strip of coral paint along the edge, as well as a hand painted linen napkin, gold flatware and a watercolor cookie place card. I included a selection of four wines served in tasting glasses that each paired with one of the four appetizers on the board. The pairing menu included: watermelon feta arugula salad, wine soaked berry crostini, lemon ricotta flatbread and a cheese, walnut and cracker selection.

Other party details included bright garden chairs and gold peacock chairs accented with custom watercolor pillows. I used a vintage gold rattan bar cart as the serving station for the desserts, which included a watercolor buttercream white raspberry cake, hand painted vanilla bean macarons, and watercolor sugar cookies that spelled out “cheers.”

I set up a wine tasting station with the four varieties of wine being served at the party so guests could refill their glasses with the wine they liked the most from the tasting. I styled the bottles of wine with custom watercolor labels to compliment the rest of the party decor and accented the wine tasting table with a DIY balloon garland that included fresh floral tucks between the balloons.

While you would never know it from the pictures, the very moment the last candle was lit and the final food items were placed on the table, a ginormous rain cloud passed overhead and POURED on everything! Luckily, everyone who was attending the party jumped into action to save the food and desserts. Once the rain passed, we were able to get everything dried off and set back up faster than I thought possible. While a few cookies may have been lost in the shuffle (and an extra bottle of wine emptied while waiting for the rain to pass!), it definitely made for a memorable start to the party!