the folding table diaries: pt 2
a whimsical, colorful dinner party to celebrate the change in seasons 🌞
Hello friends!! I’m still on my hosting grind and recently had 6 of my girlfriends over for a little ~summer solstice soirée~ 🌞🕯️✨ In case you didn’t know, the summer solstice was this past Friday, and it marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere! For some reason, America doesn’t do much to celebrate this holiday, but it’s a big part of other cultures…especially in Scandinavia! Life is too short not to celebrate anything and everything, imo 🫶
You can watch the full vlog here where I show a time-stamped day in my life prepping for the party. But, there’s soooo much that I couldn’t fit in a 1 minute video, so we can get into it here! Lemme just say, hosting can literally be a full-time job (😅) and I have a newfound respect for all the people who have hosted me in the past. Phew, it’s hard work but so rewarding!
Okay, so I already explained in the folding table diaries: pt 1 🍋 that we don’t have a dining table (yet) so we always throw up this table and chairs from Amazon. With a little bit of love and decor, a plastic folding table can be very chic actually 🤌🏻 Now let’s get into the full breakdown of what I served, all the tablescape details & more!
MENU:
When I think of summer solstice, I think of earthy, bright and fresh so that was the vibe of the menu 🌈 Lots of herbs, colorful foods and healthy options! I didn’t do a printed menu this time because I thought the table was beautiful as is, but I put out little labels next to the serving platters.
Drink
🍹 White Sangria: It just felt right to serve a bright, fruit-forward sangria at this summer solstice party! Also, such an easy thing to prep hours ahead of time and let sit in the fridge. I kinda followed this recipe, but used triple sec & peach brandy as the liqueurs and omitted the fresh peaches.
Appetizers
🍑 Grilled Peach & Whipped Ricotta Crostini: The whipped ricotta crostini was such a hit last time that of course I had to make it again but with a bit of a twist. This time, I left the lemon out of the whipped ricotta, and then topped each crostini with a slice of grilled peach (used my grill pan for this part)…bc summer! Don’t worry, I have an official recipe for this coming!
🥕 Crudité Platter: Gotta get our veggies in! This is also such a low-lift appetizer…all you have to do is chop up a variety of veggies and either serve it alongside some homemade or store-bought dips. I did Cedar’s Reserve harissa hummus and homemade green goddess dressing.
🌱 Green Goddess Dressing: Kinda eye-balled it here but did roughly 1/2 cup full-fat plain greek yogurt, 1/2 cup each of fresh dill, parsley and chives, 2 garlic cloves, 1/3 cup crumbled feta, 2 tbsp mayo, juice from 1/2 lemon and lots of salt & pepper.
Main Course
🥬 Little Gem Salad with Herby Yogurt Dressing: I refer to this dressing as ranch but Kyle has informed me it’s quite different from ranch lol. Well, this is what I think ranch should taste like. And using little gem lettuce (or baby romaine) is such a fun way to present it.
🥔 Roasted Baby Potatoes: I’m not sure what it is, but I get really into roasted baby potatoes during the summer. This recipe has my tried and true method to get perfectly crispy potatoes…but the trick is to soak them first!
🥩 Grilled Strip Steak with Chimichurri: Ventured out of my comfort zone here and grilled some strip steak!! I really wanted to do a marinated skirt steak but it’s SO hard (and expensive) to find lately!? Anyways, we’ve been watching some YouTube videos about steak that have been super helpful.
💚 Chimichurri: Roughly 1/4 cup fresh parsley & 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, a few tbsp of chopped red onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, salt & pepper, 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp lemon juice & 1/3 cup olive oil.
🦐 Grilled Shrimp: Place em on a skewer and grill em up…they cook SO quick!
Dessert
🍰 Swedish Strawberry Cream Cake: Also known as Jordgubbstårta, this is a popular Midsommar dessert, featuring sponge cake, vanilla pastry cream, lots of fresh strawberries and whipped cream. I kinda messed her up, but it was sooo yummy regardles…very similar to strawberry shortcake!
TABLESCAPE:
Surprisingly, I didn’t buy all that much new stuff this time…because I seriously need to chill or we are going to run out of storage space (and money lol).
🎨 Tablecloth: got some inspo from Pinterest and decided to paint on white butcher paper instead of buying a tablecloth! I used acrylic paint to add each guest’s name in cursive around their plate, and a bunch of whimsical food symbols throughout. It took me like 3 hours but I’m obsessed with how it turned out.
🧡 Linen Napkins: These napkins from Amazon added a pop of color and made this tablescape look so fun! They definitely need a solid steam before using though.
🕯️ Taper Candles & Holders: As you can tell from the pics, this dinner party was really a mix-and-match type of vibe. So, I used all sorts of different candle colors & candle holders…most of which are from our trip to Portugal (no link sorry).
🍽️ Dinner Plates: These are the plates that you see in nearly all of my videos on IG.
🍷 Wine Glasses: I did a mix of clear glasses and green glasses and unfortunately have no idea where either of them are from!
💧 Water Glasses: Half of the girls got these blue glasses from Crate & Barrel and the other half got clear ones from CB2 (which it looks like they don’t sell anymore). They were different, but both ribbed and so it was cohesive enough while still being whimsical and fun!
🍴 Silverware: I never seem to have big enough sets for everyone to get matching silverware, but oh well! This set from CB2 is my current favorite and I have it in both gold and silver — although the gold is starting to come off.
🧆 Serveware: I sadly don’t have the links to any of this stuff (it’s old from TJMaxx & HomeGoods), other than the beautiful Zara dish that I served the salad on.
🫗 Pitcher: I used several pitchers for the sangria and water but the most beautiful one is definitely this green one from Material Kitchen.
DIY FLOWER CROWNS:
I love an excuse to craft so I set up a make-your-own flower crown station for the girls to do after dinner. It was actually much simpler than I expected! I followed this tutorial, and here are all the supplies you’ll need:
🌼 Flowers: It’s best to use sturdy flowers, and a mix of greenery and big statement florals. Trader Joe’s is the move for this…so affordable!
👑 Floral Wire: You’ll need two different thicknesses for this — 18 gauge (thicker) for the base of the crown and then 26 gauge (thinner) for adding all the flowers onto the crown.
🩹 Floral Tape: This gets wrapped around the crown to prevent wires from poking your head!
OTHER:
💌 Invites: I love using Evite to send out digital invites! The templates are a whole vibe and make it so easy. I am partnering with them on IG & TT, but this part is not sponsored at all and I truly just love them!
And that’s a wrap on my summer solstice soirée! Although the weather in Boston was gloomy as heck that day, it was such a nice night to catch up with the gals and honor the change in seasons 🤸♀️ I’m sure I missed some links so if you’re curious about anything else, drop a comment below 🔗
Can’t wait to show you guys what I have in store for my next dinner party 👀 Have a great weekend and I’ll chat with you next Saturday :)
XOXO,
Maddie
I love the personalized butcher paper as a table cloth!! So cute