Dinner Party Essentials

This weekend, we're hosting a dinner party for some of our friends from church, and all week I've been thinking about little ways to make the evening run smoothly so that I can really enjoy our company and not be preoccupied with prepping food, making drinks, etc. The more I do in advance, and the more I have ready to go when they arrive, the more fun it will be for everyone! I've also been thinking about what supplies I'll have around and ready to go so that people can help themselves to food and beverages.

Here is my list of essentials:

Wooden Cutting Board | Painted Kitchen Bowls | Bar Cart | Mason Jar Drinking Glasses | White Dinnerware | Lacquer Trays

One thing I'd add? Think about the mood or feel you want to have for the party, and then put together a music playlist using Spotify (my fave!) or choose a Pandora station. I feel like music can really set the tone for a party and makes people feel welcome!

We love hosting people, and can't wait for this weekend! 

Do you have any go-to dinner party or favorite hosting essentials?

And a special thanks to Personal Creations for their inspiration for this post. Check out their housewarming gifts page if you're in need of a hostess, wedding or birthday gift for someone in your life! (They didn't compensate me in any way for this post - just provided a link to their page for me to check out!)

Continuing Celebrations {31 Days: Day 20}

Happy Sunday to y'all! We are currently on our way back from an amazing weekend spent celebrating a dear friend's wedding, so today's a short post from my phone kind of day. 

My heart is full from being a part of many wonderful events over the past few days. Remember how I talked about having lots to celebrate in one of last week's posts and showed you a picture of the photo and invitation-covered bulletin board in our kitchen? Well, two events having to do with those things happened over the past few days - a baby girl, Evelyn, was born on Wednesday and my former maid of honor got married on Saturday. 

On Thursday I got to meet sweet one day old Evelyn. I can't tell you how excited I was to hear she was finally here. She belongs to friends of ours who we only met a year ago, but have become some of our favorite new DC friends. They're going to be wonderful parents and I can't wait to watch Evelyn grow up. If I'm this excited about someone else's baby, I can only imagine what it will feel like to have my own one day! 

Early Friday morning we headed to Orange Beach, Alabama for my former maid of honor's wedding. It was such a treat to be there and celebrate her and her now husband! 

I was in the wedding, so I didn't get much beach time, but we did dip our toes in the water (which was still so warm by the way - I couldn't believe it) and took a lovely walk down the gorgeous white sand beach in-between bridesmaid duties with some friends we were sharing a condo with for the weekend. 

The best part about the weekend though was catching up with many of my close college friends and celebrating this beautiful bride:

I'm so grateful for her friendship over the past 9 years. I can't believe it's been that long since we were freshmen in college. I loved being a part of her wedding party because that meant we got to spend lots of time with each other over the course of the weekend. Talk about LOVING what you have. Hooray for long-standing friendships! I am so blessed to call her and all these Auburn girls my friends. These weekends when we are (almost) all together are getting few and far between these days, so I'm extra thankful when we have something like a marriage to celebrate. Oh, and while I'm mentioning Auburn, I'm so proud of our football team for beating Texas A&M! What a crazy awesome game. War Eagle!

Here are a couple of photos from the wedding. I can't wait to see all the professional ones!

What events or friendships are you grateful for these days? 

Read the series from the beginning...

On Friends and Celebrating Life With Them {31 Days: Day 12}

A week or so ago, I posted this photo on Instagram of the over-stuffed cork board in our kitchen:

It hit me that day that there is so much life happening these days in my friends' lives. So many things to be be thankful for and celebrate. Birthdays, weddings, beautiful new babies (with a couple more arriving any day!), and newly purchased homes top that list and many visual reminders of them are prominently displayed here. I love that this is one of the first things I see when I walk through my door each day.

I have been incredibly blessed with wonderful friends in each stage of my life. I love watching and being a part of their lives as they grow and change, cheering them on, and anxiously awaiting what God will do in their lives. It's really exciting. This visual reminder serves as a way for me to be intentional with them and to pray for these dear friends, their spouses or soon-to-be spouses, and their little ones. I'm headed to one of the weddings that's pictured up there this weekend, and cannot wait to celebrate!

Now that's what loving what you have is really all about.


Read the series from the beginning...

Birmingham Trip Recap

This past weekend, we traveled down to Birmingham, Alabama to celebrate a college friend's wedding. The weekend was jam-packed with fun activities, catching up with dear friends and family, and enjoying some awesome 60 degree weather (I'm so over the cold right now!).

I am so grateful for weekends like this - it's such a treat to be with people who know you so well. I love the feeling of knowing I can pick back up right where I left off with these friends, no matter how long it's been since we've talked. I left feeling satisfyingly exhausted (know what I mean?), and yet craved more time with these gals I love. The moments when we're all (at least almost all - we missed you, Laura!) together are rare these days. Not to get all sappy and cheesy, but these times are simply the best. So thanks, Libby, for getting married this weekend (haven't uploaded those photos from my camera yet! ahh!) - I wish you and Ben the best as you start your lives together. You were stunning on Saturday, and the wedding was absolutely beautiful. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to celebrate with you and spend time with some of my favorite people.

Until I get my act together and upload some photos from my "real" camera, here's a photo from my iPhone of (many of) my friends together after lunch on Sunday at Big Blue Bagel (one of my favorite places!).

So many exciting changes are happening with these ladies - three are having babies in the next several months, and one just got engaged. It's fun moving into new phases of life with them!

Now changing gears a bit to a design-related find from our trip...

We had brunch with some of my family on Saturday, and it happened to be at this coffee shop/restaurant that I'm going to go ahead and call a design goldmine. The inside was full of awesome vintage/antique finds and re-purposed items. I'll let the photos do most of the talking (again, iPhone photos!):

{Baskets and other containers as light fixtures? Yes please.}

{I'm dying to know what the original purpose was of those old bins with the wine bottles.}

{Old school maps - always a hit.}

{Anybody speak French who can translate the writing on these plates? I wanted to bring one of these home with me.}

{Yep, that would be an old gas cook top hanging from the ceiling.}

{Kind of dying over that table...and that art, actually.}

See how cool that place is? I could have spent hours just looking at all the pieces in there. What's your favorite thing? The more I look back at these photos, the more details I notice and love.

In case you live in Birmingham, the name of this spot is Urban Standard. Pay them a visit, will you please? Sip a cup of coffee, eat a sandwich, and admire their amazing collection of things and report back. I promise you won't regret it :).