In the Garden

How to Throw a Garden Party on a Budget

Garden parties are so much fun to have and can actually be very budget friendly. I am going to share with you how to set one up from start to finish and how to create a big wow factor for your guests. I hope you enjoy repurposing materials because there will be a lot of that in this post. Lets get started and create an experience for your guests to remember!

Well for starters this party works best outside of course, in the garden. You do not have any crazy lush gardens in your backyard? What? Me neither! All my gardens are fairly new and just beginning to mature. But no need to worry, any backyard setting, porch, or a sunroom will do.

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“Gardening is a humbling experience”

-Martha Stewart

Wood Pallet Back Drop

A back drop to draw in your guests to the main focal table is a must. Unless you have beautiful English gardens in the background, then your not going to want to skip this step. I wanted something to put on top of my outdoor table that was going to be quite large, but I also wanted most of my materials for this post to be repurposed and budget friendly. The best large back drop you can use is a wood pallet. I love working with wood pallets! There is so many things you can make from them, like my Rustic Address Planter for example. The greatest part is you can get pallets for free. Businesses and stores always have a full supply of them. You can ask or even drive around to the back of a store and 80% of the time there is a pile of them there.

Lets Be Social And Connect

I actually enjoy the weathered look and feel of pallet wood. There is just something about the aging wood that I think is so neat. But for this garden party, I was going to need a little bit more excitement for when my guests arrived. So I decided to paint the pallet a distressed white to ensure that I left its rustic charm. I used regular can of white paint I had on hand and it worked out perfectly.

Make Your Own Garden Signs

Since the pallet was going to be a main focal point to one of my tables, I thought it would be great to have a warm welcoming sign on it. I had plenty of scrap pallet wood cut up from another pallet. So I grabbed a few pieces and some antique green craft paint I had, and began to paint “Welcome”. But being that it was going to be a garden party, I thought it would be really cute if I painted “All Plants Welcome” instead.

After the paint to my garden signs dried, I grabbed a handful of nails and went to work, hammering them on to the front of my pallet. The signs turned out so cute and really stood out against the white of the pallet. Yet, it still has an earthy rustic feel to it, which was exactly what I wanted. You can create as many garden signs you can think of without barely spending a dime.

Hanging Flowered Topiaries

I am so happy to have made these for this post. They came out so pretty and I can already think of some great ways to use them after my garden party, such as; hanging them under my pergola, throwing my daughter a garden fairy birthday party or even a flowered topiary tree in a planter for my porch.

Materials You Will Need:

  • A mix of different sized styrofoam balls
  • Plenty of artificial flowers (I spent $40 at the $1 Store)
  • Wire cutters
  • Green spray paint (only if you are dealing with white styrofoam balls)
  • Hot glue gun
  • Floral wire
  • Fishing wire
  • 3M hooks

These hanging flowered topiary’s were also so fun to make. I wanted my hanging topiary’s to look very realistic to an actual vase of cut flowers. To achieve that look, I cut my flowers and greenery at different lengths. For example my smallest flower spray would be about 3″-4″ long, a medium size would be about 4″-6″ and a large size anywhere from 6″-10″. You can see in my picture below, that once the stems are pushed into the styrofoam, you will loose a few inches in general. So I would not go any shorter then 3″ for your smallest flower.

Every once in a while you may need a little spot of glue to help hold a few flowers in place. I actually only used my glue gun twice the entire time. For the most part the flower stems will stay inside the styrofoam very well. To make sure I was filling it in evenly and not clumping too much of one color in an area, I kept rotating the flowered topiary constantly. I even added in the leaves that come on the flower sprays for filler. Towards the end, I did not have a single flower or leaf left, after I finishing all 3 flowered topiaries. If you want to do more than that and still stay within a low budget, I suggest only using the small styrofoam balls. That way if you spend about $40 on flower sprays from the $1 store, you would be able to have enough for 5 small styrofoam balls.

DIY Tip: You can make it look like different size topiaries, just by adding longer flower/greenery stems to a smaller styrofoam ball.

Hanging Your Flowered Topiaries

Hanging your flowered topiaries is not hard at all. You will need some floral wire, fishing wire and some 3M hooks. I set my garden table up in my closed-in porch, so I attached them right to the ceiling. I staggered the 3M hooks on the ceiling so that my flowered topiaries would have some depth too them. Then I cut fishing wire to different lengths, so that my topiaries would also hang at different heights.

Next, I took some floral wire and wrapped it around my flowered topiary ball. I tucked it down between flowers and leaves so it would not be visible when hanging. You can definitely do this step ahead of time, before you even start adding flowers if you really want. Then you want to leave enough floral wire to create a small little hook to hang your topiary ball. I simply created a little loop with my fingers, and then twisted the rest of the wire down to create a secure hook that would not unravel.

Once you have your hook on the flowered topiary ready to go, you can grab your fishing wire cuts and begin to hang them up. I created another small loop on my fishing wire after I attached to my topiary for easy hanging. You may have to adjust them a little lower or higher depending where you are hanging them. I had to to that with one of mine to get it just right.

Tin Can Planters

Save your cans! This is a great way to recycle and repurpose any cans you may have. They make great little planters for flowers or herbs. These days, most cans have a non-rust coating in the inside and are perfectly safe to water plants in. I wanted all my guests to be able to take home a small plant and get the experience of planting it themselves. This saved me tons of extra money and was so easy to make. I then picked out some great herb plants from my local nursery. Not only did I want to offer my guests something to take home, but I wanted it to be something useful too. Who does not appreciate cooking with some fresh herbs? It is the best!

Materials Will You Need:

  • Empty and cleaned tin cans
  • Metallic spray paint (I chose gold)
  • Chalk board labels
  • Chalk
  • Small plants to be planted in the tin can planters

The first thing you want to do is wash all your cans very well and peel off any labels that they may have. That is about all the preparation you will need to do before you begin to spray paint your cans. I only needed one coat of spray paint. I did not do the bottoms, and only sprayed the top rims of them, coating just a little of the inside. Once dried, I placed a chalk board label to the side of the can.

This DIY tin can planter is so easy that my kids even helped with the labels. They love to get involved with any project I do, so I was happy to have something easy for them to work on. I’d say they did a pretty good job. I love the gold and black together and they fit in so nicely with the rest of my garden table. I also added a small chalk board sign leaving my guests some directions on what to do.

“Gardening is how I relax. Its another form of creating and playing with colors”

-Oscar de La Renta

Garden Buffet Table

With all that gardening and socializing taking place, your guests will surely be hungry. You want to create a buffet table just as special. I enjoy doing buffet style tables because guests can come and go as they please and help themselves. Then as a host, you can enjoy yourself too and not get so hung up on being stuck serving food. This table was so much fun to put together and will really make your guests feel that garden party theme.

When creating an exciting buffet table, I always focus on the center first. It is my focal point and also where your guests eyes will go too when they first look at it. I usually pick something that will give my table some height to elevate food or table decor. I wanted to keep this table as budget friendly as the other garden table. So I used my vintage Inspired farmhouse wood crate that I had made. For more details on how to make one of your own visit the post and see for yourself how easy it is.

Instead of placing the food on just regular serving dishes and trays, I thought it would be so much fun if everything was in planters and galvanized buckets. Really makes it feel like a garden party. But do not go crazy spending money. I am here to tell you that most of the stuff for your table can be found at the $1 store. The flowers & garden galvanized bucket with muffins, small terra cotta pots for forks/napkins and my glass vintage inspired milk cups were all found there at one time or another.

Dress Up an old Lemonade Bottle

When creating any kind of table for guests, the smallest details truly make a difference and create a very special experience. I had saved a couple Italian Lemonade glass bottles from a few summers ago and I am so glad I did. I cannot tell you how many times I have used them for parties. I love to recycle and repurpose as much as I can, and this is just another great way to do that.

Materials You Will Need

  • Glass bottle (Italian lemonade, or wine bottle)
  • Burlap fabric
  • Hot glue gun/glue sticks
  • Chalk board label

Extremely simple my friends! First make sure your bottle is clean and all labels are off. I still had a little bit of the glue from the label on my bottle, but since I was going to be wrapping burlap around it, I did not care too much. Next, you will want to cut a piece of burlap to fit around the bottom half of your bottle and simply glue it on. If your bottle has any imprinted details on it, make sure you glue the seam to the burlap fabric on the side of the bottle so it will not be as visible. Lastly, add a chalk board label to the front of it. Comes out looking so special and I guarantee you will find yourself using it over and over for different functions.

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow”

-Audrey Hepburn

Let Me Keep On Inspiring You

As always, thank you for stopping by my blog today. I hope you enjoyed your visit and left full of inspiration. If you would like to continue being inspired every week with me, please sign up for my email list and I will do just that. Thanks again!

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Love The Space That Surrounds You Everyday

-Meagan-

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