Invite: For the invite, I used a beachy/pool background image and added the text in bright, bold colors. I kept it simple and easy to read. When I sent it, I also asked guests to bring a fun floatie with them to the our dinner party.
Decor: There are a ton of floaties and other summer items in stores (and in my house) right now, so it was simple to put together the decorations for the party. For the table, I used a bright pink tablecloth and used one of our big bright beach towels to place on top of it. I bought drink floaties to place on each plate.
For the centerpiece, I bought a bright teal tray, purple goggles, and a green pool noodle from the dollar store. I cut the pool noodle into small pieces about 4 inches tall and set them up on the tray as vases. The goggles wrapped around 6 of the noodles. I then bought a small bouquet of bright colored flowers from Trader Joes and cut them up to place inside each noodle. I kept the flowers in water until right before the party so they wouldn't wilt, and then transferred them to the pool noodles (without water) a few minutes before guests arrived.
I bought small drink floaties to place at each place setting. I found them on Amazon here. Since I serve wine at these monthly dinners, I used a clear plastic glass and placed it inside the floatie with the guest's name on it in vinyl letters I cut out with my Cricut cutting machine. These cups served as both place cards & wine charms.
I cut up different color pool noodles to use as napkin rings and added bright colored napkins.
For my side table, I also used a bright colored towel I already owned as the tablecloth and then created a banner with cut up pool noodle rings to hang above it. The HOME sign I already had with the flip flops up for summer.
I created my wine labels to match the summer floatie theme as well. For the white wine, I used the same image as my invitation, but added more floaties to it. I also added wine glasses inside some of the floaties. The text read, "Wine. Pairs well with Floaties." For the red wine, I found a floatie of a red wine bottle you can purchase online and used that. It read "Let's Go Wine Tasting In The Pool." I added an image of a wine glass floatie to the sides of the label as well.
Menu: There are ton of food-related floaties in stores to purchase, so you could easily do pizza or pretzels or popsicles as these are great snacks at birthday parties, etc. Instead, I tried to base some of my menu more on the floatie idea rather than matching it to a specific floatie I would need to purchase. We started with homemade pasta and a recipe that my grandmother use to make. I served this on Italian Ziti noodles because they look like pool noodles.
Alongside the pool noodle pasta, I served Inner Tube Garlic Bread. I purchased rolls of pizza dough, spread them out, spread butter, garlic, and Italian seasoning on the dough, and then rolled the dough up. I wrapped the dough along the sides of a springform pan with an empty can I had used for the spaghetti sauce in the middle so I could make sure it was shaped like an inner tube. It took 3 rolls of pizza dough to make it around pan and all the way to the center to reach the empty sauce can. However, this was the perfect amount of bread for our party of 10.
As another side, I cut up watermelon. I used a small watermelon floatie and placed the bowl of watermelon inside when serving.
For dessert, I made root beer "floats" to keep with the float theme. Yummy and a perfect summertime treat.
Favor: Guests took home the beverage floatie on their plate, but I also sent them home with these flamingos filled with gumballs. I bought the pattern for these on Etsy, printed them out, and then folded them. They took time to cut/fold, but they were cute.
I'm sad to see summer "float" away, but excited to end summer with this fun party theme.
