Invite: I wanted the invitation to be colorful, bright, and to include a variety of fruits. For this reason, I designed the invitation with a simple fruit border. The rest of the invitation just had the basic information and some fruit puns.
Decorations: For my main dining table, I used a green tablecloth and a lemon table runner I already owned. I found colorful fruit plates and bright flowers to help create the summer vibe.
I wanted to use fruits as much as possible in my centerpiece. I hollowed out a pineapple to use as a vase for bright colors. To make the vase, I cut off the top of the pineapple and used a sharp knife to cut a circle around the pineapple along the edges. It was challenging to get the pineapple out because I wanted to use them in my fruit salad. If you don't care about that, you can easily scoop out the pineapple with a large spoon. Once the pineapple was hollow, I cut off the top of an empty water bottle to place inside to hold the flowers.
The other two vases on the centerpiece were filled with sliced fruits. Grapefruit and lime in one; lemon and lime in the other.
The watermelon cupcakes made for dessert were so cute, we wanted them displayed somehow throughout the dinner. I decided to add some of them to the centerpiece and placed them up upside down striped bowls.
I found large watermelon paper plates and the smaller lemon/lime/grapefruit plates at Party City.
For placecards, I used toddler toy fruits that attach together with Velcro. My kids used to have these when they were young and loved them. I borrowed these to use for the dinner. I offset the fruits a little bit, and made a tag with each guest's name to place in the middle.
For napkin rings, I cut out images of various fruits and made slits to slide the napkin through.
I used the same images from the napkins for wine charms.
I decided to use fruit puns on the wine labels I created. I used "Red Wine - You hold the KIWI to my heart" for the red wine, and "Chardonnay You're the Zest" for the white wine. I added a wine glass in the hands of the kiwi and the lemon. I also served a peach wine I purchased at Trader Joe's. For this label, I used the pun "I just want PEACH and quiet and a glass of peach wine."
Over the beverage table, I hung this sign that I purchased from Party City. The apple in the HOME set, I already owned.
Menu: It is fairly easy to find recipes that use fruits. The problem was there were so many to choose from! I opted to start with a strawberry spinach salad. On the bed of spinach, I added feta cheese, candied pecans, and of course the sliced strawberries. I served it with a balsamic vinaigrette. You could use a raspberry vinaigrette to tie in one more fruit.
For the main dish, I made Creamy Lemon Chicken. I did not follow the recipe exactly because I had several complications. I did start with the chicken in the crock pot for about 2 hours, but the chicken breasts I purchased were so thick and I did not allot for enough crock pot time, that I had to make the spur of the moment decision to grill them instead. I transferred the crock pot liquid with the lemon and cream to the stove to finish it on the stove. For this reason, the chicken was not as tender as it normally would be, but the creamy lemon sauce was delicious, so the dish was still very tasty.
I also served a cup of fruits which included the pineapple from the centerpiece, watermelon, blueberries, and cantaloupe.
For dessert, we had these cute watermelon cupcakes. I made standard cupcakes, but died them green and had a green wrapper. My good friend made the buttercream frosting and added watermelon flavoring. We then added mini chocolate chips to look like seeds.
Favor: I found these cute drink pouches with Hello Summer and a huge pineapple on them at Michaels Craft Store. I added an alcoholic fruit seltzer inside.
It was a super easy summer party to put together. Hope you can host one of your own this summer!
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