Invite and Delight: October 2018

It is hard to believe, but I have been hosting these themed dinners once of month for 12 years! That's 144 dinner parties with friends! To commemorate hosting these for a dozen years, I themed this month's dinner around a dozen donuts. It was so fun to put together and I think it makes a super fun birthday or other party theme as well.

Invite: I designed my invite with pastel colors because when I think of donuts, I always think of the pink donut boxes and the pink donuts with sprinkles (thanks Homer Simpson). I found some fun sprinkle-like fonts to use to add to the fun.

Entry: A friend of mine happened to have these giant donut inflatable pool floats that she let me borrow for the party. I placed two of the biggest ones at the front door with a small sign to welcome guests.

Table Decor: I set the table with a bright pink tablecloth and white plates. For a centerpiece I made donuts out of Styrofoam to place on skewers. I bought a medium piece of rectangle Styrofoam, and then used an empty can with a circumference the size I wanted it as a "cookie" cutter. You could buy already circular Styrofoam, but it was too expensive for me, so I just did it this way. I put Mod Podge on the Styrofoam after cutting, then painted them. After a day, I added the felt frosting and sprinkles. I already had the coffee pot from my Friends monthly Dinner, so I just repainted it black and filled it with tissue paper and then coffee beans on top.

Also along the table, I placed a few photos of our dinners over the years. I chose one dinner from each of the 12 years.

The front of each had one photo with the year and the back a different photo. I placed the photos on toothpicks and then stuck them in donuts along the center of the table.

For a place card, I made pretend "frequent visitor" cards with each guest's name. I used my whole punch to punch out the months which that particular guest had been able to attend our monthly dinners this past year.

For a napkin holder, I cut a mini chocolate donut in half and placed it over a rolled napkin. I had to carve out a bit of the inside circle to make it work, but I think it did.

The beverage and favor table had fun donut displays too. Over the mantle I placed two more of the inflatable donuts.

I made a simple donut banner with various donut images I found online. I sized the donuts to be the same as my circle cutter so cutting them was easy. I taped them to a piece of ribbon so that they could be close together and overlapping a bit.

I made these fun wine labels on PhotoShop. I made them to match all my party printables and decor. I especially love the Sips and Sprinkles of Happiness...just sounds fun.

I did not get a great photo of my wine charms, but they were super easy and cute. I used the same donut images I used for the banner just resized them to fit around wine stems.

Menu: Although I love donuts, I don't think serving all donuts at a DINNER party would quite work. I decided to serve mostly donut-shaped foods, but just one donut in the mix. That donut was the bun for the main dish...hamburgers. I served these with the fixings on the side as not all my girls love the same items on their burgers.

Along side the burgers, I served donut-shaped potatoes. I cut them out with cookie cutters, then sprinkled them with Parmesan cheese, paprika, seasoned salt, and pepper before baking them in the oven.

I also cut watermelon into donuts as another side.

For dessert, I made a cake in a bundt cake pan and then topped it with a strawberry glaze and sprinkles. The glaze was a bit runnier than I would have liked, but it tasted delicious.

Favor: My friend helped me make these amazing mini donuts! They were so yummy and fun to make. We made a dozen for each guest, and they were a great hit with the guests. We did vanilla donuts with pink candy melts and rainbow sprinkles, vanilla donuts with white candy melts and black sprinkles, and chocolate donuts with chocolate candy melts and chopped peanuts.