Invite: Using images I found online, I designed a simple invitation inviting my guests to have a "latte" fun at our pumpkin spice themed dinner.
Decor: Obviously pumpkins made up much of the decor. I used a brown tablecloth and white plates with several small pumpkins on the table. I found some small paper plates with Fall leaves on them to use for the salad plates.
For a centerpiece, I made wrappers for to-go coffee cups that matched the invitation and other decor. I placed a couple of them amid various small and mini pumpkins for a simple decor.
I had fun putting an idea to the test and crafting these napkin coffee cups. I folded a white paper napkin in the shape of a cup, and cut out the lid shape using my Cricut cutter. Starbucks gave me the cardboard wrappers, that I cut apart, turned inside out to avoid the Starbucks logo, and resecured with glue. The center logo I designed on Photoshop and used on the centerpiece cups as well.
For placecards, I purchased mini cloth pumpkins from Amazon and attached a name tag to each.
I designed my wine labels to have a bit more fun with the pumpkin spice idea. For the red wine, I used calorie counting to show why drinking red wine is better for your health. 380 calories for a pumpkin spice latte and only 120 for a glass of red wine. "Choose wisely, my friends" was the comment at the end. For the white wine I used the saying "Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice" and just changed it to "Pumpkin Spice or White Wine is Nice."
For wine charms, I used my Cricut to cut out small coffee cups in various colors. They all had a pumpkin on the cup wrapper to match the theme.
For the main dish, I made an Autumn Pasta dish I saw on traderjoes5itemsorless on Instagram. The Autumn pasta is only 3 ingredients, easy to make, and SUPER delicious. The pasta sauce has pumpkin and butternut squash in it, but it is a slight taste and not overpowering. I couldn't really taste it much. For the guests I had that didn't want to try it, I served the pasta with butter and burrata and left out the sauce. The guests really enjoyed this dish.
Alongside this pasta, I made a Roasted Pumpkin, Spinach, and Feta salad. It was served with an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing mix that was tasty. For any guest that didn't really like pumpkin, you could serve the pumpkin on the side, and it would still be a yummy salad.
For dessert, I used my mini bundt cake pan to make small pumpkins. I used a boxed spice cake mix and added a little pumpkin puree. Once the cakes were baked, I trimmed the bottoms of each and fit them together to make pumpkins. Drizzled white cream cheese frosting over the top (also store bought), and added a thick pretzel rod as the stem. These are larger pumpkins, so we shared each pumpkin.
Overall, this was a easy theme to do. However, if I were to do it again, I would have the decor pumpkin spice, but may not include much pumpkin in the meal. Some of my guest's were not pumpkin spice fans, so they were hesitant to even try many of the foods, and I had to try to accommodate this. Might have been better to just go with an Autumn menu.
