Invitation: I designed my invitation to be bright and colorful. I found an image of plates and dishes with bold colors, and then added a paint swatch look on the right with colors that matched the dishes. I asked each guest to chose a color to wear from head to toe for added fun. I had them RSVP with the color they chose, so I could match the place setting details to those colors. The guests RSVP'd on a group text thread, so others could see what colors were already taken.
Decorations: I cut brown butcher paper to fit my table and then painted splotches to look like a paint palette. The colors matched the specific colors my guests were going to wear for the dinner.
As a centerpiece, I used a small paint can from Michaels as a vase and purchased bright flowers to place inside. Around it, I placed snacks in various colors for guests to nibble on - pepperjack cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheddar cheese, black olives. My intent with this was to pull in the "palate" part of the theme. I also add the invitation on a mini easel.
For the napkins, I went to the hardware store and picked up paint swatches in the colors my guests were wearing. I folded a napkin of their color, made a small slice in the swatch, and slid the bottom of the napkin through.
The placecards were paint palettes and brushes to match the guest's color. I cut these out of cardstock with my Cricut machine and used a paint pen to write the names.
The place setting when it was put together for each guest...
I like my wine labels to be themed to my dinners as well, so I designed these with the theme in mind. For the red wine (merlot), I found an image for a red wine glass and paint brushes. I added a paint swatch of the wine colors and labeled this wine "Merlot-dramatic Palette." For the white wine (chardonnay), I used the phrase "hard to resist," but switched it to "chard" to resist the golden hues. Again I added a color palette and an image of white wine and grapes.
For the wine charms I used a second set of the same paint swatches from the hardware store I used for the napkins and cut out a circle a little smaller than my wine glass bottom. I then cut an inner circle and a slice to wrap them around the stem before taping the slice closed. Free and easy.
Menu: I wanted each course to be monochromatic which surprisingly wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be. We started with an appetizer of all ORANGE. I hollowed out an orange pepper to hold a red pepper hummus. As dippers, I had orange peppers, carrots, and sweet potato chips.
Next, I served a GREEN salad. This was romaine lettuce, spinach, peas, cucumber, avocado, and green pumpkin seeds. I served it with an avocado lime dressing.
The main dish was RED. I made red pepper pasta with rotisserie chicken. It was a new recipe, and very popular with my guests and my family. I will definitely make it again. I chose this recipe because it was low carb, not time consuming, and it was bright red! It was used chicken (that I didn't have to take time cooking by the way), so I knew the red color wouldn't be diluted like it might if I used ground beef or turkey.
Dessert did not go initially as planned, but worked out great. I found a recipe for an easy purple cheesecake, but could not find blueberry jello anywhere. The closest I found was berry blue. So I followed the recipe, but with berry blue jello instead. This changed my dessert color scheme to light blue which was fine since I topped it with blue berries.
Favor: For a parting gift for my guests, I bought boxes of candy in the colors that each guest wore to the party. I designed a tag that read "Thank HUE for adding color to our Night" and attached it with matching ribbon. For display only, I added a small bottle of the matching paint color to the display.
This was a fun theme to put together (I know I say that every month!). It was neat to have each of the girls dressed up in their color too. Would totally recommend this party theme. Hope you liked it!
