One hot summer night recently, my friend Serret and I wanted to invite friends over to relax, drink wine, eat cookies, and enjoy time away from our sweltering air-conditioner-less homes. We thought it would be fun to decorate with my pink tent again and make everything look magical.
(Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you)
I am not so sure about the plastic sidewalls, but otherwise I love this pink tent with a pink-and-white striped roof. Serret and I have set up tents together on several occasions, so it takes us less than five minutes to bring the tent out of my garage and set it up in my Woodinville backyard. I can even set it up by myself in an emergency – it involves lots of stretching, kicking and cursing, but I can do it in a pinch. Once it’s up, I tend to leave it up for several days, so long as the weather forecast doesn’t call for rain. It’s mostly a decorative tent, and keeps sun off of people well but not raindrops. I want it to last me years and years, so it needs to be safely stored away during rain showers.
Serret is really good at hanging Edison lights for the tent, and she also helped me come up with a great music playlist for the evening. My neighbors’ houses are really close by, so we can’t play music too loudly, but it was fun to hear some Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, Amy Winehouse, Loreena McKennitt, and some 21 Pilots songs while we enjoyed the evening air.
We wondered if some of the guests might fight over the Ryan Patrick Rosé!
Serret likes to bring nature back into the tent by adding some potted plants (or in this case, herbs and mint) in little vignettes here and there.
We strongly suspected our guests would love drinking their wine in this cozy little seating arrangement. Perfect for intimate conversations or (dare I say it) catching up on a little bit of harmless gossip!
It’s easy to keep little boxes of cookies in your pantry so they’re on hand for impromptu parties. Fresh flowers, though, are worth a quick run to the store. This arrangement of roses and green flowers took Serret less than ten minutes to create. It’s sitting in my vintage pink Depression glass ice bucket.
We decorated with pink and green napkins, floral placemats, and vintage pink Depression glass wine glasses.
We really weren’t all that worried about setting these chilled wine bottles into ice buckets. We knew our guests would rush to open these Rosés from Lauren Ashton Cellars, Kennedy Shah and Brian Carter Cellars. The wine would end up in their glasses and be gone long before the bottles could get warm!
Which wine bottle might you have opened to taste first?
We lit candles for ambience – unscented ones, of course, since we’d be drinking wine.
We also made available Rosé bottles from Chateau Ste. Michelle, Lachini Vineyards, and Sparkman Cellars.
Because we collaborate so often, the party took less than an hour to set up, decorate and prepare for. Cleanup didn’t take long, since our friends are helpful and thoughtful!
I love having a big enough backyard to host parties for my friends fairly often!
-Carrie
