How to Decorate for a Garden Party

Unlike a cookout, where you can just spread out some lawn chairs and a few tables, a garden party demands a bit more work. A garden party is the elegant, upper-class version or a simple cookout, with more luxurious foods, music and beautiful surroundings. One of the best ways to set your garden party apart from any other is to decorate the venue, whether it's your yard or a nearby park, with plants, flowers and all kinds of embellishments.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Decorations (varies by theme)
• Tape
• Hammer
• Nails
• Screws
• Paint
• Brushes

1. Decide on a theme for the garden party before you even begin to decorate. This will help keep items you choose complementary of one another. For example, if you choose a Victorian theme, you can use paper-lace doilies, white "wrought-iron" fencing and sophisticated flower arrangements.

2. Start at the ceiling when you decorate. This is important--starting from the bottom and working your way up may mean having to move or work around other decorations, raising the risk that you'll break something.

3. Put flowers on the food service table, as well as in and around the food. This helps make the food and the catering area just as festive as the rest of the garden party. In addition, use stands, decorative trays and other eye-catching additions to make the food table pop.

4. Buy very artistic decorations instead of making them from scratch, especially when you're pressed for time. Michaels, for example, has a huge selection of artistic, decorative items, and you can buy what you need online (see Resources below).

5. Decorate all of the tables and chairs, as well as the structure. Tie ribbons to the chairs, put flowers on the tables (as centerpieces) and you can even sprinkle leaves on the table cloth (for an autumn leaf effect).

Tips & Warnings

• Consider hosting your garden party under a pavilion. You'll be able to protect your guests from the rain should the weather turn, and with a pavilion you have a lot more options when you decide to decorate (on the cross beams and along the columns, for example).
• Use light objects when you decorate, and don't hang heavy or sharp objects at or above eye/head level. You run the risk of having a heavy object knocked over, or someone injuring their eye if they aren't watching where they're going.

Resources

• Arts, crafts and decorations from Michaels.com