{Real Party} Fiesta Inspired Dinner Party

Last night my family had the pleasure of hosting an intimate dinner party at our home

with one of my former brides, who has also become a dear friend, and her family.

I met Andrea and her husband Jeremy in 2002 when they hired me to help plan their

wedding at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel. Now, after all these years we are still close

and our kids enjoy playing together!

I wanted to share some of the fun decor details that I put together to set the mood for our fiesta inspired dinner party. First, I used a mexican blanket I already owned as a tablecloth - it was the perfect "linen" to use to drape the table and set the tone. Then I used some rattan chargers (that I already owned) and picked some bright color coordinated linen napkins to place on the plate. The red napkins I already owned and the orange ones I made from material from my local craft store. I actually dreamed up the napkin fold moments before our guests arrived. I was trying to create something that looked festive and knew that I wanted to use some colorful beads as a napkin tie. The final product came out looking like the skirt off a traditional mexican dress! I added 2 little maracas on each of the kid's place settings as a little gift.

Then I added a couple of inexpensive containers I found on the summer inspiration sale section on my local craft store and popped a couple of colorful daisies in the jars.

Finally, I incorporated some eclectic votive candle holders in coordinating reds, yellows and greens that were also already in my go-to decor storage.

My daughter also enjoyed getting into the theme and so we strung paper lanterns across her playhouse that we purchased at a local party store.

The result was a fiesta inspired theme dinner for less than $10 for all the decor!!

It's so easy once you have your theme to look around your house for things that you already have on hand to incorporate into the theme. Think outside the box and have fun with it!!

I'll post some pictures and recipes from the menu in a future post so check back soon!