Top Tips For A Summer Garden Party

While Christmas has come and gone, the great Aussie summer is still with us, and if you are planning a late garden party, you have come to the right place, as we offer a few tips to help make the occasion a memorable one.

• Terrace layout – This is critical when it comes to entertaining; if you have an outdoor kitchen, you have an ideal location to prepare a buffet; place a couple of tables at one end, where the food and a few bottles of red wine are waiting to refresh your hungry and thirsty guests. An especially good twist for this could be red wine aged in used whiskey barrels. Buffets are the way to go at a party, and you can prepare most of the items in advance.
• Invite the neighbours – This is by far the best option to avoid late-night complaints about loud music and vehicle noise; if someone doesn’t show, at least the invite should be enough to keep things on an even keel, just don’t overdo the decibels and call it a day at 1 am.
• Bluetooth speakers – If you don’t have these, invest in a couple of decent quality units, and you won’t regret it. They can be placed anywhere in the garden; hook them up to a smartphone and you can create ambience playlists that will keep everyone dancing until the early hours.
• Solar garden lights – These are amazing; a small solar panel on the top provides the energy, and you simply stick the light into a lawn or flower bed, and they illuminate automatically. You can order a few from the online supplier, and you’ll never have to worry about garden lighting again!
• Parking – You need to ask all guests how they will be arriving and do the math to ensure you have adequate parking space. Some people party hard, and if that’s you, maybe find a local hotel where guests can recover before making the journey home. Having the street filled with parked cars is never a good start, so do what you can to avoid that.
• Start early – The earlier the gig gets underway, the sooner it will finish; a 5 pm kick off should see things quieten down by midnight, plus you have a few hours of daylight for the buffet and chat, before it’s music time.
• Create a big space around the bar – We all know that the majority of guests will be a stone’s throw from the bar, especially groups of guys. That is especially the case if you want to put a selection of whiskey or a self-serve cocktail bar out, since either will need plenty of room for display.
• Trash bin idea: strong cardboard boxes lined with plastic bags and left at random will ensure that most waste will be contained. Have at least 2 packs of big plastic bags and tie them up when full and store them at the side of the house.

So, there you have it, our top tips for preparing a late summer garden party; stock up well with everything and the event should be a spectacular hit! Plan the occasion and make sure you have everything covered; what would you do, for example, if there were a power outage? Solar lights would resolve that one. Always have a plan B, and you will never be caught off guard.