Summer entertaining on a budget

Summer entertaining is my favorite. I love everything about it, from cold drinks to the hot grill. It’s all so much fun, especially now that we have kids that enjoy popsicles! One thing I don’t like about entertaining in general is spending money.  After hosting a few summer parties, I’ve come up with some tips and tricks.

Buy reusable serving pieces

I’m a huge fan of buying melamine plates and serving dishes for parties. While I do use paper plates for big parties, I prefer to use melamine for smaller gatherings. I’ve partnered up with Old Time Pottery to show you my favorite summer party pieces that are super budget friendly.

I’m in love with the ikat melamine plates and serving dish. Not only are these perfect for the patriotic holidays, they are beautiful year round. The star plates are going to be great for Memorial Day and July Fourth. As for the table cloth, it’s reusable too! It’s already gotten a lot of use. It was perfect for our BBQ taste test party.

Melamine is great, but I love myself some white ceramic pieces too. They are crisp and bright enough for summer entertaining, but work well all throughout the year.

You really can’t go wrong with white dishes, can you? As for drinking glasses, I always go for reusable. I hate drinking out of plastic cups. We always have wine glasses out for parties. All of these products came from Old Time Pottery. The best part about Old Time Pottery is that their prices are so good that I don’t mind if a piece breaks during a party.

Serve a signature drink

When we have a party, we don’t ever have an open bar. Most of the time we tell our friends to BYOB! When we aren’t being super cheap we serve wine, beer, and only one signature drink. My go to for the summer months is this sangria spritzer.

Keep the protein light and go heavy on appetizers and sides

This is my all time favorite party planning tip. Too often hosts go overboard with the main dish and end up with tons of leftovers. I like to find ways to spend less money on protein. I do this by getting my guests full off of appetizers and then wowing them with delicious sides.

This doesn’t mean your main dish shouldn’t shine, it just means that you shouldn’t expect your guests to get full off of the priciest part of your party. For example, during our last party I served sliders instead of expecting guests to only eat meat.

Summer entertaining doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Hopefully with these tips you’ll be relax and enjoy the party instead of worrying about how much money you’ve spent.

Old Time Pottery provided me with a gift card to buy the products for this post. All opinions are mine alone.