Tasty food, drinks, good company, music and entertaining banter with family and friends — a dinner party, at the end is another relaxing and an enduring mix of ingredients made special by the host and guests to fill the evening with. It isn’t about what you have to show, its about how you make people feel. It’s a full sensory experience — eyes, ears, hands emotion and especially taste buds.
To help you nail an impeccable and jovial gathering, we put together hosting must-dos, plus a guide on mixing and matching your dishes, napkins, tea towels, tablecloths, and cutleries for a striking Fiesta party.
Spoiler Alert: It involves Pitbull and dinosaurs
Switch on the Fiesta Mood
Think about how you see your dinner party unfolds when your guests are mingling and hanging out in the garden. Perhaps reference a dinner party you have been to, one that you truly enjoy. Relive that with your own party. Formal or relaxed? Boisterous or calm? Packed with dancing guests or intimate? In case you haven’t caught on to where we are leading you here just yet, this is very much about you and what you want your guests to experience. Instead of thinking proper, simply indulge them with your taste. A tinge of YOU in the fiesta evening.
Setting the Table to Life
Remember when we said hosting is a full-sensory experience? (aside from the delicious menu you have to impress your guests), your tablescape is so much more than just serving accoutrement food and beverage. In fact, it sets the scene of the party that you are crafting. Your glasses, tableware, table linens, plate, bowls, and centrepieces are visual hints to guests. A customary style creates a polished ambience; a colourful combo creates a more lighthearted and vibrant one.
Did we also mention that the details of your table setup can spark great conversations? That’s right, dishes with well rounded bright tones or similarly shaped glasses will get you conversating all throughout the evening.
To start, we look at Ladelle’s latest Fiesta collection. This 30-year-old Australian brand creates some of the most innovative designs for their homeware range such as table linens, dinner sets, serving ware and platters. You can probably tell by now how obsessed we are with this brand.
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Match Other Pieces into your Fiesta Theme
What we love about this tablescape is its vibrancy. The Fiesta palette can be quite loud but it also allows us to play around with a softer colour palette to compliment. Here, the Ladelle serving tower is a piece you can match with the other outstanding tableware colours of the theme. The soft tone of the serving tower and the demanding three-tier tower is an attraction on its own. Coupled with tasty finger appetisers, you’d be surprised how quick your guests will flock to it.
But don’t forget to look at other pieces that could fit well into your Fiesta setting. You might get an
ahaa-moment!
A fun kitchen find you can fit into your fiesta theme, which is super cute is the Tricerataco Holders. Guess what, it doesn't need to be a Tuesday and no, Dinasours don't celebrate Tuesdays either.
This far-from-ordinary taco holder can hold two hard-shell tacos keeping the filling and toppings from falling out between bites. Don't worry, no judgements for eating meat, despite Triceratops according to encyclopedias, are herbivores.
Burnt Orange and Wooden Shade Serving Pieces
Some of our favourite tabletop pieces don't necessarily need to be the same size. Small appetizer plates like Ladelle's 2 Part Serve Stick (1) and Ladelle Classic Platter Serve Stick (3) is ideal if you plan on having guests mill about with their finger food on hand.
Step aside from the bowl of cheap dips and dull crisps. Consider this in-trend party platter, fresh, handcrafted and rich in detail. The Ironwood Napoli Peel board (2) looks good on just about any table. Perfect when you want to present your antipasto and pizza, prep your food, plus, use it to chop and slice. And quite possibly the Acacia Wood will make them taste so much better. The Ironwood platter is handcrafted and the Acacia Wood is a material that is hygienic and was made sustainably.
The Standard Libation— Wine & Water
When you’re thinking of what beverage to serve, consider what can fit well with your menu. Something you enjoy drinking and something everyone in the group will like too. It also boils down to the serving your wine in the right glasses to get the most out of them.
Wine Glasses and Holders
Generally, a 750 millilitre wine bottle can pour up to 5 glasses of wine. Account for 3 glasses per guest (assuming you are including teetotaller and heavy tipplers) plus some extra, just in case you run out. Essentially, you are probably going to end up with one bottle per guest. To kick off, serve your guests with a glass of something bubbly like a Stonier Sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir and then later transition to serving red and white wine. Always have water on the table, so your guests can stay happy, healthy and not too sloppy.
We have some fantastic selection of wine glasses, glassware and a wine glass holder you might like.
1. Riedel Performance Chardonnay Set of 2
2. Riedel Ouverture Red Wine Glass Set of 12
3. Riedel Extreme Pinot Noir Set of 2
If you happen to have a picnic set up in the midst of your outdoor party, Winestains handcrafted wine stake and holder is a handy rustic piece to have while you hang out with your guests.
Pitchers and Jugs
We are thinking of a refreshingly dignified Iced Tea-quila — tea, tequila and mint, and all other manner of thirst quenching beverage. To dole on serving your cold drinks, we gathered a few lovely, ahem,
pitcher-perfect must-haves.
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Royal Doulton Hemmingway Jug Yellow 28cm,
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Le Creuset Pitcher 1.5L Marseille Blue
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Le Creuset Volcanic Carafe 350ml
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Artland Orange Pitcher with Multi-infuser
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Gluggle Jug Extra Large Cobalt Blue
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Bodum Biasca Ice Green Tea Jug 1.2L Dark Blue
Don’t Forget Music!
Orchestrate a music playlist mixing up different genres so everyone can enjoy. And to make your guests feel more comfortable and at home, mix familiar songs. Songs where everyone from age 5 to 70 can dance together. Plus, when you have an array of genres, your guests can play DJ too, especially when they feel like mixing it up a bit. FYI, it happens at a lot.
We browsed some of our favourite playlists from Spotify and found a list of songs that will set the tone at your party. Nothing fancy-schmancy. Just straight up Mexican-Fiesta groove. Feel free to add more and let the songs shuffle.
Are you planning a Mexican Fiesta outdoor party anytime soon?
Share with us your tips and tricks!
For inspiration on different types of table settings and themes, read
Earthy and Vibrant Tableware Ideas for Every Family.
We're inspired by conversations on Everten Love to Cook and we're sharing with you tips and tricks so you can make the best decisions before shopping with us.
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