I joke a lot about our wedding being "grassroots" or "crowd-funded." Family members, friends, and friends of friends came out of the woodwork to arrange our flowers, transport 90 bottles of wine from the house to the farm, lend me their shoes the night of the rehearsal dinner, allow us to borrow their stepladders for our backdrop, learn brand new songs to play during our ceremony, and go through the process to obtain a one-day solemnization so they could marry us. The list goes on and on.
Formal thank-you notes will be going out in due time, but Kristie and I wanted to show our gratitude to local friends who'd gone above and beyond for us with a backyard "thank-you" party. She broke out the grill; I hit Pinterest for recipes and inspiration.
Kristie made white wine sangria in mason jars, which we stored in a cooler outside.
The bunting says "WE LOVE YOU." Check out the DIY here! (The napkins are from Anthropologie -- and they're on sale!)
We had sorbet in lemon cups and listened to one of Kristie's vintage radios. Dinner was all kinds of grilled treasures, watermelon, and veggies, and for dessert I made banana bread and peanut butter cookies -- all gluten-free!
Samson hung with us outside for awhile. The day before, I'd frozen a mixture of chicken stock, water, treats, and carrots in a Tupperware container. It kept him busy and hydrated, and we could enjoy our food in peace.
Clearly we need a bigger picnic table!
I don't know how it's possible, but Kristie and I felt even luckier after the dinner party to have such awesome people in our lives. Our wedding went off without a hitch because of their help, and it was so nice to have a night celebrating them.