I can’t believe its been a little over a year since we moved into our new home in Chattanooga. We’ve met so many amazing friends along the way and wanted to get everyone together to celebrate. After bouncing a few ideas around, we settled on what I would consider a brilliant idea of doing a beer tasting.
Beer Tasting Invitations
Remember back in the day when it was exciting to get an email, and now it’s nearly impossible to get anyone to read a darn email?! Snail mail is making a come back, so I just HAD to custom design the beer tasting invitations complete with envelope liners and a matching notes sheet. The snail mail invites added a personal touch that Facebook or email invitations just don’t have, and I also geek out over any opportunity to design paper invitations.
Beer
To keep things simple, we told everyone to bring a 6 pack of their favorite beer to share. The beer was displayed on our island in a giant galvanized tub with ice to make it easy for guests to make their next selection.
Food
We wanted to have easy to eat snack foods that paired well with a variety of beers, so Bobby and I spent the day cooking nearly all of the food using our favorite recipes from Pinterest.
Hummus
Pita Bread
Pretzel Bites with Cheese Sauce
Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Decor
I recommend keeping the food and beer stations separate from each other to encourage mingling and avoid crowding around the food and beer. We set up a large folding table to display all of the food and ordered an inexpensive white table cloth to cover the table. To add a less formal and fun touch, I created a table runner using a giant roll of kraft paper.
For flowers, I bought an inexpensive bouquet from Publix, and used our collection of vintage apothecary jars to create smaller arrangements. With Fall in the air, I also couldn’t resist picking up a few Cinderella pumpkins from a local nursery and sprinkling in some faux glitter pumpkins, beer bottle caps we’ve accumulated, and pine cones all over the table.
Plates, Cups, and Napkins
I couldn’t believe it when I found these perfect napkins that nearly matched the invitations I designed! I wanted to use more durable paper plates, and these square ones were perfect. To keep the tasting vibe going, we used smaller plastic cups in case a guest didn’t want to drink their entire beer. The tasting sheets were displayed in the cups, and the small pencils were perfect for making notes.
The Party
Most of our guests didn’t already know each other, but as I looked around the party, everyone was happily mingling. There’s nothing like cold beer to bring neighbors together.
I’m thinking we may have to make this an annual event. Until next year….
Planning a Beer Tasting Party of Your Own?
I can’t recommend Amazon enough as a time saver for rounding up all of the needed party supplies. Rather than running around in traffic, and dealing with stores that never have what I’m looking for, I ordered everything we needed in an evening from the couch.
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