I am so excited to share the surprise reveal of my friend’s luxury picnic in the park. I believe you will gather some beautiful luxury picnic ideas here because I am going to show you some of the cost effective décor pieces that inspired me. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune to design a lux picnic tablescape. If you incorporate some of the décor pieces that you have in your own home and backyard, it will make your picnic tablescape a pocket and crowd pleaser. Let’s dig into the details.
This post is all about luxury picnic ideas.
Luxury Picnic Back Story
Snow in March-Yuck! Spring has sprung, but we have yet to see the manifestation of its presence when waking up this morning to freshly fallen snow covering our grass. So, needless to say, the luxury picnic photos are not from this year. Just looking at them makes me yearn for warmer temperatures.
Have you ever thought of hosting an elegant picnic? If so, I’m hoping that you will be able to glean some fun and cost effective luxury picnic ideas for your gathering. This one was so fun to create and was a must at the time because our house was in the thick of construction messes. Oh, how that seems like a never-ending process, but I digress. My bestie’s birthday was coming up and I wanted to do something that would make her feel special. I knew that having it at home wasn’t much of an option, so I had to think outside the box. Then, a luxury picnic idea came to mind.
My idea of having a luxury picnic comes with a few key essentials in mind. Those being, a beautiful atmosphere, a gorgeous tablescape design, garden flowers, and amazing foodie food. I emphasize the word foodie for my friend as she is the epitome of the word. Yummy food ideas are coming up, but first, let me share my desires behind the celebration. I wanted it to be a time to sit and enjoy the warmer weather, talk with our girlfriends, relax and just laugh. Who doesn’t love a good laugh these days? Plus, I wanted the birthday girl and all of our cherished friends to feel so special and so loved.
Luxury Picnic Ideas Process
When you are in the planning process of creating a tablescape of any sort, so many questions will come to mind. Don’t be alarmed. You are normal. A main thought of mine was, “How the heck am I going to pull this off all by myself?” I mean, all of the supplies and food I was bringing to the venue would need to be set up on a very tight schedule; plus I had to include all of the back-and-forth trips to the minivan. Thank God my sister let me borrow her wagon (LOL). Make sure you have a wagon!
I knew of a cute gazebo at a local public park with the birthday girl’s name written all over it. Even though it would be a little risky to host the picnic there, because there were no contact options available for my inquiry, I just knew in my heart it would be worth my efforts to explore. If you see a space that seems perfect to use for your picnic venue, do all that you can to make it happen. Go with your gut; it will be so worth it. I had to do some drive-byes ahead of time to see if anyone ever used this gazebo for their events. To my surprise, it remained empty, and looked like it was just waiting for me to come and host.
I had an idea! I knew my sister had connections with a church she worked at, so I had her check to see if they had any wooden pallets I might be able to borrow. Now, I know what you are thinking. A wooden pallet? Really? For a fancy picnic? Hold on, hold on! I’m going to help teach you how to make cost effective things like wooden pallets, turn into luxury items. Think Cinderella with me! She was a mess before she got all dolled up by the Fairy Godmother, right? Similar concept with my wooden pallet!
Luxury Picnic Table Ideas
When you are planning a beautiful table design, a good rule of thumb to start with is, decide your color pallet. I knew I wanted to incorporate yellow into my luxury picnic tablescape to highlight the summertime season; plus, it was the birthday girl’s favorite color. I had a large piece of yellow fabric in my linen closet and thought it would be the perfect material to cover the wooden pallet. I also had a mint green and white buffalo plaid table runner that would add a splash of contrast and dimension to the layout.
For the tableware, I mixed paper with glass. I thought I’d take a chance on using glass wine goblets because that’s what I had available. The lemon and lime wedges placed inside each glass added a layer of flavor. If you can add fruit to your goblets, this will always add more depth to your tablescape. I peeled off the water bottle labels (Who wants to look at a water bottle’s label when staged on a table as the décor?) and put paper doilies around them instead. Much better! The simple yellow and white paper plates matched my color palette and came from none other than, the Dollar Tree.
Luxury Picnic Gift Bag Ideas
Check out the darling white with yellow polka dot gift bags. These too were found at the Dollar Tree. Girls love their chocolates, so of course, I had to put some yummy chocolate morsels on the inside. These were super cute standing alone, but I still wanted to add an extra touch. My mom gave me an old vintage sheet a while ago with a darling yellow and white floral print. I decided to cut it into strips and make what I like to call, “sheet fringe,” for a sweet embellishment. The larger strip of the sheet fringe was wrapped around the food table to tie in both spaces.
Tuck the sheet fringe idea away for future embellishment ideas. You can glue it to cards, gift bags, presents and even ice cream stands. Keep your eyes open for old sheets and fabrics at garage sales, thrift, and consignment stores, or even check out your mom’s linen closet for those that she doesn’t use anymore.
The plastic silverware was wrapped in paper yellow napkins, simply because I didn’t want them blowing away if there was a breeze. For the centerpiece, I used a glass lantern jar from Kirklands and added Limelight Hydrangeas that came from my momma’s garden.
As for the seat cushions, I used what I had at home. I thought they would be the perfect seat pillows, so I borrowed them from my patio chairs. Event though they were plain-Jane in terms of style, they were the perfect addition to my luxury picnic tablescape and helped soften the look from the surrounding wooden gazebo.
Luxury Picnic Food Ideas
The food table came together beautifully. Some of my cherished friends were so kind to help by bringing their famous dishes to the party. The food was THE BOMB! We had turkey lettuce wraps with a homemade Thousand Island dressing, a fresh fruit bowl, crispy cucumber salad, tangy antipasto kababs, roasted almonds, garlic-infused hummus with carrot sticks and breadsticks, salty potato chips, and an assortment of muffins, Morning Glory to be specific, and dessert bites to top it off.
The food bowls and platters were staged by keeping in mind, tall in the back and short in the front. The buttercup yellow tablecloth brought in the yellow from the pallet tablecloth, and as I mentioned before, I wrapped the tabletop with the homemade sheet fringe. This created the perfect backdrop to display the birthday girl’s golden years. Did you know you can get these cute gold balloon numbers from, that’s right, the Dollar Tree? They have some great party resources.
Conclusion
You too can create a beautiful and cost effective luxury picnic tablescape at the perfect venue of your choice. It just takes some thinking out of the box and a little hustle to see the vision in your mind come to life. It’s the perfect option if you are not able to host your gathering inside your home, and too, if it’s a beautiful summer day.
P.S. A Quick Note of Encouragement
I want to encourage you again. If you have the vision to design a luxury picnic tablescape, go for it. Don’t second guess yourself one more minute. Sometimes we get stuck in trying to make things super perfect, or in waiting for the timing to be perfect. What if “perfect” doesn’t come as we wish it would and still the desire remains? What then? I’d like to encourage you to roll with the here and now, and go. Go make it happen! Take the ideas you have in your heart, and maybe some you gathered here, and turn them into a reality? You got this! Go!