From the Blue Ridge Nest

Look no further for inspiration on how to host a classy, and memorable graduation celebration for the young adult in your life!

Invitations & Dates

Etsy has beautiful invitations that will kick off your theme right from the start. This Holy Cannoli one gets a chef’s kiss from me! We opted to host the graduation party on the same weekend as graduation. We knew we’d have friends and family joining from out of state and wanted to fit it all in at once. Graduation was planned for a Sunday afternoon so we went with Saturday. In hopes of getting the afternoon Virgina sun instead of midday, we chose a 4 PM party time and open house style so guests could come and go according to their schedule. We found this helps friends that might be trying to make it to everyone’s grad party. Unfortunately, we couldn’t invite everyone to the ceremony that we invited to the party. For the guests that were also invited to the ceremony I printed out the location, address, date and time of the ceremony. I taped these extra notices on the back of the invitation. It helped me tremendously the day of the ceremony too. While rushing to get the grad ready and out the door on time, I didn’t also have a flurry of text messages of how to get there, where was it and what time it was supposed to be. I will 100% do this again for our next graduate!

DIY Show Stopper Floral Arrangements From the Grocery Store!

These arrangements are sure to be a conversation piece! They looked beautiful scattered around the house and deck during my daughter’s high school graduation. It was surprisingly cheap and easy to put these together and everything came from our local grocery store!

• 6 Large cans of crushed tomato (bonus you can use this tomato for your red sauce dish or put in freezer bags for meals down the road
• A few packages of cherry tomatoes on the vine
• 2-3 bundles of baby’s-breath
• 2-3 bundles of ferns/greenery
• 1 box of spaghetti
• 1 dozen Gerber daisies (I picked red and white flowers)

Empty the contents of the tin cans and rinse. Cut the flowers to the desired height. I had the daises shorter than the greenery and baby’s-breath for a fuller look and dimension. Grab a skinny stack of dried spaghetti and fan them out towards the back for added height and variety. Lastly, I hung a tomato vine off center, so it cascaded down the tin. Add water and that’s it! You’ll have beautiful arrangements without the expense.

Not Your Nonna’s Homemade Pasta

Creating larger-than-life pasta took no time at all. Draping the faux-fettuccini over doorways and wrapped around lighting fixtures gave the decorations “wow” moments. Bowties are universally recognized and so fun looking when they are paired with their fettuccini friends. You only need a few supplies and they will be completed in no time.

• Stack of 12″x18″ yellow foam sheets
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun & glue sticks
• Lighter
• Clear small Command hooks
• Wax-free floss
• Skewers
• Rolls of 2 1/2 in thick wired yellow ribbon
• Sewing needle
• Sphere (not oblong) red balloons
• 3-4 rose garlands or equal type like this one I got from Michaels

Bowtie Pasta

1. Start by cutting large triangles along the two short sides of the yellow foam sheets. I didn’t try to cut multiple sheets at the same time and did each separately.
2. Turn on your glue gun and allow the glue to heat up. I bent the yellow foam sheets in half, hot dog length. I then glued the middle. I completed glueing the rest of the foam sheets.
3. With the opening facing me, I bent the top and bottom half backwards and added two more dollops of glue on the back. You should see the perfect bowtie shape after.
4. Using a sewing needle, I tied a knot at the end of the floss and brought it through. Make the length of the floss as long or short as you want. I tied the other end to a small Command hook I secured to the wall.

Fettuccini Pasta

1. I unrolled long varying lengths of the yellow ribbon. After cutting the ribbon I used a lighter to briefly scorch the cut ends so they would not unravel.
2. I slightly bent the wire edges to mimic the look of homemade pasta being hung to dry. There should be no sharp bends, only gradual soft movement.
3. I used two skewers/dowels to drape the fettuccini. I placed them about three feet from one another and at a slightly different height.
4. Drap the noodle ribbon over, across and down from the wall and horizontal dowels.

Tomato Vines

1. The key is finding a garland that has a leaf that closely resembles the leaves of a tomato. I purchased a few boughs of the rose garland from Michaels and pulled the ferns and broad-leaf leaves and flowers.
2. After pulling out the unwanted flora, inflate a sphere balloon. I kept the balloon underinflated and used my best estimate to scale the “tomato” balloon to the size of the vine and leaves.
3. Tie the balloon under a leaf. Repeat tying balloons in clusters along the vine.

Mamma Mia, That’s A Spicy Meatball!

The menu for this pasta themed party included three sauces, two pastas, two salads and focaccia bread. The 4 PM party time required that we did a heartier food offering rather than the traditional charcuterie board and lite fare during other times. I purchased the chafing dishes from Amazon. Between our future hostings and our neighbor’s too, these are going to get used over and over. You can rent them as well. Our local Ace Hardware store has a wedding rental extension.

For the three sauces we offered a traditional red sauce with meatballs, toasted pine nut pesto, and a creamy parmesan alfredo. For pasta I recommend one short pasta and one long pasta. This idea originally came from my friend and I loved it. With the three sauce choices, two pasta choices and two salad options, it allowed guests plenty of combination options and I felt safe that there would be something for everyone.

To save me time and stress, I ordered the dessert in advance from a local bakery. The long tiramisu cake tasted amazing, looked amazing and again, carried the theme all the way until the end. There are plenty of other Italian desserts if tiramisu isn’t your thing; biscotti, cannoli, and pizzelles. I had dreams of a cannoli bar but ran out of time!

The tablescape was very simple! I searched and searched for the right tablecloth that would help set the scene but everything “Italian” inspired had lemons galore and looked like a loud plate. Giving up hope, I turned to try another store and came across the summer aisle. And there they were, big, low pile, muted and classy blue Turkish towels. I brought home two of the blue you see photographed below and two beige ones as well. They draped casually and you’d never know they were meant for something else! The plateware and napkins I was overly particular about. Fearful that paperplates wouldn’t withstand the eating-with-one-hand-and-holding-the-plate-with-the-other test as well as having heavy sauces, I found a plastic plate set off of Amazon that had a simple blue rim around the edges. They were paired with napkins that were oh so delightful with cherry tomatoes in patterns and tins. Homegoods and Tjmaxx are my go-to spots for perfectly on point napkins.

Cheers!

We picked wines that paired well with the food and theme. We offered a chianti for a red wine and pinot grigio for white – making sure to look for Italian blends of each. We saved one bottle to open when we celebrate her college graduation next! I learned not all wines get better with age so do a quick Google search to see if your chianti will be better or worse 3-4 years from now if you plan on doing the same.

Our kitchen served as the beverage center. Having the food in one room and drinks in another encouraged guests to move about the house instead of creating a bottle neck all in one place. On our kitchen island we had a large metal ice bucket with a variety of beers including, you guessed it, an Italian offering of Peroni. I was surprised to see how popular the non-alcoholic beers were and plan on having more at our next gathering. Stella Artois and Athletic Brewing were two brands of NAs we had. Crisp lemonade, ice water and San Pellegrinos were great fitting other refreshments.

TIP: If you live in a neighborhood where you’ll have guests park on the street and walk to the house, I recommend doing a thanks in advance gift for your neighbors. Our neighbors are fantastic, but we recognized the extra traffic may be an inconvenience. We purchased bottles of wine and added little notes to say, ‘thank you’. I dropped off the bottle on their porch a few days before the party.

That’s Amore

As the evening winds down, you’ll feel rightfully proud—of the thoughtful celebration you’ve created and the remarkable graduate at the center of it all. Let your theme continue to guide the details, savor the laughter and conversation, and take plenty of photos to remember it by. In the end, it should all come together as seamlessly and satisfyingly as the layers of a perfectly made lasagna.