Girls Night Harvest Party Ideas

Let's talk harvest party ideas! I LOVE sweater weather. Cozy up with a mug of hot cocoa with your blanket and boots weather. Makes me want to gather up a great book and not move for a week kind of weather. But since I have kids, husband, and a job. That's a fantasy! A really great option is to cozy up with friends for the best Girls Night ever!

The Girls Night Challenge

I've decided I don't get enough girl time. Which is a total understatement because I get NO girl time! So I've decided to host a girls night every other month and keep it small so I circulate through all the different groups of amazing people in my life. Since I'm blessed to have amazing women near by, I started with my immediate neighborhood. This is the official beginning of the Girls Night Challenge, so if YOU are also in need of more girl time I urge you to join me and let's share our adventures together!

Harvest Party Tablescape Ideas

Tip 1: Shop Your House

When it comes to harvest party ideas keep it affordable by using items you already have. Choose a color palette and then shop your house. I love this tablecloth I got for my Queen of Hearts Royal Valentines dinner party. I picked the table cover and rose gold glitter bowls up at Home Goods for a song. A fun way to add a little shimmer and shine!

Keeping up the shine, a sequin table runner is always a great idea. Rose gold ties wonderfully into rich fall colors. Use it to elevate your dinner to be worthy of a girls night! Simple elegant touches like the glitter rose gold forks and rose gold rimmed tumblers are the perfect details.

• Rose Gold sequin runner: Amazon
• Glitter rose gold forks: Amazon
• Rose gold trimmed tumblers: Amazon

Burlap chargers, paper plates and paper napkins make it much easier on the hostess without sacrificing style. Tuck a few autumnal floral stems under a glass cake plate to soften the runner. As ours was an apple themed harvest party, I finished each place setting with a sweet apple pick.

• Burlap chargers: Hobby Lobby
• Crystal cake stand: Amalfi Decor
• Floral stems: Michael's
• Apple pick: Amazon

Tip 2: Add personal details

I tucked our traditional squirrel salt and pepper shakers into the table as a fun surprise and conversation piece.

Tip 3: Have your Centerpiece Play Double Duty

My favorite decor is functional. This pumpkin soup tureen from World Market made a beautiful centerpiece and served up our apple butternut squash soup in style! Waiting on the table as guests arrive, move it to the buffet when it's time for dinner and no one is talking over the lovely gourd.

• Pumpkin soup tureen: World Market

Harvest Party Menu Ideas

Have decide on your menu. Choosing a theme makes planning more fun and allows guests to get creative. Each item on our menu had something to do with apples apart from the cheese tray. Because you have to have a cheese tray! Our complete menu included:

• Apple butternut squash soup
• Harvest salad
• Cheese platter
• Caramel Apple slices
• Apple pastries
• Caramel apple cider bar
• Imprinted Apple Favors

If you like this menu I'd love to send it home with you! Feel free to download our Harvest Party Menu here and edit it at home for your Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, or next dinner party.

And the Harvest Blessings Banner is up in the Halfpint Design download library! Check an old email newsletter for the password. ?

See how well the pumpkin soup tureen transitioned from table to buffet? Soup is good for the soul and butternut squash soup especially! Adding apples to the traditional recipe made it fit the menu in a delicious twist. I'll share the recipe soon. {If you don't see it and are interested please remind me!} Serve the soup with delicious focaccia bread, butter, and parmesan crackers as croutons. Talk about comfort food!

Tip 4: Invite Guests to Bring Food in a Pretty Dish

As a party designer I LOVE the structure of the event: invitations, decor, timing, theme, and color scheme. What I'm not super great at is the food. I can come up with a great menu PLAN but getting actual food onto the table stresses me out. Do yourself a favor as the hostess and invite everyone to contribute a dish. Most people are happy to help and relieved when you give an assignment. Let them know if you have a specific platter request. I let everyone know we were serving on white and had a few extra bowls/plates on hand.

Tip 5: Mix up the Nibbles 

Make the food fun and add to the presentation by creating more of a grazing board. Since we had so many apples we didn't have any additional fruit but nuts and honeycomb are a perfect complement to the cheeses. For a true grazing board add: sliced meats like prosciutto, pomegranates, figs, grapes, strawberries, and crackers or bread.

Another great addition are sauces or jellies like the jalapeño jelly a guest served with her amazing savory garlic thyme baked brie. And have you ever said no to a parmesan crostini!? Me neither! It was all pretty delicious!

Tip 6: Make the Meal an Activity

Utilizing meal time as an engaged and active event is so fun for guests. Part of dessert was a caramel apple slice bar. Whole apples are so pretty to dip and decorate but super awkward to eat. The slices made it easy for each guest to dip and sprinkle 2 or 3 for easy transport and enjoyment. Tips for a great caramel apple bar:

• Yummy caramel {thanks Heather!!}
• Dark/milk chocolate and white chocolate to drizzle
• Toppings:
  • Oreos
  • Heath bar {comes already crushed in baking section}
  • Any diced candy bar like Butterfingers or Snickers
  • Slivered almonds
  • Cinnamon sugar {especially good with the white chocolate}

Use small fondue pots or mini crock pot to keep your caramel and chocolate warm and fluid. My little candle powered fondue pot was perfect.

• Mini Fondue Pot, white

Tip 7: Mix up Store Bought and Homemade

You can be sure I'm the one who bought the treats while some talented guests contributed the best apple cake I've ever had. It's the only apple cake I've ever had but it was dang good! In keeping with the apple tradition bite sized apple strudels and apple snap cookies rounded out the pastry tower.

• Tiered white ceramic server: Amazon – all the glass options seem to be unavailable

Harvest Party Favor Ideas

Tip 8: Leave Your Guests with Something Special

You know I love a good party favor! It makes me happy to send guests away with a little token of my gratitude for spending time with me/us and a thank you for bringing a gift or food dish. The apple theme required a visit to my friend Beth at Fun To Eat Fruit. They can imprint your design {custom or from their library} on any firm fruit with edible ink that doesn't rub off. It's such a unique and healthy way to go! Which I love since I'm always looking for ways to cut back on sugar consumption.

Along with the edible favor, apple scented soap will come in handy for all those post-Thanksgiving dishes!

Thanks for “picking” me as a friend! I love Meyer's Clean Day products and when I ran across an apple version I knew they we going home with everyone. Use your Cricut and kraft paper to create apple tags and tie them on with twine. I chose a leafy twine I've had my eye on for a while and this was just the excuse to snag it!

• Meyer's Clean Day Apple soap:Amazon {Order multiple packs of 3 for best price}
• Kraft Cover stock 100lb: Amazon
• Cricut Explore Air 2: Cricut or Amazon
• Leafy Twine: Amazon

The final item to go home with guests is a stainless steel insulated mug that we each used for the caramel apple cider bar. When deciding on favors try to make them functional. Either part of the decor, or in this case, the place setting!  To dress up the mugs I cut kraft paper wraps and added a glitter vinyl “Count your blessings” to each one. The scale is a little too large for the wraps but they looked pretty and everyone got the message.

• Insulated Travel Mug: Dollar Tree
• Cricut Maker: Cricut or Amazon
• Glitter Vinyl: Amazon

Final Harvest Party Ideas 

I hope you enjoyed the tour through our Girls Night Harvest Party ideas and picked up a few pointers on how to make your event run more smoothly, be less stressful, or how to have more fun! I only decorated a few key areas for this get together but in anticipation of Thanksgiving I put together cute mason jars with more seasonal florals I picked up on clearance at Michaels. Keep an eye on those flower sales. Always go for the ones that look most realistic. I never much enjoyed faux flowers until the last few years have shown how versatile they can be. Now I'm a big fan! Happy holidays to you and yours. I hope your home and heart are full of harvest blessings!

Pin It For Later!

Until next time my friend,