Backyard BBQ Party

Simple yet fun ideas for throwing a Backyard BBQ Party. Post may contain affiliate links.

Have I mentioned that I absolutely LOVE parties?! Just seeing balloons at someone’s house while driving down the road gets me excited. Last weekend we hosted a backyard BBQ party and it was a blast! We debated whether or not to have it at the park because it would be more accommodating to the amount of people we were going to have. But opted out of that because we did not want to haul everything to the park and it gave me more time to decorate and have things exactly how we wanted.

First off, whenever you are planning a party, I would suggest making a list of things you need to do. Especially the day of the party. This helps you stay on track and not forget anything or panic because you remembered something you had to do at the last minute.

BBQ Party Decorations

As far as decorating goes, I say embrace your surroundings. Utilize and be creative with what you have, borrow what you can, and the result is an inexpensive, yet chic party. Too often we wait for that perfect set up or situation, but we just need to throw a party! With a little innovation and perhaps some help from Pinterest you can have a great party!

With a little ingenuity we transformed our carport from this…

to this! Our very own dining pavilion!

We borrowed some picnic benches which really helped set the feel for the party and strung two strands of white globe lights. The lights were one of our few purchases which I intend to use again and again.

Our decoration were simple yet pretty. The tables were lined with old jars holding candles and flowers. The candles were placed inside old jars that I wrapped twine several times around and the flowers were held inside some jars that I had painted the inside of.

A lot of preparing for a party is just cleaning up the space as seen below.

The banner was made out of twine and brown wrapping paper that I painted using the leftover paint from making the jars. Originally I was planning to use scrapbook paper but could not find the right colors, which I am glad about now for this turned out really well and I saved on paper.

The BBQ Food

In previous parties, we have prepared all the food. This is great because you can have everything set up exactly how you want it, making it aesthetically pleasing. The downside to supplying all the food yourself is the added time and cost. We decided to advertise this BBQ as a BBQ Potluck. We asked our guests to bring a side dish and dessert to share and we would supply the meat and the beer (rootbeer of course).

We had to put out an extra table to hold all the dessert, which my toddler kept sneaking into.

Activities at the BBQ

We had a variety of outdoor lawn games for everyone to enjoy in different parts of the yard. Badminton was the big hit of the party but people also enjoyed cornhole, ladder ball, and bocce ball. Two of the games we borrowed from our friends to help add to our assortment of activities. We were planning on a few water balloon games but the cold weather was not very accommodating. One of these days I hope to find a croquette set at a garage sale.

All and all it was a lovely party, growing a little chilly at the end but thankfully the light rain and wind had stopped an hour before the party started. It was so much fun that I can hardly wait to throw another one!