This weekend my husband and I hosted our annual dinner party and wine tasting. It's an evening and affair that we both look forward to and one that came about due to my curiosity! Several years ago a friend of ours spontaneously and very generously opened an expensive bottle of wine when I casually mentioned that I had always wanted to taste that particular wine. My curiosity was sparked! The wine was delicious but it made me think, how did this particular wine compare to other notable high-end wines? Thus our annual dinner party and wine tasting was born.

Selecting and bringing together all of the details for this soireé is nearly as much fun as the evening itself!

This year we selected a simple silver themed invitation and an envelope with a contrasting liner in black and white. Silver and black inadvertently became the colors of the evening.

Given the time of year I decided to step away from my favorite and go to whites for flowers and went for a vibrant Fall color palette. We have a wonderful local gourmet grocer that always has beautiful flowers. I am horrible with knowing the various types of flowers so aside from the large Dahlias I have no idea what else I selected.

The top left arrangement is the one I made as the centerpiece for the table. The top right is a smaller arrangement that I made to place in our guest bathroom. The vase is actually a vintage crystal decanter. Below on the left is an arrangement that I placed on an end table in our great room and then I mixed the roses with the delicate yellow sprays to sit on the kitchen counter. You can never have enough flowers!

Our go to for linens has always been Napa Valley Linens. Diana Cardenas in particular is spectacular to work with! They have a wonderful selection of linens from traditional and simple to fun and fancy. I also love that they will deliver and pick up linens even if its only a small order. This year I selected their "Ember Silver" linen for the table and paired it with "Faux de Soie" napkins in the Tahitian Pearl color. The combination made for an elegant table. Each place was set with a tasting card folded for guests to make notes about the different wines. This year we tasted five wines all were 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Each place was also set with a place card that sat atop a champagne cork. My husband sliced the top of each cork making it a breeze to secure the place cards. Each year we have wine glasses etched with the year and at the end of the evening we send them home with our guests as a favor to remember the evening.

Party favors included etched wine glasses and homemade pumpkin spice bread. It's always nice to have a little something to send guests home with.

It was a lovely evening filled with wonderful friends and great wine and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Cheers!

Molly

My husband sometimes thinks I'm crazy because I love to curate and style everything, but he's realized that it's something I truly love to do! Last week we decided to enjoy a quiet evening at home, the weather was lovely and it was the perfect opportunity to relax together and have a little wine + cheese in the backyard before we began to cook dinner.

I could have easily taken some crackers from the pantry, sliced some cheese and thrown it on a plate and been done, but what's the fun in that! Instead I grabbed a simple white tray and thoughtfully placed some cheeses, a couple of types of crackers and a few other goodies. Given that this was an impromptu decision we didn't even have some of the items I would usually have included when making a charcuterie board. Don't ever worry if you don't have "everything," that's what improvising is all about and chances are you will be the only one that knows or notices! The entire process took only a few minutes more that it would have if I had just tossed everything on a plate and it's the small details like this that create ambiance and make something as simple as enjoying wine together a memorable experience.

I always try to consider what kind of experience can I create, whether it's for a dinner party, a gala or even just my husband and I in our backyard on a random Tuesday. My husband works incredibly hard and I really wanted him to truly relax and for us to just unwind and enjoy some time together, so I made the charcuterie board, turned Sonos on with his favorite XM channel, grabbed some flowers I had sitting in our kitchen and my favorite vessel for chilling wine + champagne and headed outside. My husband is ALWAYS in charge of the wine selection in our home so that was his duty for the evening. I arranged everything outside and with wine in hand, my husband turned to me and said, "Sweet Pea, you always make everything so beautiful!" I knew I had succeeded, my husband was able to relax and together we had a wonderful evening.

Cheers,

Molly

Time to Wine and Dine!

Live what you love!