A festive natural greenery holiday party, DIYs, and Paleo-friendly recipes!

A festive natural greenery holiday party, DIYs, and Paleo-friendly recipes!

• 12.01.2014

I love this season!
We're having a holiday party this year, and a few dinner parties with friends, and I got to practicing with this festive natural greenery themed shoot with friends the other weekend. My good friend Jenni and I worked with Orchard Supply Hardware to put together a Christmas party shoot with plenty of greenery, natural, live decor pieces, and some simple DIYs. Orchard Supply Hardware has recently opened a couple stores in Oregon (they have close to 90 in California) and they were so nice to work with and a great hardware/yard supply shopping experience! Check them out!

Jenni runs A Well Crafted Party and does a ton of seasonal and party projects. Her vision and skills combined with my house and recipes made for a very pretty party! Our friend Macey of Motormouth Studios shot the photos for us (on an appropriately very dark and rainy day). Jenni will be posting about the party too, and her DIYs - check out her first post here!

Natural greenery holiday party, DIYs, and Paleo-friendly recipes!

Welcome to my holiday home!

At the entryway we used a very cool stump Jenni had from a neighbor's tree as a side table, next to my recovered Louis chair and DIY fur throw.

We got the perfect mini tree from Orchard and decorated it with these simple Scandinavian straw ornaments we have--from this Scandinavian shop. The plaid fabric wrapped around the pot is from JoAnn.

One simple DIY we did was a copper spray paint branch with ribbons hanging from it to display holiday cards. I love putting them in a central location like this where you can see friends and family as you walk past all the time! Great for the party and beyond.

We decorated the table with natural greenery garlands, a rosemary tree, and appetizers!

I'm working on the recipe posts to share with you soon! Jenni did printables of the menus and signs, and you'll be able to find them here soon.

We wanted a simple, natural table and loved putting greenery down the center, wrapped around a rosemary tree. We focused on a lot of natural green, cranberries, and black/white. The coppery wine glasses are vintage and were my grandmother's. I don't use them much but they are pretty cool for occasions like this! Their edgy shape worked with the square chargers and straight-lined silverware.

You'll have to check out Jenni's brilliant DIY of these chargers. The beautiful, smooth wood is from Orchard and she finished them with polyurethane and a copper edge. She also spray painted and sealed the handles of the silverware! What a cool way to get a different color without spending a ton. Look for her tutorials here, should be posted soon!

The rosemary trees came in these beautiful clay pots from Orchard. Made it very easy to decorate with them! (And they smell soooooo good.)

How cool are the wood cookie name places/favors? Just a simple wood burning pen--you can get a simple one for $10 here, or this set with multiple tips.

Jenni also did the pretty menus and signs. You can find them in her printables soon!

An easy way to make a water pitcher more festive is to freeze some cranberries in ice cube trays and add them to the water!

Orchard provided us with greenery; a cute mini Christmas tree; the rosemary trees; the copper spray paint we used on the holiday card hanging branch, silverware handles, and candle holders; and the lovely wood for the chargers and the polyurethane and copper pens to finish them.

It was so fun celebrating the holiday season early!

Look forward to sharing my real food Paleo-friendly holiday party appetizers with you!