Every season, my husband and I throw a party, celebrating what we love about that time of year. You can see past parties here and here.

We had our winter party last weekend and it was SO much fun! Winter is always one of my favorites because we have a soup potluck- every guest brings a different type of soup and we get to sample them all. Yum!!

Since Valentine’s day is just around the corner, I dreamt up a white and red party with lots of hearts. It took a lot of convincing to get my husband on board with that vision, but after assuring him it wouldn’t be pink and cheesy, he gave in :)

This year, I have started having a guestbook-of sorts, where I have our friends write down their favorite things of the season. For this party, I had a large heart on the wall and had guests write their favorite things about winter on small hearts that we taped on. Being in San Diego, most comments revolved around it being 75 degrees. So much for fires, hot chocolate and sweaters!

Found a $1.50 package of red heart doilies at the grocery store and turn them into a wreath and garland.

We set up tables on the porch, which I covered with white sheets (much cheaper than renting linens for a small party at home!). On the long tables, I hung a simple white paper & bakers twine garland from a wooden stand that a friend made me.

I cut placemats using my cricut and found these heart napkins at Target- aren’t they perfect? Each place setting had a paper soup bowl and mason jars for sangria with heart paper straws. I purchased the plain white bowls on etsy and then stamped them and added a bit of bakers twine.

We also had one round table, on which I had one of the mini banner stands that we sell- making sure everyone knew that “we heart winter”.

I covered our dining table with striped wrapping paper (that I found for $0.50 after Christmas!) and put on another stand with a mini banner, saying “we heart soup”.

Even though it was in the 70′s that day, we had a great time celebrating winter with soup, sangria, good music and games.

You can recreate all of this decor easily for Valentine’s Day too!

A big thank you to my friend Nikki for coming early to take these photos. I am so appreciative!

Sources:

Photos: Nikki Crockett Photography

Straws & Bowls: etsy shop InTheClear

I linked up this blog with Mique’s Pity Party