My friend Serret and I wanted to invite friends over to celebrate National Rosé Day. (It’s held on the second Saturday in June).
Serret is super creative and has an eye for detail. We love working together to create fun and fantastic over-the-top parties. We decided to collaborate on a pink-themed Rosé celebration for a group of our mutual lady friends. We knew it would be a lot of work to set up, so we got an early start.
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I’d just purchased this pink tent with a pink-and-white striped roof, and I’d shopped for food and flowers the day before. Serret and I have set up tents together on several occasions, so it took us less than five minutes to haul the tent out of my garage and set it up in my Woodinville backyard.
We wanted to showcase my current collection of Rosé wines from Woodinville, but were careful to keep them out of the sun.
Of course, we wouldn’t be able to serve them immediately – they weren’t chilled! But this way guests could walk in and be blown away, and check out the bottles they might want to open later.
We had a few duplicate bottles chilling in my refrigerator, and knew we could chill other bottles in under 20 minutes as the day progressed and guests worked their way through the vertical tasting.
We planned to serve decadent treats – strawberries, fancy cookies, pink meringues, and a fabulously decorated buttercream cake from Metropolitan Market. Our party would start in late afternoon, so our guests would have already eaten lunch, but could be tempted by desserts, fruit, bread and cheeses.
We splurged on pink and white flowers from Metropolitan Market in Sammamish and Haggen in Woodinville, my two favorite places to get fresh flowers for parties. Serret is really amazing at arranging flowers beautifully, so I handed them over, dragged out my prettiest pink vases, and got out of her way!
I didn’t feel at all guilty for serving just store-bought cookies and cakes. We either had time to stand around baking all day, or set up and decorate this gorgeous party tent and table, not both!
I forget which store sold the cheese that comes with edible pressed flowers on top. It always gets great comments and exclamations when guests see it – plus it tastes amazing, too!
Serret worked to hang up the Edison lights for the tent, while I brought out cheeses, gourmet crackers, nuts, sliced apples, some cute pink cupcakes I’d picked up at the Bella Bottega QFC, and more plates of cookies. I was a little worried about slicing the bread so far ahead of the party, but luckily it didn’t dry out.
If the afternoon had been hotter, we would have had to keep the cake in the freezer or at least the refrigerator. We lucked out, and the buttercream frosting softened a bit but didn’t melt.
We took a break to treat ourselves to small glasses of the Chateau Ste. Michelle Rosé.
We’d been working hard and we deserved it! Love that it’s a screw cap bottle – it was practically begging us to open it.
I anticipated two guests in particular who were going to be excited to taste Cougar Crest’s Cabernet Franc Rosé.
As the party continued towards the evening, we knew we could easily set up a little ice bucket station like this one. There would be a few open bottles so guests could help themselves. (The copper serving tray is from HomeGoods.)
The rustic wood wine trough is available at Pottery Barn. The little potted pink hydrangeas were from Haggen in Woodinville, and we recently purchased the table runner at HomeGoods.
For guests who might have “Rosé All Day’ed” too much, we could pull over my comfortable Pottery Barn Chatham double chaise lounge for them to relax on.
After we took this photo, we rushed the Cougar Crest bottle inside to chill in the refrigerator.
Serret laughed at me when I told her I’d purchased the 2017 Gorman Rosé three different times, trying to reserve one for the party. (And failing, since we opened a bottle twice in one week and drank it all up a while ago!) I am delighted that I was finally able to restrain myself and share this magnificent wine with friends.
I picked up gourmet crackers and European cookies at the Woodinville Cost Plus World Market store earlier in the week.
We thought the 2017 Isenhower Cabernet Franc Rosé wine would pair well with the smoked salmon cheese dip we’d set out for guests.
Guests at my recent parties had gone wild for the Kennedy Shah 2017 Rosé, so I was glad I’d stopped by Woodhouse Wine Estates for another bottle to serve.
We loved the unusual shape of the Julia’s Dazzle Rosé bottle – not to mention we adored the wine inside! This wine is available at the Long Shadows tasting room here in Woodinville.
Oregon is of course known for its Pinot Noir wines, so of course Oregon-based Lachini Vineyard’s excellent Rosé is made from Pinot Noir grapes.
Board Track Racer’s “The Vincent” Rosé is from Mark Ryan Winery. We have a lot of Mark Ryan fans for friends, and knew they’d be expecting to see this on our table!
The wine glasses and serving dishes are antique pink Depression glass. If you like the way they look, you can find similar ones on eBay.
Sparkman Cellars‘ “This Old Porch” is another one of those bottles of Rosé wine that I kept having to re-purchase because I couldn’t seem to keep it in the house long enough to offer at this party! It’s just so.deliciously drinkable.
We saved the best for last – after our delighted guests said their goodbyes and headed out to their dinners and various social engagements, Serret and I cracked open a hoarded bottle of Lauren Ashton Rosé. We kicked back and waited for our evening set of guests to arrive. First, however, we had to make room in our glasses by sipping (or well, let’s be honest, downing) the previous wines out of our glasses!
Hope you enjoyed a peek at how we prepared for and celebrated National Rosé Day!
-Carrie
