Cause for Celebration Dinner Party

Here is everything I did to plan, prep and host a Cause for Celebration Dinner Party for my friends to celebrate the first half of the year! Think a fancy, elevated setting consisting of delicate vintage linens, polished silver serve ware and mismatched etched glassware paired with a classic cookout menu of burgers and fries. Of course, all enjoyed while sipping champagne (or sparkling apple juice) and finishing the night with a slice of a multi-tiered cake with everyone’s favorite flavors!

Within this blog post you can find everything you need from suggested timelines, supply/decor links, the menu with full recipes, my planning thought process and more!

Cause for Celebration Dinner Party

Helpful Links

Watch the backyard carnival come to life in video form by clicking the links below:

• Part 1 – the planning
• Part 2 – organizing, crafting, gardening and recipe prepping
• Part 3 – the morning of & the dinner party!

Supply/Decor Roundup:

• Link roundup is being worked on as we speak! 🙂

Note: anything not linked was likely a HomeGoods find or thrifted!

The Theme

With July comes the halfway point of the calendar year, and I spent some time reflecting on all of the good moments, big and small alike, that have passed in my friend group. I was thinking about how there have been so many things that we didn’t get a chance to celebrate together because life can just get a little too busy. So, I thought it would be fun and special to get together, get a little dressed up and celebrate all that has happened so far in 2026 as well as look forward to all that’s ahead in the second half of the year!

I love to mix fancy with casual, so for the Cause for Celebration theme, I envisioned an elegant table setting with champagne, vintage linens and silver serve ware alongside a classic yet slightly refined cookout menu of burgers and fries. Of course, everything possible would be made from scratch to bring out that slight refinement and also, I planned to serve the burgers on a silver tower and the fries in a pile on a rolling silver tray cart that I found on Facebook Marketplace last year.

I had planned to host this party outside, but the air quality ended up being in dangerous levels. After a day-of/last minute scramble, I refigured everything for an indoor dinner party and it ended up being perfect. That being said, I think this theme would be great for any time of the year whether it be saved for NYE at home, a birthday party, bachelorette, or just a reason to celebrate your friends like I did.

To end the night, what could be better than a multi-tiered cake with all of your guests favorite flavors?! More on that below in the “Special Touches” as well as “The Menu” sections in this post!

No matter how you plan to implement this theme or these recipes into your home and life, I hope you have the best time! Cheers!

Special Touches

Here are some ways to make this theme come to life and feel really unique and fun for your guests:

• The champagne cage chairs that held up the aluminum name cards were SUCH a hit! I plan on making a video on how I made those, so be sure to check back. 🙂
• Speaking of champagne cage crafts, using them as napkin rings was so easy and everyone loved that too! In terms of supply, I didn’t have enough of my own, so I found some on eBay!
• As always, asking your guests in advance for their favorite burger toppings and even more importantly here, their favorite cake flavors! I had such a fun time mapping out a multi-tiered cake that incorporated a flavor from everyone’s favorite list. Everyone was so surprised and it was absolutely delicious!

The Timeline

Hosting and parties of all kinds can seem intimidating or stressful, but I make sure to plan for them in a way that creates the most low stress hosting experience possible so I can actually enjoy the event alongside my guests. Here is a rough outline of how I would recommend preparing for this specific themed party!

Month-Week Prior:

• Invite your guests (of course! The sooner the better!)
• Draft a menu and grocery list, inclusive of dietary needs and taste preferences of your guests
• Take inventory of decor, DIY materials, serve ware, kitchen/cookout equipment, etc. to ensure you’re covered based on the amount of guests, your menu and any crafts you plan to carry out
• Order any supplies, decor and/or ingredients that need to be purchased online
• Test out your recipes
• Complete any DIYs, which in this case would be making the aluminum name cards, champagne cage chairs and champagne cage napkin rings

Week Of:

• Finish any DIYs, organize all decor and polish any silver that needs it
• Decorate your space in all the ways that can be done in advance (you can do this sooner than the week of if you don’t have cats like me, haha!).
• If you’re hosting outside, keep up with your garden maintenance to save yourself more work later on! Since I was planning to host this party outside, I ended up putting as much as I could together and kept all that I could in the garage for an easier set up the day of!
• Main grocery shop of everything that can be purchased in advance (the earlier in the week, the better!)
• Gather, organize and label all serve ware and table items so that everything is ready to be set out
• Steam or iron linens for the tables

Two Days Before:

• Make the homemade sauces (the homemade mayo that is then used in both the special sauce and the ranch)
• Make the bacon jam
• Make buttercream(s) for your cake
• Juice carrots (if making carrot cake as one of your flavors)

One Day Before:

• If needed, secondary grocery shop as soon as the store opens to get any final needs and so you have as much time as possible
• Bake cake layers/flavors
• Prep/fry french fries (if making in advance)
• Prep smash burger ground beef portions
• Measure out any possible burger bun ingredients so they’re ready for tomorrow
• Any final decor DIYs/touchups
• Tend to your yard as needed so it’s ready to set up if hosting outside. Even if hosting outside, I always make sure to clean the inside of my house so it’s guest ready!

Morning Of:

• Make the burger buns
• Arrange the simple floral bud vases (I just used white garden roses and opened them up a bit!)
• Assemble/frost the cake
• If hosting outside, set up your table and chairs/rearrange anything as needed
• Set the table/any final decor

During:

• Fill everyone’s glasses with either champagne or sparkling apple juice, depending on their preferences
• Give a toast to celebrate everyone!
• Make the smash burgers and reheat the fries in the oven
• After dinner, explain the cake layers, cut and serve
• Enjoy!

Bonus Tips:

• Have food made in advance throughout the week that you can eat while prepping because you probably won’t want to be cooking when prepping multiple dishes for your party, plus it saves time!
• Run and empty your dishwasher before the party so you can load everything instead of hand washing and taking up counter space. The easier the cleanup the better!
• Clean your spaces the night before hosting then do last minute touch ups prior to guests arriving. Also, clean as you go to avoid a huge mess before guests arrive!

The Menu

Below is everything that I included on the menu. Everything was super easy to make and many items can be prepared in full or in part ahead of time! For this party, some of the food will be completed during the actual event to be as fresh as possible, however, it’s easy and pretty quick!

Of course, you can pick and choose what you’d like and leave the rest!

The Drinks:

Since part of the theme is champagne, that is of course a must! I also served sparkling apple juice and Olipop in the crisp apple flavor as both are delicious and have the same look as champagne! I find it’s so important to have a non-alcohol option at all events as you always want to make your guests comfortable.

You could also do a signature drink if you’d like! A French 75 before dinner and/or an espresso martini afterwards would be perfect.

The Sauces:

Homemade Mayo

I use this recipe to make the Special Sauce and the Ranch

Special Sauce

Homemade Ranch

Bacon Jam

• Ingredients:
  • 12 oz bacon, diced
  • 1 tbsp avocado oil
  • 2 sweet onions, diced fine
  • 2 garlic cloves, diced fine
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar (can sub brown sugar)
  • 1/4 cup coconut aminos (can sub soy sauce or gluten free soy sauce)
  • 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tsp salt
    
• Instructions:
  • In a large pan on the stove, cook diced bacon in a tbsp of avocado oil.
  • Once cooked, remove the bacon from the pan and onto a plate with a paper towel. Leave only around 1-2 tbsp of bacon grease in the pan.
  • Add the diced onions to the pan over low heat and allow to caramelize, stirring often until soft and light brown. Be sure to watch these so that they don’t burn!
  • Once caramelized, add in the remaining ingredients as well as the cooked bacon and stir often while allowing to simmer over low heat. It’s ready once it’s thickened up and is a jam-like consistency.
  • Store in the fridge, then warm up and stir well before serving!

The Dinner:

Homemade Gluten Free Burger Buns

Recipe coming soon/August 5, 2026!

French Fries

• In the recipe post, I give multiple options for making the fries, so feel free to do what works for you!
• For this dinner party, I omitted the garlic, truffle oil and parsley, but you can definitely use the recipe as is if you’d like!
• I made these fries the day before using the double fry method, then once cool, I spread them out onto 3 large baking sheets on top of parchment paper ensure the fries were not touching/overlapping. I covered each tray with foil and kept them in the fridge. Then the next day, I reheated them right before serving by putting them in the oven at 425F for 5-10 minutes. Be sure to watch them closely as I lost track and burnt a few! It happens 🙂

Smash Burgers

• Allow for 4 oz ground beef/guest minimum! For the husbands, I allotted for 6 oz each. Each smash burger patty should be approximately 2 oz.
• For one package of 16 oz of ground beef, you’ll separate it into 8 balls of ground beef.
• To make these both inside on the stove or outside on the grill, I use a large cast iron flat top griddle for a spacious flat surface to smash the patties onto. Click here for the one I use for both indoor and outdoor!
• Click here for the smash burger kit I use!

• Ingredients:
  • avocado oil
  • 16 oz ground beef to make 8 2 oz ground beef/burger patty (do the math based on your guests! I multiplied by 2)
  • salt
  • thinly sliced sweet onions (optional)
  • cheese, of choice (optional)
  • sauces, of choice (recipes included above! optional)
    
• Instructions:
  • Drizzle avocado oil onto cooking surface.
  • Once warm, place balls of ground beef onto the cooking surface, sprinkle each with salt, top with a square of parchment paper, then press down firmly with the burger press. Repeat with all the patties.
  • Once the edges are brown, flip each burger, top with the thinly sliced onions and cover with a slice of cheese. Allow for the cheese to melt slightly and for the bottom of the burger patty to cook.
  • Remove from the cooking surface and stack 2-3 patties on top of each other.
  • Assemble burgers as desired/requested by your guests!

The Dessert:

Favorite Flavors Layered Cake

I asked all of my guests what their favorite cake flavors were and based on their answers, created a multi-tiered cake incorporating something from everyone’s list! I also ordered the layers in a way that the flavors next to each other would taste good together/not be too weird!

I also accidentally didn’t make enough buttercream to decorate the cake with, but it was a happy accident because it allowed for the different flavors to peak through the rustic/imperfect frosting job. When everyone saw the cake they immediately understood why I inquired about their favorite flavors and were so excited to see them all incorporated!

Here are the cake flavors and ordering that I used:

• Bottom Tier: my Chocolate Cake (click here!) with Peanut Butter Buttercream (click here!) and crushed Simple Mills Brownie Thins in between
• Middle Tier: my Vanilla Birthday Cake (click here!) that I added a tiny bit of almond extract to as well as natural sprinkles (note that natural sprinkles don’t dye a cake very vibrantly for a funfetti look, but it worked enough!) with Vanilla Buttercream (in the same post as the birthday cake) with sprinkles in between
• Top Tier: my Carrot Cake (click here!) with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting (use the same frosting recipe in the carrot cake blog post but brown the butter and allow to come to room temp before whipping into the buttercream)

From there, I added the remaining buttercream frosting to the outside and left it with a very rustic finish that showed the different flavors/layers!

FOLLOW ALONG!

Be sure to follow me on Instagram and TikTok to see all of the behind the scenes of recipe creation as well as how to videos to watch them come to life! You can also head over to my Pinterest to save all of my recipes in one spot that you plan whip up in the future.

PS – If you make any of these recipes or are inspired to host a similar event, I would be so grateful if you left a review so I can hear what you think! I also am happy to answer any questions you may have on here, but if you want a quicker response, be sure to shoot me a message on Instagram. Thank you so much and talk soon!