"Sea Ya" Summer Dinner Party - Kayla's Kitch and Fix

How to host a “Sea Ya” Summer Dinner Party to properly say goodbye to the season with a Mediterranean Sea inspired menu and setting. It’s fun, versatile and of course, so delicious too.

Here I’ve compiled my full menu, timeline and decor links so you can host your own!

Dinner Party Decor Links

As always, I strive to use things I already own or thrift as much as I can, but there are times I want to expand my hosting collection or want something special for a certain theme. Click the below link to browse either the exact items or very similar ones to the pieces I used to bring this dinner party setting to life:

“Sea Ya” Summer Dinner Party Decor Links

Video Version

Click the below link to watch this hosting concept come to life in video form:

“Sea Ya” Summer Dinner Party Video

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. However for this theme and menu, it can honestly be thrown together pretty quickly, especially if you and your guests were to split up the menu responsibilities!

Here is a rough outline of how I would recommend preparing for this specific dinner party:

Month-Week Prior:

Invite your guests (of course!)
Draft a menu and grocery list, inclusive of dietary needs and taste preferences of your guests
Take inventory of plates, linens & serve ware to ensure you’re covered based on the amount of guests and types of dishes/drinks
Order any supplies or ingredients that need to be purchased online
Test out your recipes

Week Of:

Main grocery shop of everything that can be purchased in advance
Make crafts/complete DIYs (in this case, the oyster shell name cards and organizing your sea themed decor/table setting materials)
Decorate your space in all the ways that can be done in advance (since it may be outdoors, organize all materials the best you can)
Gather, organize and label all serve ware so it’s ready to be set out

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
Purchase florals if you’re making a floral centerpiece
Any final decor gatherings/prep
Clean and prepare your space so that it’s ready for the final set up
Make any recipes that can be made in advance (in this case, the tzatziki, the hummus & harissa peanut topping, marinate the chicken, make the dough for the pita bread, chop the veggies for the cucumber tomato salad, peel the potatoes and measure out the seasoning)

Morning/Day of:

Make your floral arrangement if you haven’t already
Finalize setting up your space and of course, get yourself ready!
Finish any day of recipes (in this case, combining the ingredients for the cucumber tomato salad, frying the pita bread, cooking the chicken skewers, boiling then baking the potatoes, preparing the blueberry galette to be baked later on)
Set the table and finish any decorating

During:

Finish cooking any dishes that you want to be fresh (in this case, likely the chicken skewers and the potatoes)
Towards the end of the night, assemble the galette and then bake it before serving it hot out of the oven with vanilla ice cream
And of course, enjoy yourself!

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

THE MENU

Below is everything that I included on the menu. There are only a few recipes to make and overall is super customizable and in turn dietary inclusive. I always aim to make everything super easy to prepare when hosting so you won’t be stressed putting these together! This menu is definitely easy to prepare and is full of healthy, fresh and flavorful dishes. To make things even easier on yourself, feel free to talk with your guests and see if everyone would be comfortable to prepare and bring one or two of the dishes!

The Drinks:

My husband Matt made us the most delicious blackberry mojitos. Let me know if you’d like the recipe and I can ask him for it! They were the most gorgeous color and everyone loved them!

The Starters:

Checkerboard Appetizer (you can use whatever you’d like, but I used cubes of feta and olives topped with olive oil and orange zest!)
Harissa Peanut Hummus
4 Ingredient Pita Bread (make a double batch so some can be eaten with hummus and then can also be used as a wrap for the chicken, tzatziki and cucumber tomato salad!)

The Sides:

Cucumber Tomato Salad and Tzatziki (both recipes are in this same blog post!)
Extra Crispy Potatoes (adjust seasonings to the following: 2 tsp dried dill, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp dried oregano, ½ tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp onion powder, 1 clove garlic, minced, ½ tsp salt & pepper, to taste)

The Main:

Mediterranean Inspired Grilled Chicken

The Dessert:

Blueberry Galette (recipe coming soon!)

A NOTE ON CALORIE COUNT, NUTRITIONAL INFO AND SERVING SIZES

Due to my past experiences, I do not include most of the above information within my recipes as it is unsafe for me to do so personally. While I try to share a rough estimate when it comes to the serving size, please note that it is very subjective as we all have different hunger levels both from person to person and even from meal to meal.

If any of the above information is important to you, I understand! We are all different and have various goals and needs. If you’d like, you are welcome to calculate the information needed based on the ingredients you use when making one of my recipes.

I hope you understand! This comes from a place of love and protection both for myself and others like me. If you ever have any questions, send me an Instagram message for the quickest response time! Thank you for being here!

MORE Hosting/PARTY IDEAS

I LOVE to throw a dinner party and host my family and friends! Click the links below to find some hosting inspiration!

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 this recipe or any of my other recipes, 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!

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