10 Beautiful Place Settings for Summer Dinner Parties

Entertaining, Home
summer dinner parties lead
summer dinner parties lead

Photo: HGTV

These 10 beautiful place settings for summer dinner parties range from fun an festive to easy and elegant; all the summer entertaining inspiration you need. 

I really, really like summer entertaining. If it were up to me, I’d have a dinner party every weekend, but of course in order to have that dinner party, I would need a beautiful penthouse condo — or maybe a beach house…or maybe both! Ha ha ha we can dream, right?

I love to host because it means cooking and decorating and mixing cocktails and overall, making people happy in the moment because there isn’t much I can do about world peace, or racism or any of the other horrible things going on in the world, but when someone is holding a strawberry basil martini or sitting down to a coastal seafood dinner party, everything seems pretty perfect, even for a couple of hours.

As much as I love cooking and menu planning, a dinner party is that much more special when you pull out all of the stops decorating a table. Now, before I lament on this, I’m going to fully disclose that in my tiny apartment, I don’t have an actual dining room table. I have a center island with seating for two that works perfectly well for date nights, and I have a table outside for dining alfresco in the summer. So for now, I’m limited to day dreaming about what my gorgeous tablescapes will look like when I eventually upgrade to a big girl apartment or condo, and gazing at photos of beautiful tables set for entertaining groups of friends and family for every occasion, big and small.

Here are a few of my favorites that I’ve found in my digital travels, which not only inspire me to move into an apartment large enough to seat 10 for a dinner party, but to recreate some of these fun concepts on a lesser scale at home, for picnics in the park and sometimes, in my fun little imagination.

Summer Dinner Parties 1

Photo: Eric Kelley Photography

Box Lunch: Nothing says summer like a picnic. Serve personal packed lunches in stylish brown boxes with pretty napkins to add a colorful pop. Pack a bento-style picnic or make grilled chicken sandwiches with pesto and mozzarella on a pretzel roll. It’s the perfect combination of rustic meets elegant.

Summer Dinner Parties 2

Photo: Ben Galland of H2O Creative

Light the Night: If you happen to have a lot of empty wine bottles laying around (or you could you know, buy empty bottles) you can easily recreate this Pinterest perfect tablescape. If you’re drinking our top ten best rosé wines, then chances are you have plenty of bottles to use to make this happen.

Summer Dinner Parties 3

Photo: Style Me Pretty

Pretty Peonies: Two of my favorite flowers are hydrangeas and peonies, so I love this pretty in pink tablescape. Capture summer with bright splashes of color and fill those glasses with rosé to match.

Summer Dinner Parties 4

Photo: Green Wedding Shoes

Orange You Glad?:  Skip the florals and decorate your table with your favorite citrus fruit. I love that it’s special enough for a wedding but simple enough to replicate for an easy weekend dinner party or a summer soiree.

Summer Dinner Parties 5

Photo: Ruffled Blog

Rustic Country: If you’re planning a country chic theme for your season end party, mix rustic with elegant and add a pretty assortment of succulents for greenery. This is the perfect way to transition from summer to fall.

Summer Dinner Parties 6

Photo: Diane Hu Photography

Shabby Chic: Think simple, elegant and whimsical when you set your table for your next dinner party. If you’re into the woodland theme, opt for a rustic table runner or placemats, accented with lots of bright, fresh floral accent. I love the mismatched garden theme china here, which lets you coordinate without getting overly matchy-matchy.

Summer Dinner Parties 7

Photo: Justin Coit for Domaine

Go Indigo: This beautiful and stylish setting is a perfect fit for a summer or beach themed soiree.  Pair deep blue accents and overflowing succulents with gold detail and classic stemware for a little added glamour.  Ps: please, please pretty please, invite me to your party.

Summer Dinner Parties 8

Photo: Suzi Jacobs

Be Boho: For the girliest girly girls’ night, I love this chic bohemian style and pretty pink accents to the berry, tangerine, and blue shades on the table. This decor scheme feels like the perfect mid summer celebration or if you’re lucky enough to live in a warm climate, would be a nice way to usher in fall with a fun backyard picnic.

Summer Dinner Parties 9

Photo: La Crema

Pretty Patterns: I love a chic table runner in lieu of an old fashioned tablecloth. If you have a solid wood table like the one pictured, have fun with your patterns and pick some pretty seasonal florals to round everything out.

modern mexican summer dinner parties 10

Photo: Steve Steinhardt Photography

Modern Mexican: A fun and modern fiesta is a great way to celebrate summer, but you don’t need to resort to your collegiate days of tequila shots and not only blows any Cinco de Mayo party I’ve ever been to straight out of the water but would be pretty amazing any day of the year. It’s lunch and tequila tasting crafted by Modern Dame, along with bougainvillea and cactus

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8 Comments

  • Reply
    Sharon @ What The Fork Food Blog
    July 20, 2016 at 2:09 pm

    All of these place settings are so pretty!

  • Reply
    Katerina @ Diethood
    July 20, 2016 at 12:23 pm

    Oh man, all of that is just so darn gorgeous!! I WISH I had the talent…and patience! haha 😀

  • Reply
    Ginny McMeans
    July 19, 2016 at 2:19 pm

    I have to tell you I love every one of these place settings. That last rose gold setting blows me away!

  • Reply
    Meg @ With Salt and Wit
    July 18, 2016 at 9:25 pm

    These are all so beautiful! Now I want to plan a party!

  • Reply
    Kacey @ The Cookie Writer
    July 18, 2016 at 2:02 pm

    I wish I had the time to do such fancy table work! They are serious show stoppers, and like you, entertaining a party is my kind of thing 🙂

  • Reply
    Beth Baumgartner
    July 18, 2016 at 12:05 pm

    I love the fancy lunch box idea! Even grown ups love picnics!!

  • Reply
    Justine | Cooking and Beer
    July 18, 2016 at 11:05 am

    I love a beautiful table setting. I could spend hours on pinterest just looking at table settings. I love the boxed lunch idea. So cute!

    • Reply
      Maris Callahan
      July 18, 2016 at 8:07 pm

      That is exactly what I was doing when I decided I needed to write this post!!

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