How to Throw a Winter Party | Decorations!

This week I've been sharing how I put together a "Cozy Winter Social". It was a perfectly fun way to distract myself while my husband was out of town. If you want to see the other stages of putting the party together, check out my posts from the rest of this week!

This week I've been sharing how I put together a "Cozy Winter Social". It was a perfectly fun way to distract myself while my husband was out of town. If you want to see the other stages of putting the party together, check out my posts from the rest of this week!

I saved this post for the end of the week because decorating was ABSOLUTELY my favorite part of this whole party. It managed to occupy the better part of two weeks (which was perfect to keep me busy without My Main Man around).

I was holding the party at night, so I thought it would be perfect to play off of that. I wanted to create the illusion of spending a wintery night out under the stars (let's be honest, the stars look so pretty and bright through a clear winter sky). I draped Christmas lights across the downstairs ceiling and only turned on the light at the top of our stairs (I'll explain why in a moment) and, if necessary, the light in the laundry room (since it's around the corner and only provides indirect light). Anywhere else I needed light, I sprinkled tea lights across the various tables. Again, keeping budget in mind, I needed to be creative to find easy candle-holding solutions, so I scoured my house for glass jars. I used a combination of jelly jars, baby food jars, the lids to those jars (painted white), and a metal tin to create a grouping of candle-light.

Flowers get expensive, and this party was winter-themed anyway, so I grouped some funky-shaped sticks as my "arrangements" at each table. Again, the sticks were free and the glass jars came from food I had already eaten, so they were basically free decorations. Remember when I showed you my super cheap candlesticks a few weeks ago? Well they were originally creme-colored, so I painted a few of them white to match the decor and hot-glued glass gars to a couple of them.

While I was putting together my Valentine banner using cheap felt, I also put together two triangular banners with my party colors. One was draped across the living room, and the smaller one was hung in a "U" shape over the food table to create a central focus.

The final piece to my party decorating was a photo booth at the top of the stairs. I tend to be lame at taking pictures during parties, so I thought a fun photo booth would help me document all of my lovely guests. For the backdrop, I draped a grey sheet across the wall and pinned various twine and long jewelry over the sheet. To make it fun, I set up a table with props including winter accessories and a dry-erase sign to write messages.

Check out yesterday's post to find out more about these super cool women. (Cousin-in-Law, Winter, The Rocker, Share-and-Tell, Half-Rich, and more!)

To tie everything together, I used ribbons, twine, and some grey strips as decoration. By keeping to a simple color and material palette, everything tied together well and I was so happy with how my decorations turned out!

This finishes up my week on throwing a winter party. I'm still vacationing, so I may not get right back into the swing of things next week, but I promise I'll be back ASAP!