Planning a Fall Cocktail Party

A few weeks ago I had a pretty epic fall themed cocktail party. Of course, this involved several weeks of planning and thinking about fall flavours, colours, and decor. But that is just up my alley. Though autumn is at its end, it doesn't mean that you can't sneak in a final farewell party! The following includes some tips for your own fall themed cocktail party!

Decor & Music
Decor and music are important for setting the mood for your fall themed cocktail party. For my party I stuck with traditional fall colours of orange, red, yellow, gold and brown. A simple way to add pops of colour are through centrepieces and flowers. Get a few nice autumn bouquets and divide them throughout your space in mason jars. For other decor, consider fall gourds or pumpkins, real or otherwise. My party was later in the season, so I opted for DIY paper pumpkins and paper leaves. I also made a great sign for the main space near the food that said Fall In Love! Cute, right? To customize your party further, use chalk boards- they are your friends. I used them throughout the party space and one for a drinks menu board.

For music, it helps to choose a specific genre. Old soul that I am, I stuck with Frank Sinatra-esque 40s style jazz. What a better time for jazz than a cocktail party? Here are a few favourites from my playlist:

• They All Laughed- Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong;
• (Love is) The Tender Trap- Frank Sinatra;
• You Make Me Feel So Young- Beegie Adair;
• L-O-V-E- Nat King Cole; and
• Nobody but Me- Michael Bublé.

Drinks
What's a cocktail party without drinks? For a cocktail party, stick to a few signature drinks. This will make your life easier and make production of the drinks much faster. I had two signature drinks at my party, but the one that kick started my fall party theme was wassail. I know, I know. What's that? Let me explain. Very simply, wassail is a fancy old fashioned name for an apple cider drink with mulled spices, cranberry juice, and orange slices. It is super quick and easy to make- I just throw it into a crock pot (put the mulled spices in a cheese cloth bag for easy removal) and let everything steep together for a few hours, which allows the spices to mix through properly. Although it is great without alcohol, I also made a version spiked with a bit of rum- delish! What's better than a warm drink for a crisp autumn evening?

Appetizers
For appetizers, make sure to have a mix of both hot and cold options. For an appetizer-only party, aim to have approximately 18-20 pieces per person. I know it sounds like a lot, but you never know how hungry people will be- with alcohol in the mix, this may make people a bit more snackish. Anyways, I got this rule from Martha, so who's going to refute her wisdom? Not I. My appetizer spread included:

• Hummus and Roasted Red Pepper & Eggplant Dip;
• An antipasto board with meats, cheese, crackers and dried fruits;
• Focaccia bread;
• Crudités;
• Sweet potato chips and popcorn;
• BBQ Brown Sugar Meatballs (my fave!);
• Shrimp;
• Cocktail Sausages; and
• A mix of savoury puff pastries and quiche.

Dessert
Here is the fun part- dessert. I invested most of my time and effort into an awesome dessert table featuring fall flavours. Most of the desserts were homemade, for which I spent several days with my fiancé baking! Our dessert table included:

• Maple Cake;
• Pumpkin Bread;
• Molasses Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and brown sugar glaze (the star of the evening);
• Hazelnut Pistachio Cake;
• Snickerdoodles;
• Profiteroles;
• Chocolates and
• Grapes and clementines.

Well that's a run down of my recent fall cocktail party! It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun and definitely delicious! Whether for a small group or 50 of your closest friends, with a bit of planning and some creativity, you too can have a fabulous autumn party!