How to Set up a Valentine’s Themed Bar Cart

By Saumya Shiohare @myriadmusings1

Ever since we bought a bar cart, it has just become Kapil's corner. I don't blame him, we both are big on entertaining and majority of our adult parties revolve around good food and libations and when I say libations I mean vodka, scotch, gin, rum, wine, beer, rakia, sake and all of it. It is his manly domain that he proudly proclaims and is indeed the only space in the house that he likes to take full charge of and I have no grudges. As this month I have been propagating self-love, I had to takeover this space too and transform into my girly-girl corner. So, I decided to give his bottles and booze a downtime ( they have been carefully stowed away in the basement till further notice) and pulled out my feminine rosé wines and gave this bar cart a feminine facelift.

As you can tell- there is no dearth of feminine elements and this bar cart is equipped with ingredients that one would need to make a pink rosé all day themed Happy Hour ( cocktail recipe coming up tomorrow). This was the easiest to curate and you can set up your very own bar cart/ cocktail hour table just with a few key ingredients and simple easy to follow rules as below.

1) Color scheme - having a color scheme makes the planning process so much simpler. Since it was a Valentine's theme my color choice was obvious- pink, white and gold. Another whimsical color scheme to consider for this occasion could be pink and silver.

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2) Drinks - If you like me and any party planning in your book begins with the drink that you'll be serving, then you are up for a treat. I was certain about the signature cocktail that I would be serving, so I gathered the ingredients accordingly. I would recommend keeping one signature drink and then just stocking up on extra wine bottles or sparkly in order to avoid cluttering. In conjunction you could keep juices, sparkling water ( both plain and flavored). I picked out pink grapefruit sparkling water to go with my pink color scheme.

3) Food - Limit the food to easy-to-pick, bite-size options. Cupcakes, mini sliders, cookies, charcuterie, fruit kabobs, mini desserts are always a favorite. I personally like to incorporate an apothecary jar filled with some candies and for my V-day theme I chose Jacobsen Salt Co.'s Candies ( shop HERE ) that are now available at Whole Foods and was sent to me by the brand for reviewing purpose only. I also had to include my favorite raspberry macarons from Whole Foods, one for the color and two for it's yummy flavor.

4) Decoration- Buntings, candles, metal signs, letterboard with a message, and cards are some of the easy decoration props. I have had that tissue paper bunting for a few years that I always like to incorporate it into most of my feminine party themes. As for the heart bunting, I just punched some hearts using card stock paper in pink and deep pink and glued them to a kitchen string. You could shop the heart punch HERE.

5) Flowers - Nothing speaks feminine more than a bunch of fresh flowers in either pink or white. I picked out some Tulips and Peonies as they are in season and were on sale at a nearby Whole Foods Market. Talking about flowers, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are two of my favorite grocery stores for fresh, reasonably priced flowers. I have heard people talk about Costco flowers but since I don't have a Costco card, I can't tell.

6) Extras - This probably has to be my favorite part of putting together a themed bar cart. Extras like glassware, straws, napkins, napkin holders, bar accessories, and such shenanigans that need to be thoughtfully picked out is totally up my sleeve. I pick out pieces here and there, anytime, all the time and have a box full of props in my basement that comes out each time I'm having a party or setting up something for the blog. It is fun and pulls together any set up.

How do you like my Bar cart? Isn't that the most-easy, most-achievable Valentine's themed party idea?

SHOP ITEMS FROM MY BAR CART

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