Who doesn’t want to be the hostess with the mostess? We all have celebratory moments in our lives, and even when we want to plan something simple, we still want some level of spectacular. Whether it is a new theme of decor or a fun, new twist on food presentation, we want to be a little different from the rest.

With sites like Pinterest, it’s not very hard to come up with creative twists on food. Recently, a good friend of mine was planning a bridal shower for her son and his beautiful bride to be. My girlfriend was truly inspired by lots of different things she found on the site. Although she had ordered miniature pastries from Nino’s, she came upon these miniature wedding cake desserts that she just had to make. They were adorable, all three layers of them, but she realized that they were too large to fit the dessert plates she’d planned for each table. The centerpieces for the wedding began with a small idea she saw. Now she is etching glass with the last name initial.

Decorating tables can be as simple as creating display layers with shoe boxes or larger boxes for the trays of food to sit on. Just tossing the tablecloth on top of these layers, instead of fitting it perfectly, provides a creative look. Tossing a piece of fabric or tablecloth, in the color scheme of your party, to one side of the table creates a pulled-together look for your event.

For people who have ordered Mexican food, such as chicken and steak fajitas, I like to use a serape (Mexican colorful blanket) to toss over some of the display boxes. Then I use a sombrero and line the outside rim with nacho chips before serving the salsa and guacamole in large margarita glasses. This is definitely a fun twist for serving Mexican food.

This spring’s grad parties often included a “Candy Land” dessert table, complete with several colorful jars of candy for the guests to enjoy or even take home. Along with the typical cake, cupcakes, brownies and cookies, hosts and hostesses displayed jars and bowls filled with candies like miniature candy bars, Swedish fish, Skittles and M&M’s, to name a few. This translates into a blast back in time to the days we used to play the board game Candy Land and wish we could indulge.

Here are a few summer fun table top ideas:

• Cut fresh flowers from your yard or use store-bought flowers. They look great in Mason jars. Wrap a bow around the jar to pull in your color scheme. For an even more unique touch, use a plastic pitcher as a floral centerpiece vase.
• Think outside the box, and use a fun beach towel as a tablecloth. Sometimes beach towels fit perfectly, and then you can easily toss them in the washer when you’re done.
• Use mix-and-match paper plates and plastic silverware. If you are like me and have a pantry full of mismatched paper plates and silverware, set your picnic table with the mix-and-match pieces. Maybe you can find a solid-colored tablecloth that pulls in a consistent color.
• Find some smaller rocks, clean them up and use a paint marker to write inspirational words on them. Use the simply decorated rocks to hold down the napkins at each place setting. Then use a few larger rocks to hold down the tablecloth.

Have fun with these ideas. Then come back and share how you used these ideas (or made up your own) to become the hostess with the mostess.