The 4-day bank holiday to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee is taking place from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th June 2022 and most towns around the UK are hosting street parties and celebrations to commemorate the event.
Plus, I’ve no doubt that many of us are planning to get together with our family or friends over the holiday weekend to have a party and enjoy a catch-up so I thought that now would be the ideal time to some ways that you can celebrate at home.
Get in the garden
The bank holiday is in June, so I’m hoping that the weather will be good. And, when the sun is shining, what better way is there to spend the day than outside in the garden. It’s a totallly free venue for your party and there will be plenty of room for all your guests. Plus, it’s a safer way to celebrate than cooped up indoors.
So, you can start sprucing up your outdoor space now to get it looking lovely for the bank holiday weekend in a month’s time. Perhaps you could even plant a few flowering annuals or put up some hanging baskets to make the garden look extra colourful.
The garden is the ideal venue for a British party – let’s face it, if it rains, that all adds to the bank holiday vibes! If you have a gazebo, umbrella or sunshade, pop them up and get ready to celebrate – whatever the weather!
Decorate your deck
If you’re celebrating outdoors, you could hang bunting to give the space a celebratory feel. You can use scraps of fabrics or even old clothing to hand-make some bunting – I’ve shared the technique for sewing your own bunting in my Christmas bunting tutorial here if you want to give it a go yourself.
Add some fairy lights around the patio or decking. This will not only create a party atmosphere, but it’ll provide handy lighting around the party space when the sun goes down. There’s nothing better than warm white festoon lights to create a cosy ambience and party vibe after dark. You could use your existing Christmas lights rather than splash out on new outdoor fairy lights.
Dress your dining table
Brush the cobwebs off your outdoor table and get ready to dress the table for a meal fit for a queen. The only essential is a tablecloth – but you can use a large bedsheet for this. A pretty floral one would be ideal for a cottagecore look, or I regularly use a gingham sheet as a table cloth myself. Alternatively, you can use a simple white paper tablecloth and add a colourful strip of fabric as a runner instead.
Then, to create a traditional afternoon tea table, you don’t need tiered cakestands – simply layering up plates and using cups and saucers makes it a special occasion. Add a vase of flowers as a centrepiece or, if you’ve got a long trestle table to decorate, divide a bouquet into multiple lower displays in Kilner jars.
It’s possible to get beautiful blooms delivered directly to your home with a letterbox flower delivery from LÖV Flowers and I would choose a bouquet with carnations – because the Queen’s Coronation Banquet at Buckingham Palace in 1953 was decorated with pink and white carnations.
Food and drink
For an outdoor garden party you can go two ways with your food and drink – BBQ or afternoon tea. I personally like the idea of an afternoon tea as you can prepare it all in advance so you can enjoy time with your guests before serving it. Plus, you can make scones yourself with just a handful of ingredients so it needed cost too much either.
But, of course, it wouldn’t be a classic British bank holiday celebration without a BBQ, would it? Perhaps you could put someone in charge of the grilling, and you could pre-prepare the side dishes and salads in advance, giving you time to mingle with your guests.
Alternatively, to give yourself even more time with your guests, you could look into getting a precooked meal delivery so that all the food is oven-ready and you only have to serve it up on your best china platters.
To toast the Queen’s Jubilee in style, a bottle of bubbly turns a simple jam scone into a sparkling afternoon tea. Or, to cater for all your guests’ tastes, you can get a mixed case of wines delivered for the celebration. And, of course, a gin and tonic would be especially refreshing in the sunshine.
Entertainment
It’s a good idea to create a party feel with some music so put together a playlist of summery songs. Bear in mind that you might not be the only household celebrating the jubilee bank holiday in your area so be considerate with the volume and type of music you’re playing outdoors.
I think an essential part of any garden party is outdoor lawn games. Dig out the boules, Kubb, giant Jenga or even croquet so that your guests can have fun playing games around the garden. They’ll basically be entertaining themselves with the games, giving you time to pop into the kitchen or check on the BBQ.
Let me know if you’re planning an at-home celebration for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in the comments below. I’d love to hear your ideas for hosting a fun garden party and any tips for cutting costs on decorations, food and party entertainment.
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