Rustic Italian Dinner Party: Part 1 of 2

I hope you had a great weekend!! I thoroughly enjoyed the long weekend we had here!

It was my mom's birthday last week and it's my brother's birthday this week (Happy 22nd Birthday Shane on Wednesday!), so Steve and I decided to host a dinner for them Saturday night at our loft. I chose a rustic Italian theme for the food and decor which was very fitting since my Italian side of the family was there. I kept the menu simple with everyone's favourites and kept the bar stocked with lots of wine! Here's a look at some of the details (look for the DIY instructions in tomorrow's post):

Rustic Italian Themed Dinner Party Ideas:
-put fresh herbs in jars and place them around your table or use them as the center pieces
-use natural fabrics such as burlap and cheesecloth
-use wooden cutting boards to serve food on
-use checked table cloths or dish cloths

Menu Ideas:
- Pizza is always a favourite so play around with different toppings or have your guests make their own mini pizzas.
-Meatballs tend to be the hit at every party and this is where you can cheat a little by purchasing the frozen ones that sometimes even taste better than the homemade kind!
-Present your antipasto platter with a selection of your favourite kinds of olives, meats (I used mortadella and proschiutto and cheeses (I used boccaccini)
-Make home-made garlic bread (it`ll make your house smell amazing!). I modified this recipe and it was super yummy!! I cut back the butter to half a cup, omitted the parsley and added a ton more garlic powder.

Mangia mangia (eat, eat)!

ps. I only now noticed that 'caesar' was spelled incorrectly on my menu board-oops!