The Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, happens to fall very close to my birthday. This year, I decided to embrace the whole flower crowns and butterflies thing to celebrate this holiday and my special day! To set the mood, I created some new decorations, but reused plenty of items found around my house. I even found an outdoor canopy in our garage! This would be where we gather and eat. Upon further searching, I found a tarp and old quilts to put on the ground. A large board, plastic bins, and pink tablecloths became a low table. I added white Christmas lights around the top of the canopy, and found some inexpensive votive candle holders and vases that were tucked away in a closet. The only purchase made for the tent decor was the fresh flowers which we purchased at Trader Joe's. We bought several different bouquets and combined the flowers into our own arrangements.

The evening started by gathering around our outdoor patio table to make flowers crowns. These were made by simply hot gluing faux flowers onto strips of wide ribbon. Each person could customize their own flower crown. The patio decorations centered around lighting. Strands of string lights are already hung between the house and the trees. I ordered a set of white paper lanterns from Amazon and tied ribbons on the bottoms of them. The lanterns could be easily hung from the string lights, and these were some of my favorite decorations. We had large pillar candles left over from my sister, Allie’s, wedding which I set around the patio. The finishing touch was groupings of helium balloons.

The highlight of the evening was a live butterfly release! I found out that you can order live butterflies to be sent to your house! We ordered ours from Cloverlawn Butterflies. I really wanted to do this because a live butterfly release helps to replenish the diminishing butterfly population. How this works is that the butterflies are overnight shipped to your house. Upon arrival the butterflies are stored in the refrigerator to keep them cool and dormant. Each butterfly is in an individual paper envelope. You can also chose something to be printed on the envelope. I chose for them to say "These wings were made to fly! Summer Solstice 2018." About an hour before you want to release the butterflies, you remove them from the refrigerator to warm up. You could feel the butterflies wings softly tapping on the envelope. My friends and I gathered together and made wishes, and then on the count of three opened the envelopes, and released the butterflies into the world. It was exciting to see the butterflies warm up their wings and then fly away!

Decorating our dining room for different occasions has been a long standing tradition. We had a lot of left over crepe paper streamers, and I was determined to hang a lot of them. Special shout out to the patient person who helped me accomplish this feat!😏 For the centerpiece I went with floating flowers. The paper goods are Meri Meri and were purchased from Pink Antlers. Also, a special thanks to my sister, Sophie, who made the delicious pink and yellow cupcakes! The cute flower cup cake toppers were ordered from Etsy. And because cake is always better with ice cream, an ice cream sundae bar seemed appropriate for a long summer day. We have a traditional punch we serve a lot which is a combination of orange juice, pineapple juice, and ginger ale. This time we also made fruit skewers for the cups. Ahh, gathering around with good company and so much sugar is hard to beat!

For the photo backdrop I knew I wanted some type of garland. I really had no idea how I was going to accomplish this, so decided I would try wiring things on to a pool noodle. I had made some giant tissue paper flowers a few years ago, and luckily they were kept in boxes and hadn’t been crushed. By wiring the paper flowers and some balloons on to the pool noodle, I was able to create the garland look I was going for. Of course my gorgeous friends are what really makes the photos special!

~ GPF