A couple of weekends ago, my friend Rui and I threw a backyard dinner party at her and her fiance's cute house in central Austin. Rui and I met at SXSW back in March and instantly connected with our mutual love of artsy food photos, styled dinner parties, and mutual distaste for beer and olives (although we don't mind them on pizzas). When we first chatted about doing this together, we both had a similar image in mind and it came out so much better than imagined! I mean, most of it has to do with their epic backyard. Her fiance Anthony built the table himself as well as the charcuterie board you see in the photos below. I hope my backyard is this cool someday!
We got props from everyone's favorite kitchen store, Kettle and Brine, and my friend Shandi at White Kitten Bakes made us the gorgeous cake. Rui picked up the flowers and eucalyptus the morning of and we arranged them on the table before the guests arrived. Kyle and I made three pizzas, and Rui and Anthony made practically everything else. A tomato galette, steak with a chimichurri sauce, apple frangipane tart, and cocktails were a few of the other things served! Everything was so so good. It was a total feast, and everyone was so full and happy afterwards.
Besides reliving this dreamy dinner over and over again, we have been busy preparing for our trip to Cancun which we leave for on Saturday! Back in January we spontaneously booked cheap flights to Mexico when we saw them for a ridiculously low price. Since Kyle finishes his last final (today!!! omg. omg.) of his undergrad prerequisite courses, we thought it was worth celebrating big. I still can't believe the past 2 1/2 years of him working full time and going back to school is finally coming to an end. To say I am excited is an understatement. So many feelings lately--excited/overwhelmed/uncertain/confused/proud/conflicted. It's been a crazy past couple of months. The good news is we will have almost a full week of nothing but relaxation, beach time, and pina coladas. I'm going to soak up every minute of it!
