Midsummer on a Balcony

Midsummer night celebration

Hi,
this is my proposal for celebrating midsummer in small space. If you have a balcony or a patio it’s easy to set it up. This is easy enough to work indoors as well. And it takes little time to assemble.

Midsummer menu

Midsummer decor

As decor I chose to use the existing plants that I have on the balcony. I grouped them so they look interesting in the candle light. I also added a couple of candles to the floor near them. When adding the candles make sure that leaves and branches of your plants are not influenced/damaged by the candle flames, or use led candles instead of regular ones.

Lighting

For lighting we have permanently set the solar lighting on the balconies fence. But you can add the rice lights to the balcony just for this occasion. We don’t have any other light source(s) on our balcony.

To add more light to the balcony I used candles. Candles on the floor near the plants, and candles on the table, so we can see what we’re eating. I was a bit dark but quite romantic. The only thing I had to be careful about is how to place the candles so they are not in the way. When setting them on the table, I tried several settings and opted for the one that seamed to cause less possibility for burns. Make sure the food is easily reachable and that the candles are not in the way of getting food. It may look nice if set in another way, but it may cause some burns on the hands. I value food and safety before the beauty.

Table centerpiece

We went for a bit of foraging of wild flowers in order to make the centerpiece. Be mindful to read which flowers you can forage. I wanted to forage the cows parsley, but in the end it turned out to be hemlock. Since I wasn’t using it for food I opted to put it on the table, but just because there were only adults present and we were not supposed to eat it. I took care to wash my hands extremely well and to not touch foods without thoroughly washing my hands.

To display the centerpiece I used our three tiered etagere. I put the flowers on the topmost tier. The second tier was reserved for deviled eggs, I put them on parchment paper layered with salad. And on the last tier I served the grilled shrimp salad. The desert was served on the glass cake stand I bought a couple of months before.

We ate on our standard white plates, because I wanted to go with natural white and green theme. And white is reflective enough in the candle light so we could see what we’re eating. Nothing new except the candles was purchased for this small party.