I wish we’d seen this video last week before we semi-butchered two lovely turkeys at our Thanksgiving Warm-up. Still, I thought I’d share this video of Alton Brown showing how to carve the perfect turkey just in time for the real Turkey Day!

Every year we do Thanksgiving Warm-up I love it more than the year before. I love hanging out with good friends. I love trying everyone else’s favorite recipes. I love getting everything ready and seeing our ideas come to life.

It is such fun for Thomas & me.

This year Thanksgiving Practice was awesome. We had 2 turkeys and 2 roasts and the most delicious sides, desserts & appetizers from our friends & family!

So here’s the skinny.

We don’t even remotely have enough room to seat everyone in our tiny little house. So, the first order of business was to transform out car port from this (Don’t judge me.):

To this:

I’m so in love with how it turned out that I want to keep it that way forever. And the best part? Oh so cheap to do. We just used big canvas drop cloths from Lowe’s, super cheap curtain rods, and the curtain rings with clips. I think it made the car port into such a nice outdoor room. The lights were inexpensive pendant lamps from Ikea and gave the room such a fun feel.

Next up? The seating. We borrowed the tables from my parents but still needed enough seats for all of our guests. For about 3 weeks before we scoured Craigslist, Goodwill, & local thrift stores for folding chairs. We found a random assortment of mismatched chairs most for $3-$4. I’m all for mismatching but in this case I kind of wanted them to match. So, a couple of cans of spray paint and we took our random thrift store chairs from this:

To this:

They’re not super glamorous, but they at least all matched. And they got the job done. So, I say success!

Next up, the party supplies. I’m all for frugality. But, I’m also all for not washing 40 plates and countless cutlery, cups & napkins. So, disposable is my first choice. I don’t love the way most disposables look, but I found these nice white plastic plates & silver plastic cutlery a few years ago at Costco and have used them ever since. Sometimes I think they’re too pretty to throw away. But then I think about what my kitchen would look like if I washed all those dishes and I get over it. Fast.

Anyways, with disposable plates, cutlery & napkins it is a little hard to set a beautiful table but Thomas had a great idea. I knew I married him for a reason. He came up with using inexpensive silk flowers as napkin rings and bundling the forks, spoons, & knives up with them. I think it was pretty, festive & a great way to keep everything together.

If I’d been a better blogger I would have taken pictures of the huge tin basin filled with ice, wine, & sparkling fruit drinks. Or the mason jars and mismatched glass containers I used to hold all the extra cutlery. It was fun and eclectic and totally in keeping with the overall personality of our family/house. For us, it was a success. And I think our guests had a pretty good time, too!

Our Thanksgiving Warm-up preparations are still very much underway. And with 40 guests descending on our house this weekend, I have so much to do to get ready. Especially since we always try to entertain as well as we can without breaking the bank. Which means we have double the work to do since we’re not paying to have caterers, florists, or other trained professionals help us get things ready.

So, I thought this week I’d share my favorite tips for saving money when hosting a big dinner party or other event.

1. DIY. My philosophy when it comes to party planning is why pay someone else to do it when we can do it ourselves? That means baking cakes, cooking food, arranging flowers, and prepping all on our own. I actually once created an entire sushi themed cake by finding a how-to online and dyeing, rolling and shaping my own fondant. It was so much easier than I thought and saved me a lot of money. I know DIY seems like a no-brainer, but there is plenty out there that you can pay people to do for you and if you’re looking to save money it’s totally possible to do them yourself. I’ve had my share of parties where I delegate these things to knowledgeable (and expensive) professionals but I know that if I’m trying to save $ then I can always hit the web and find easy tips for DIY solutions.

2. Get creative. Sometimes saving money means finding solutions in strange places. For instance, this year we are putting two 60″ round tables outside and converting the carport into a really fun outdoor room. Seeing as how I don’t have extra 120″ table cloths laying around and dressing a table  well can be expensive we got creative. We found that canvas drop cloths (the kind you find at Lowe’s for painting) actually make a pretty nice looking table cloth. And since we could buy one super huge one and cut it into two we saved a ton of money. We even bought a couple and converted them into outdoor curtains for our carport since actual outdoor curtains are so costly. I can’t wait to share pics after the event because they really are going to be pretty. And afterwards I can use them when we paint our kitchen cabinets!

3. Garage sales and thrift stores and Goodwill, Oh my! Never underestimate the value of these places! We’ve been making stops for the last month and a half at thrift stores in the area looking for the extra seating we knew we’d need to accommodate 40 guests. We’ve managed to get almost all the folding chairs we’ll need for less than $4 each because we’ve taken our time and gathered them every time we saw them at thrift stores. This works for other entertaining essentials like platters, pitchers, etc. It helps if you have a kind of eclectic sense of style to begin with. we’re what you might call…quirky. Or tacky. Whichever. But, if you look hard enough you can find things to fit any style or taste level. People give some beautiful things to thrift stores when they’re done with them.

4. Potluck. My favorite thing about our Thanksgiving Warm-up is that we do the turkey and a few other sides and then leave it up to the guests to bring their favorite recipes. The whole point of our party is to try new recipes and have a kind of practice run for everyone so it works perfectly. But, it also makes the party itself much less expensive to host. When you’re only providing one or two foods for guests and not the whole spread it makes a huge difference.

5. Procrastinate. I fell into this one by accident a couple years ago, but it has served me well. One year I put off picking up Thanksgiving Warm-up decor until the week of the actual party and was happy to find that all of the Thanksgiving decor at Joann’s Fabric was heavily discounted. This year I bought all of the floral pieces we needed at 70% off because I waited until last weekend to pick it up. Now, I suppose you could plan ahead and buy clearance Thanksgiving after the fact and save it for next year, but since there are very few lists that actually encourage procrastination I thought I’d throw that out there. Besides, where’s the adrenaline rush in actually doing things early?

So, here’s where you get to play along. What are your best tips for saving money on Thanksgiving or other big events? I’d love to know your favorite money saving moment from hosting a party!

Before I was married Thanksgiving was hands-down my least favorite holiday. I called it an “old people holiday.” I thought it was boring, depressing, & dull. But something happened after I got my very first casserole dish at a wedding shower. I fell in love with the potential that it held. Thoughts of french fried onions and cream of mushroom soup danced through my head. I longed for a chance to use that dish.

Fast forward 8 years (has it really been that long??) and Thanksgiving has become one of my favorite holidays.

And one of my favorite pre-Thanksgiving traditions we have is our Thanksgiving Warm-up party. Every year we have a party for friends & family to come and practice their favorite dishes before the big day. It’s a Thanksgiving pre-quel of sorts. Thomas usually cooks two turkeys trying out different recipes while everyone else brings salads, sides, breads, & desserts. It’s a full fledged Thanksgiving dinner. Because our theory is that the only thing better than celebrating Thanksgiving is celebrating it twice.

This year I’m extending Thanksgiving Warm-up to my blog. From now until Thanksgiving I’ll be posting recipes, tips, & various guides to all things Thanksgiving. Not to mention, I’ll be asking for some advice, recipes & entertaining tips from you guys as well!