How To Plan The Perfect Pinterest-Inspired Picnic
Thanks to Pinterest, I always have an inspirational source to turn to when I need to get my creative juices flowing. I'm sure a lot of you think similarly of Pinterest as well, as this website literally feels like a lifesaver to me. On occasion, I look through Pinterest pictures and organize these by topics via Pinterest boards. I'm not an active Pinterest user, but feel free to add me on Missmisschelle if you are interested to see what kind of inspirational pictures I look for. My Pinterest Boards range from fancy nail art to healthier versions of traditional recipes to creative birthday party decoration ideas. Also, one project that I've always wanted to work on for quite a while now includes a DIY Pinterest-Inspired Picnic with an aesthetically pleasing picnic layout. With the help of my friend Maya, we were able to create the picnic of our dreams!
Were you interested in creating a similar DIY Pinterest-inspired picnic layout as well? Regardless if your answer is yes or no, I'll still be sharing in this post what steps Maya and I took to make our picnic project come to life. Make sure to keep on reading for helpful suggestions and recipes!
1. Create a shared Pinterest Board.
Pinterest is seriously the ultimate lifesaver when it comes to organizing themed pictures in a photo album. The first step we took was searching for easy-to-make recipes of food that were both convenient to carry to the park as well as delicious when served at room temperature. Feel free to look at my Picnic Pinterest Board here - I will definitely be updating this board soon, as Maya and I plan to have another picnic in the near future!
After looking through various pictures, Maya and I decided to replicate a few of our favorite recipes. Some of these inspirational recipes included pasta salad with pesto, broccoli, and sundried tomatoes and fruit-infused water. I also need to be honest with you guys - the taste of our fruit-infused water was pretty unappetizing and was one of those drinks that "looked better than it tasted". I've had fruit-infused water before and loved it, so maybe Maya and I just have to give it another chance, haha. However, the pasta salad was homemade by Maya herself and tasted absolutely exquisite!
2. Plan out what each individual will bring to the picnic.
After completing Step 1 and discussing what recipes you want to make/bring with your friend(s), now you want to make sure you all have the available ingredients to do so! Maya and I discussed what exact ingredients we had at home and what we still needed to buy. From there, we both made a quick Safeway grocery run and picked up any missing ingredients that we needed - teamwork was key to make this picnic a successful one, hehe! As for glassware and tupperware, we also talked about what types we had lying around in our cupboards at home. In my personal opinion, mixing up the textures and utilizing a variety of tupperware makes the picnic look a lot more fun and unique.
For our fruit-infused water, we used miniature glass bottles as well as my Teatank. If you've been following me on Snapchat (missmisschelle), you have probably seen my Teatank make an appearance every now and then. Teatank serves as a convenient product that can hold tea, water, or fruit infused water and I prefer using it over plastic water bottles for both health and environmental reasons. If you're looking to purchase a new water bottle with a clean look, I would totally recommend Teatank to be your new go-to water bottle!
Also, I suggest that if you want to serve a fun drink at your next picnic, bring a glass pitcher as well - it will be both convenient for refills and look great in pictures! For our strawberries and blueberries, we used white ramekins (aka the dishes you torch creme brulees in) for a pretty color contrast and sophisticated look. Additionally, we poured our pasta salad into the two glass containers. Lastly, to spice up our picnic presentation up a notch, we used wooden cutting boards of different sizes as "serving plates" for our sliced sourdough baguette and donuts.
3. Realize that preparing a picnic can take up to a few hours to an entire day.
Depending on what foods you want to make, your picnic could take up to a few hours to one entire day to prepare for. From shopping to chopping fruits and vegetables to boiling pasta and more, this entire process took three hours from 12PM-3PM. Next time around, I would prefer and also advise anyone to start preparing for your picnic in the morning if you'd like to eat exactly at lunch time. Also, little did Maya and I realize that the no-bake cheesecakes we wanted to create would take up to a couple of hours of refrigeration until we reread the instructions. Oops, lesson learned, heh! Instead, we gave in to our dessert cravings and ended up impulsively purchasing Safeway donuts as a compromise.
4. Bring a picnic basket and blanket.
Without your standard picnic basket and blanket, your picnic will probably feel more like a to-go takeout order experience and less like a fun picnic-in-the-park day. Maya owns a really cute picnic basket and blanket set and I definitely squealed in person when I saw it with my own eyes. I love how this picnic basket comes with both dish ware, utensils, and a matching picnic blanket, making this both the convenient and ideal picnic essential for any summer gal. Shop for the same matching picnic basket and blanket on Amazon here!
5. Spice up your picnic with fresh blooms or greens.
Flowers and succulents do wonders in freshening up any Instagram picture. You can pick up flowers at your local grocery store or from your garden and place them in a glass vase. Or, you can buy a fresh bouquet and lay it next to all of your delicious Pinterest-inspired food.
In this case, I brought my sister's cute little succulent with us for a pop of greenery :) If you want to go big instead of go home for your next picnic, I would suggest purchasing a beautiful box of flowers from my favorite Bay Area florist, Pale Petals. You can customize the color of these flowers to your desire and this box would look absolutely gorgeous with any summer picnic layout.
The next time that you need a little source of inspiration, I highly recommend that you use Pinterest to your advantage. Also, be sure to stay tuned with Missmisschelle for future Pinterest-inspired picnics! This was our first picnic project and we already have plans to make our second one even bigger and better!
Have you ever had a picnic-in-the-park? What favorite food would you bring to a picnic?
Dress: Papaya Clothing | Accessories: Anarchy Street
Much Love,