In My Hostess Era: How To Throw The Cutest At-Home Happy Hour 🥂

Daylight Savings Themed! ☀️💕

The vibes on the first warm +sunny day of the year are unmatched. You can just tell that collectively, everyone is in a good mood. We’re all breathing a sigh of relief as we shake off winter blues and welcome more light, more sunshine and the ability to walk outside without a jacket. A dream! This magic usually occurs in March, but only for like…a day. It then gets blustery and chilly again (hmph), but there’s one thing that promises spring and summer are just around the corner. 

And that’s Daylight Savings. 

An hour of more light everyday, that only grows as the days march on, feels worth celebrating. So that’s why I decided my March gathering would be Daylight Savings themed. A party centered around sun, light and good vibes with the girlies? Say less! 

Happy hour is fun and casual. You can serve heavy apps and treat it like a snack-y dinner. The vibes should be chill! But tbh, I was low-key spiraling as I planned this. (was anyone else’s March kind of bananas?!) Take it from me though, you literally don’t need to stress, and I’d love to walk you through the process so you can throw your own HH, keep it cute and avoid unnecessary stress. Let’s dive in!

Step 1: Send Invites

I reached out to friends two weeks ahead of time. I use Partiful because it’s free, the invites get sent via text and you can customize them and make them cute. Love!

If you need a permission slip to keep your gathering small, permission granted. One thing I’ve learned since the beginning of the year is that I prefer smaller gatherings. I’m an introvert at heart, and I used to think that not inviting a ton of friends over at once was…lame? Like why throw a themed party if there’s only gonna be 4 people there? Spoiler alert: my mindset has shifted and I’m so happy about it. 

Intimate gatherings means deeper convos and a cozier setting (imo). Also keeping it real, they’re less costly. And sticking to a theme, even when it’s just a few friends? That feels even more special to me! There were 4 of us at this happy hour and it was perfect. 

Step 2: Pick Your Signature Drink! 

Happy hour obvi needs a signature cocktail. The daylight savings theme made me think of sunshine and light, which translated to citrus. I knew I had to have a lemon-y drink! I served Lemon Drop Martinis by On The Rocks cocktails that ended up being completely delicious. Everyone raved about them!

Avoiding overwhelm is basically my main hosting goal always (lol), and these lemon drop martinis were premixed, so it couldn’t have been easier to throw together. I just added it to a cocktail shaker with ice and garnished with a lemon. Perfect! I’m always so tickled by a welcome drink, so I put them on a tray in our entryway so guests have something to sip on right away.

I always like having a mocktail option for my gatherings too, so I had some sparkling lemonade from Trader Joe’s as well.  The martinis were so good though, we didn’t even open the bottle. Yay! 

Step 3: Set Your Menu

Ok, so this is where I spiraled. I didn’t have my menu set until basically the day before. This was um… stressful. How much citrus was too much citrus? How much food should I actually have? What will be substantial enough that my friends won’t miss dinner? Should there be a dessert? Ahhh!

If I could go back in time, I would have sat myself down and told myself that happy hour is chill vibes. It’s totally ok to not know what to serve until the day before! It’s happy hour, it’s fine if you just throw a bunch of snacks on a table and call it a day, even if it’s not on theme. (It makes me giggle now that not sticking 100% to the sunshine theme was something I was really worried about)

To save you the stress of what to serve at your own at-home happy hour, here is all the food I ended up having!

Citrus and Avocado Salad

This was the one thing I knew I wanted for sure, because of the theme. This salad is fresh and lovely, and again, the simplest salad ever to throw together. It’s three ingredients: citrus of your choice, avocado and a drizzle of honey. That’s it!

I ended up going with nectarines and blood oranges, mostly because of the color. (gorg)  Take the time to cut away the peel so the pith is gone—it makes it prettier!

Salmon Toasts

This is what I settled on as my substantial snack that was a good mix of protein and healthy fat to keep everyone full and satisfied. It was a hit! This is another three ingredient snack that couldn’t be easier to throw together. Smear some cream cheese on a Norwegian crispbread, then top with smoked salmon. I got my crispbread from Trader Joe’s and opted for Everything But The Bagel seasoning salmon, which is one of my favorites. These are so good! We ended up making more as the evening progressed. On a side note, these also make a great breakfast if you have leftovers!

Fig, Pistachio + Boursin Cheese Dip

My go-to! I’ve made this for almost every single gathering I’ve hosted this year, and it always slaps. Everyone loves cheese and crackers, and this is elevated a bit so it feels extra special. Another three ingredient recipe—take a garlic and herb Boursin cheese and spread it along the bottom of a shallow dish. Top with a generous layer of fig jam, and sprinkle crushed pistachios on top. Serve with Club crackers and devour. Yum!

Lemon Sheet Cake

Ok, so even though I told myself there aren’t really happy hour desserts—I decided to have a little something sweet too. Because why not? I love a dessert, and if this happy hour was essentially replacing dinner, we all deserved a sweet treat! I originally wanted to make a lemon berry trifle that I had made the weekend before for a family dinner (that was completely delicious and everyone was obsessed with!) but as the happy hour approached, I just didn’t get around to gathering the ingredients. But since I did all of my shopping at Trader Joe’s, my eyes landed on a mini lemon sheet cake (that has gone viral!) and put it in my cart. Spoiler alert: it was perfect.

I ended up cutting the cake into bite sized pieces and put a blueberry on top of each of them. They were so cute! I think all my friends appreciated a little dessert, and I can see why these mini sheet cakes are so popular. It was really good.

The prep

Ok, so I want to include this because I feel like this isn’t shared enough—how long did it take to prep all of this?

The answer? About 45 minutes. It took a little less than an hour to shake up the cocktails, cut up the citrus and avocado, layer the cheese dip, and make the toasts. I like to give myself some wiggle room before guests arrive to take pictures of everything, so starting an hour before guests arrived was perfect.

The dress code

I think it’s fun to dress to a theme, so I simply asked everyone to dress in a way that felt like sunshine. This theme was also a perfect excuse to wear this yellow, ruffly Innika Choo dress that is a maximalist dream. I truthfully don’t have the guts to wear it too often because of how extravagant it is, but at-home happy hour was the perfect place for it! Everyone came in a pretty spring outfit and it was so cutie.

The vibe

We sipped and snacked from 4pm til the sun went down. We hung out in my living room and lounged on the couch and my new oversized boucle chair. We caught up, we vented, we giggled and gabbed. My puppy Betty was only a menace when the sun went down. One of my friends called my home an oasis and I’m still smiling about it. It was a perfect evening.

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And there you have it! All the deets for a daylight savings themed at-home hour. This menu can take you through the summer (it truly is a citrus-themed party) and I hope it inspires you to gather with your loved ones.

On a personal note, I’m so proud of myself for sticking with my goal to host my friends once a month this year! We crushed Q1, and we’re taking the vibes into Q2. Next up is Easter brunch, and May is my birthday month. Omg, I already have some ideas brewing for how I’d like to celebrate. In the meantime, let me know what you think of this theme! And if you have any questions, be sure to pop them in the comments.

Today, I’m off to an estate sale to see if there’s a vintage Coach bag still left (fingers crossed!) and am counting down the minutes til The White Lotus finale tonight. I have so many theories omg. See you next week!

xx, Kristen

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Want to hang even more? Follow me on Instagram! You can dive even deeper and see me prep for this happy hour here and here. 🫶🏼