A Birthday Rooftop Wine + Food Dinner Party

ByChris Posted on

When it comes to celebrating adult birthdays, it doesn’t get more festive than serving wine, food and fun!

I am literally swooning over this rooftop wine and food pairing dinner party sent in by Cristina of Le Party Sugar, who hosted the evening to celebrate a birthday with friends.

It took place on her rooftop in LA and includes vintage furniture, 4 wines paired with farmer’s market food, dessert, and a guest wine swap. You’ll love all the details!

Christina threw a birthday wine tasting party featuring Central Coast Wine and California fare. Living in LA, they love taking a drive to visit the wineries in Santa Ynez, Paso Robles and Los Olivos, and they wanted to share some of their favorite wines with 20 of their dearest friends.

Decorations

As a kick-off to summer, the party was held on a rooftop terrace overlooking the city. They rented vintage furniture pieces to give the decor a shabby-chic vibe, and the feel of eating al fresco in the middle of a vineyard.

  • The tablescape consisted of tasting menu cards positioned on each place setting, with wine coasters labeling each wine.
  • Each place setting had four wine glasses, a mason jar for water, and French herringbone tea towels for napkins.
  • To create a centerpiece down the long tables, peonies filled old wine bottles that were wrapped with vintage lace and tied with twine. Cleaned and upcycled soup cans were wrapped with coordinating scrapbook paper and twine, and held sea salt grissini.
  • Small globe lights hung overhead providing a beautiful night glow as the sun went down.

Guests arrived at 7:30pm and were greeted with some sparkling wine and a cheese platter with dried fruit and nuts. A small lounge area was set up so guests could chat, eat and drink easily.

Wine & Food Course Pairings

The tasting portion of the evening started at 8:30pm, where guests tried 4 different wines paired with 4 fresh, farmer’s market-style dishes.

  • Appetizer Course. The 1st pairing was a Viognier paired with grilled nectarines, burrata, toasted hazelnuts and garnished with mint.
  • First Course. The 2nd pairing was a Rosé paired with homemade pizza with fresh basil pesto, goat cheese and caramelized onions.
  • Second Course. The 3rd pairing was a Pinot Noir paired with grilled salmon topped with lime butter sauce and sautéed asparagus.
  • Third Course. The final pairing was a Syrah paired with grilled flank steak and a spicy pepper and watermelon salad.

Dessert

As if that wasn’t enough food, there’s a dessert table filled with homemade mini delights:

A basket was filled with blankets and pashminas for the guests to wrap up in as the temperature cooled down.

Activity

On the invite I asked each guest to bring one of their favorite bottles (under $25) for the Bottle Swap, so each guest went home with someone else’s favorite wine to try.

Party Favors

As the party favor, packaged your favorite wine gadget (Haley’s 5-in-1 corker, or wine aerator) for each guest to take home with their bottle from the bottle swap. Make it a fabulous night of good friends, food and conversation!

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20 Comments

  1. Would you ever be willing to share your menu and recipes. Love to copy your menu. Love this idea.

  3. Hi Christina, I am recreating this amazing tablescape for my husband’s birthday. Can you please tell me the wording on your sign for the wine swap? It is a bit blurry and I would like to incorporate that into the party also. Thanks!
    Jane P

  4. This is beautiful…her rooftop ambience can’t be beat! I love the mismatched chairs and the way she identified the wine…

  5. I LOVE IT….all the little details – love the mismatch chairs, the seating area with light blankets – just neat ideas!This would be AWESOME for my 40th birthday celebration – think you and I can plan this by next week….LOL!?

    1. It would be just divine for a birthday celebration…even a few weeks belated of a celebration 🙂 If you have any questions, let me know!

  6. Love the living room “corner” and the mason jar water “glasses”!

    Sheila

  7. Love this… fab idea for an engagement party or sophisticated hens! Really gorgeous stationery too 🙂

    Chloe x

  9. Gorgeous…and fabulous idea! Tell me more about the identification cards for items and their stands. Love those little stands.

    1. Hi Jonnie!

      Thank you!

      I made the menu cards with a circular paper cutter, layering three different papers together. I had a total of 3 patterned papers selected from Paper Source and used them in various combinations for all the paper goods. The menu card stands were ordered from Luna Bazaar, I’ve actually used those for a couple parties!

      Thanks, Cristina

  10. I will repost some details for my Spanish speaking readers, all links and credits to Celebrations at Home and Le Partie Sugar of course!

  11. This is truly an ORIGINAL party, it looks AMAZING! Congratulations on such great details and ideas. Loved the idea of guests bringing their own choice bottle to “swap”, great way to get them engaged in the fun. I bet everyone went home happy that night 🙂

  14. This party is beautiful! I love the comfortable decor that looks both pulled together and inviting. There’s definitely something to be said for using pieces that look like home furniture instead of standard buffet rentals. And boy, do I wish I had a rooftop deck like that!

    We just had a (much!) smaller dinner party for some of our friends as well!

  17. This is so pretty! I love all the vintage touches and the food looks delicious! Love the touch of lace on the wine bottle vase and the pattern and colors on the food tags.

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