Devon and I bought our first home in April 2019. We were so excited to be able to make this place "ours". We could do whatever we want without permission. We could paint, pick out our own washer and dryer, change out the blinds (because apparently that's a thing), even change our light fixtures, which we did. And is also a whole other story in which I also had a LARGE learning lesson on that. Large learning lesson, Say that three times fast. Or how about every day for a whole year. 

Another part we were pretty excited about is hanging stuff. I mean, that is a massive part of turning a house into a home. Photos of your family, your marriage, your dogs, whatever you want. Other items that require hanging could be decor pieces like a sign, or a massive clock that has sat on your open-concept living/dining/kitchen floor for six months. Not to mention, your giant TV that you have never mounted in your life because your actually scared shitless. Luckily, we got some help with that one. Hanging "stuff" just feels like the next step up, you know? It is the, "I'm an adult, I bought this house with my money, and now I don't have to worry about my landlord yelling at me for holes in the wall". While that might be true, the yelling thing still stands holy. It might not be your landlord yelling, only now it's your spouse. You guys, hanging shit is not all it's cracked up to me. There's measuring involved, something called "dry-wall anchors", nails, screws, screwdrivers, hammers, levels, AHHHH. I'm going crazy over here. 

When I first told my husband I wanted to throw a party at our house, he told me I was crazy. There's no way we could throw a dinner party at our little shotgun home. It's too small, we don't have a large enough table, and what will we cook! Well honey, lookey here! Some of that was definitely true; our house is small, we have no formal dining room; Our table was a fold out table that sat 4 people if we moved it out from the wall. We are not great cooks either, Devon is much better than I am for sure. 

My birthday was the weekend after Thanksgiving this year. Naturally, you would think of having a friends-giving get together either the weekend before or the weekend after. I figured people would be so tired of having turkey and dressing when it came time for Saturday. Why not think out of the box a little, what about a friends-giving/birthday brunch! Is that a long enough name for that or what? Perfect!

We invited our close family and friends no really even sure who would even be in town. I believe we had about 12-14 people in our house enjoying an unseasonable warm November morning with breakfast casserole, meatballs, apple pie, biscuits and gravy, pumpkin rolls, sausage, bacon, mimosas, and bloody Marys! 

​Here's how we did it at our house!

Table -
we used an 8 foot table I borrowed from work but you can usually rent these at a local party rental place for under $20

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We also used our real dining table for the buffet (which we ended up having to use our kitchen island part for seating and overflow buffet space). Lastly, we used our living room credenza for the drink station. 

Table set-Up
This was one of my favorite parts of planning this brunch. I started finding inspiration on Pinterest of different styles, patterns, and designs for table decor. It was comprised of grey table linen, black cloth napkins, wicker chargers, white dinner and salad plate, silver and black flatware. Along with small fake white and orange pumpkins, gold glass lanterns, one large flameless candles, gold mercury votives with tea lights, and a buffalo plaid table runner! 

Linen
The table linen used was actually linen we used from our wedding. It was grey and was perfect with the table runner, napkins, and other buffet decor. It's from an online wholesale store and super cheap and not bad material either, classic polyester. For an 8ft table, you will need a 90x132.