Hi Friends!
Our live music and events venue, The 443 Social Club, has kept me so busy over the last couple of years that I haven’t had much time or creative energy left to blog. But, we hosted a bridal shower over the weekend with a tropical theme, and I thought I would write a quick post about the mimosa bar I put together.
The bride’s family hails from Jamaica, and she wanted her party to reflect her heritage. Her family cooked up traditional Caribbean fare for the buffet like jerk chicken, fried plantains, Jamaican patties, rum cake, coconut cookies, and plenty of fresh fruit.
But, the party’s focal point (aside from the stunning bride-to-be, of course) was the colorful mimosa bar – I had a blast styling it with an island vibe!
This post contains affiliate links. You can find my complete disclosure HERE.
The 443 has always been primarily a live music venue, but we recently made the decision to focus more on private events in the summertime. Summers are notoriously tough for selling tickets to indoor events because you’re competing with a million other things – festivals and outdoor shows, but also people traveling, boating, and spending time in their summer cottages. So, I’ve been acquiring the supplies we need to easily host showers, grad parties, and birthday parties.
The mimosa bar is sitting on a 6′ folding table with a spandex cover. These covers are cheap, come in a ton of colors, and add a professional look. You can find mine HERE.
I know there would be a lot of pictures taken of the mimosa bar, and I wanted to disguise the background. In our case, the mimosa station is backed up to our actual bar and I didn’t want to see the clutter on the bar top. In a large event venue, you would use full-size pipe and drape for this, but our room is small and we have very limited storage – so I was thrilled to find this tabletop frame HERE. They aren’t super-sturdy, but worked fine to hang curtains, garland, and a sign over the tables. 45″ curtains ended up being perfect – I found mine HERE, and I think they’re a great idea if you want to neutralize your background. They are inexpensive and come in tons of colors.
I added 2 high round tables to either side to create different levels.
The plants came from my house and patio and the tropical decor came from the thrift store. You can find the copper ice buckets we use HERE.
I ordered 2 sets of carafes with lids from Amazon, you can find them HERE. Tropicana and Simply Juice have all kinds of yummy flavors – Tropicana Pineapple Mango is my current favorite. Keep in mind that champagne flutes aren’t all that big, so you won’t go through as much juice as you might think.
Pro-Tip:
Be sure to put tongs and/or cocktail picks on your mimosa bar so your guests aren’t grabbing them with their hands.
All the wooden bowls and trays were thrifted, and the wood crates were left from another project – I originally bought them to build an “owlery” for a Harry Potter event!
Pro-Tip:
When you’re cutting up large fruit like watermelon and pineapple, remember that the champagne flutes have a very narrow top – your pieces need to be small enough to fit into them.
I found this cute mimosa bar printable on Etsy (you can find it HERE) and filled everything out with fresh, whole tropical fruits like mango, pineapple, kiwi, and dragonfruit.
I like how fresh and organic the fruit looks, and it won’t go to waste – it will end up on this week’s sangria.
I love fresh herbs in my cocktails, so I swiped a basil plant from our patio and put it on the bar with a small pair of scissors. It’s especially good with pineapple and the strawberry peach juice.
And finally, I bought our “Bubbly Bar” sign on Etsy HERE.
If you’re doing this for a home party you probably don’t need this, but since we’re doing more and more of these types of events, I figured it was a good investment. I bought the largest size, which is 36″ wide.
Our tropical mimosa bar was a HUGE hit at the shower, and I hope I’ve inspired you to put one together for your next gathering.
CHEERS!