Gia Russo: Jennifer Astman is throwing an open house for her fiancé Fill.

Michele Adams: Fill is a contractor. He’s always remodeling other people’s homes and Jennifer is excited because now he’s finally gotten to remodel their home.

Jennifer Astman: He’s never on the house, so it was really such an unusual experience for him to do a project for himself.

Gia Russo: Fill is a vegetarian and they’re both looking for entertaining their funs at their new home.

Jennifer Astman: I wanted to do the vegetarian open house because well there’s two parts for that. Number one, vegetarian, I love to cook vegetarian food. And Fill and I are vegetarians for the most part. And it’s summer time and it just feels like the kind of food you want to eat in the summer. This feels like healthy food.

Michele Adams: We created a hardy vegetarian meal that’s all about fresh ingredients. You’ve got a water melon Gazpacho and then chilled avocado soup and a couple of salads.

Gia Russo: We’re also serving a white wine Spritzer and Ginger Snap cookies.

Jennifer Astman: So, this is the backyard and we just put the grass in a couple of weeks ago.

Gia Russo: Gorgeous.

Jennifer Astman: Yes, it can’t really well, it was the big hot house back here and we took everything away just to make it grassy and we just want it to be a really Zen good space.

Gia Russo: We could definitely incorporate this into the backdrop because it is so beautiful.

Jennifer Astman: Yes, it’s our backdrop.

Gia Russo: And it’s a really great focal point.

Michele Adams: They’ve got beautiful fence that we’re going to try use to use to spring lights across from the fence all the way to the trailers.

Gia Russo: And we’ll create a little sitting area and make it really comfortable and fashionable so everyone could just hang out.

Michele Adams: And do the fake table, it’s going to be totally glow maintenance for you. You won’t have to lift a finger once everything is set up.

Jennifer Astman: That’s good, okay.

Michele Adams: So, we’ll set that up with all the food and then Gia and I, we’ve used this great idea before where we covered some tables and some cleaning material and I was kind of thinking maybe we could do that again.

Jennifer Astman: Okay.

Gia Russo: And how many guests were you having?

Jennifer Astman: I think I’m going to have four other people.

Gia Russo: Okay so six.

Jennifer Astman: It will be six of us all together.

Michele Adams: We need to get some shopping.

Jennifer Astman: Yes.

Gia Russo: And get the lights obviously. We need it right now.

Jennifer Astman: I don’t really know where to start so it’s a good thing you girls are here because I am really sure what to do about that.

Michele Adams: We have some ideas, so take your shopping first and we’ll get started.

Jennifer Astman: Okay good.

Party lights come in all shapes and sizes and they add a festive glow to your outdoor space.

Gia Russo: Okay, so Jennifer this is really easy. You just take the wire and wrap it around this first banister and then you’re just going to loop it through and then just take the wire, feed it through and just pull it up and then just twist it to secure it a little harder.

Michele Adams: And this is going to light up the party and it’s going to make everybody congregate in this area over here.

Gia Russo: Okay, well that’s secured, so that’s it.

Michele Adams: Now, it’s great.

Jennifer Astman: It is. Thanks guys.

Gia Russo: No problem.

Jennifer Astman: We should lay there right down first right?

Michele Adams: Yes, let’s do that first.

Jennifer Astman: This is so cool. It’s like a little dance floor.

Gia Russo: Okay. Now, we put the table on top of that.

Michele Adams: I love how all the colors and textures came together, the pillows and the cushions and just how everything was working together.

Gia Russo: Okay and then we got this really cute woven—and we’re going to put them over here, so it’s great little extra sitting.

Jennifer Astman: This looks so fantastic together.

Michele Adams: I love how all the woven materials really pop op the grass and all this green backdrop, it looks adorable.

Jennifer Astman: It’s so cute.

Female: We’ve already planned out where every thing will go, so setting up the buffet is a snap. To run down our menu, we also toss together to really quick easy salads, a couscous with—feta cheese, tomatoes and roasted beets and another with rice, baby zucchinis and green onions. You can also buy salads which are usually available in the daily section of your supermarket. Just be sure they’re freshly made. This quiet backyard sets the perfect stage for this relaxing gathering of friends. We’ve put in a lot of hard work but it’s all worth it for a guy who works so hard to build this dream home.

Jennifer Astman: Okay guys, this is the party I put together for Fill and I wanted you all to be here, make yourselves at home and eat. We’ve got beautiful avocado soup and Gazpacho with fruit. This is a couscous and this is a rice and zucchini and there is the crostinis with beba beans and all vegetarian and just enjoy.

Visitor: Who wants to drink?

Male: The party was great. I’m so glad that we did it. And I think that it showed us that we really can’t make this home work for people and guests and parties. And I think it probably gave Jenny a lot of confidence in the kitchen. Thank you so much.

Jennifer Astman: Thank you.