July 4th Summer Party Ideas

Hi I'm party planner Cathy Riva. Well I have fun, festive and affordable tips for this 4th of
July. My first tip is stick with the theme. You’ve got red, white and blue for this 4th of
July I say choose one main color and then accent with the others. For this table we’ve
chosen the color blue. It really unifies the theme and it makes your table pop and we’ve
accented with a few Dollar Store décor items like stars in red and white hydrangeas.

My next tip is to have a beverage station, a do-it-yourself type of thing that separate from
your main table and I love serving a signature cocktail. My suggested cocktail for this
summer is the sauzarita. Sauza makes the freshest tasking margaritas and they're so easy.
All you need is Sauza, a bottle of beer, a frozen can of limeade, some ice and water. Pour
everything into a pitcher and stir and you’ve got a fantastic party hit.

Another great idea for the beverage station is to mix up your glassware. We've got some
disposable champagne glasses here that I've rimmed with salt and sugar that are in the
colors of the 4th of July flag, the American flag so we've got blue, white and red. And you
can do this at home with some food coloring and your favorite salt or sugar rim.

Another thing I suggest is to keep it simple when it comes to food. My husband does all
the grilling so I just do a little of the prep work in the kitchen. My favorite party food tips
are, serve a chicken-sausage dog to keep it healthy this season. I have a honey mesquite
lime chicken which really accents the flavor of the signature sauzarita. And this is my
personal favorite, the inside out burger. It’s always a party pleaser because it’s basically
everything you love outside the burger like bacon, onions, lots of cheese stuffed inside.
So when your guests take a bite they go oh wow that’s a really fantastic burger.

Is all about presentation. I think that if you aren’t a terrific chef or cook like myself, if
you really make everything look nice like you can use sand buckets for your chips and
plate your food in colorful thematic colors, it really makes the table pop. And another fun
thing that you can actually give your guests for the takeaway is this flyswatter that’s
made from flip-flops. You can even personalize it with some paintpens and put your
names on them or you can just let your guests walk away with them just something as a
souvenir to enjoy the party. That also makes for great centerpiece.

So for entertaining ideas that are every day, you can check out the Facebook Sauza fan
page or you can pick up the latest issue of Red Book