6 Clever Outdoor Entertaining Ideas for a Low Country Boil
Looking for fun summer outdoor entertaining ideas? My supper club and I are celebrating the arrival of summer with a seafood boil. Have you been to one before? It’s super fun, casual, and the food is amazing! Wait until you see these low country boil recipes and decorating ideas for a fun summer dinner party!
One of the things I love most about summer is outdoor dining.
Do you love to dine outside too?
Whenever we are hosting a gathering, I love to pull a theme together to make it feel a bit more fun.
My virtual supper club and I are celebrating summer with a low country boil theme for this month’s dinner party.
It’s a fun departure from a summer barbecue because it’s a great way to enjoy the tastes of summer with a casual vibe.
If you are coming from my good friend Rachel’s from the Ponds Farmhouse, welcome to my home and our supper club!
Today we are sharing some decorating and entertaining ideas, and you can grab the menu ideas HERE.
Wait until you see these clever outdoor entertaining ideas for a seafood boil!
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What is a Low Country Boil?
A low country boil is a menu where the main ingredients include shrimp, sausage, corn, and potatoes.
It became known as a low country boil because one of the main ingredients, shrimp, is a source from the lower part of the country.
While a low country boil is good enough to serve on its own, it can also include side dishes too.
What Do You Serve With a Low Country Boil?
Side salads, pasta dishes, fries, cornbread stuffing, and vegetables accompany a low country boil well.
I prefer something light and refreshing like a cucumber, tomato, and onion salad or caprese salad, but almost anything goes with a low country boil.
Here are some side dish ideas you can try.
How Do You Host a Low Country Boil?
Hosting a seafood boil is pretty low key because it’s very laid back.
Dress casual, be casual, and decorate with a casual vibe.
I enjoy hosting a seafood boil in the summer for Memorial Day Weekend or Labor Day Weekend.
Or even a day after the beach. But it’s a super fun dinner theme for a holiday meal too.
My favorite holiday to celebrate with a seafood boil is Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve because it brings a taste of summer during the doldrums of winter.
And I cook it all on the stovetop! It’s very easy to do and guests love this theme during the winter months.
If you want to host a seafood boil for a winter dinner party, CLICK HERE for my best tips. It includes an easy stovetop recipe from my favorite, Martha Stewart.
So be sure to check it out!
But throwing a low country boil in the midst of summer is the best time to host because everything can be done outside.
So clean up could not be simpler.
I’ve attended parties where the seafood boil was served on newspaper outdoors on a picnic table. But I prefer decorating the table a bit more to make it feel cozier and visually appealing.
Newspaper is sometimes used because it’s easy to clean up. I love the look of craft paper on top of a tablecloth to create a layered look.
The same can be done with newspaper, so it really depends on the look you want.
To make clean-up a breeze, you can easily add disposable tins or serving trays to toss discarded shells.
As a host, do what feels right for you and the vibe you want.
Here are some quick outdoor entertaining tips for hosting a low country boil.
- Use a pretty tablecloth or newspaper for easier clean up and casual vibe.
- Serve the dish in disposable serving trays.
- And offer lots of ice-cold beverages
What Types of Beverages Go Well With a Seafood Boil?
When hosting a summer low country boil, there are lots of options to choose from. Whatever cocktail you select, go with something that is refreshing and pairs well with seafood.
Here are some outdoor entertaining ideas for summer cocktails.
- non-alcoholic beverages such as sweet tea or lemonade
- beer or wine
- sangria
If you are looking for refreshing beverage ideas to pair with a seafood boil, you’ve got to try one of my favorite recipes.
They are perfect for a summer party because they are light, fruity, refreshing, and accompany seafood well.
Wait until you try these summer cocktails and beverages that are perfect for a low country boil dinner party.
How to Set a Table for a Low Country Boil
Like I mentioned earlier, you can go super casual with just plain old newspaper covering a picnic table and dump the boil right on the newspaper.
It doesn’t get easier than that, am I right?
I prefer to keep things a bit neater and cozier by setting a festive yet casual table with a gorgeous centerpiece idea.
Wait until you see how easy this table setting idea is!
Centerpiece Idea for the Dining Table – Low Country Boil Edition
If you’ve been following me for a while you know how much I love to design centerpieces. From fresh to faux flowers, playing dress up with the dining table is one of my favorite things to do.
For this outdoor tablescape idea, I picked up some bright, fresh cut flowers from the market.
I wish I had some to cut from my cut flower garden for this party, but the plants I started from seed are still growing.
Because I wanted my centerpiece to stand out from the red and white checkered tablecloth I’m using, I gravitated to yellow, purple and pink flowers.
To keep the centerpiece low so guests can still see each other from across the table, I used 7 ball jar glasses and filled them with water before cutting the flowers to 2x the height of the jars.
I wanted this floral centerpiece to look more like a runner, so instead of going with one tall or wide centerpiece like THIS ONE or THIS ONE, I chose to use (7) 16 oz ball jar glasses like THESE.
If you want to make a centerpiece that’s similar, how many glasses you use depends on the size of your table. Go with odd numbers of glasses. So work in 3’s, 5’s, 7’s, or 9’s depending on the size of the table and glasses you use.
And if you don’t have ball jar glasses?
You can try using stemless wine glasses like I did HERE.
Table Decoration Ideas for Entertaining Outdoors with a Seafood Boil
To casually dress up the table for our low country boil dinner party, I used THIS red and white checkered tablecloth.
Because I love a cozy table with lots of pretty layers, I added some basic brown craft paper like THIS as the table runner. Using craft paper adds a casual touch and makes clean-up a breeze!
Next, I added my fresh cut flowers in ball mason jar glasses and set the table.
As an aside, I love these mason jars because I use them for fresh cut flowers, jarring foods, and as everyday glasses for the dinner table.
Don’t you just love things that you can use several different ways?
Since I wanted this table to feel cozy and casual, I chose vintage white dishes like THESE with utensils. Then topped each place setting with a red linen napkin and wood napkin rings.
Last summer, I bought these gorgeous red vintage stemware glasses while I was out thrifting and thought they’d be perfect for this dinner party theme.
Don’t they look great?
And finally, I tucked in some votive candles. It’s a little windy out today for tapered candles, but they’d be a great option as well.
I love how the table looks in the potager garden, don’t you?
That honeysuckle is just starting to bloom on the archway leading to the pond garden and it smells incredible by this table!
And that’s it! I really appreciate you dropping by our seafood boil dinner party today.
Next up is my good friend Regina from Saved from Salvage. Wait until you see how beautiful her table is!
Want to See More Outdoor Entertaining Ideas for a Low Country Boil?
Isn’t a low country boil dinner party a fun one? You can really have fun with it.
One of my favorite things about supper club is seeing how my good friends entertain and decorate their tables too!
Wait until you see how my friends are hosting and decorating for their low country boil dinner parties.
Click on the name of the blog on the photo below to see the inspiration!
Looking for More Supper Club Ideas?
Our supper club has been so much fun and we’ve covered so much over the last year.
Whether you are in a supper club or just want some dinner party theme inspiration, check out the themes we’ve hosted before.
And click here if you want to learn how to organize and host your own supper club. They are so fun to do and provide a great reason to gather regularly with family and friends.
- Galentine’s Day Brunch
- St. Patrick’s Day
- Spring Brunch
- Cinco De Mayo
- 4th of July
- Picnic Date
- Tailgating Party
- Thanksgiving Dinner Party
- Christmas Dinner Party
- New Year’s Eve
- Cozy Winter Dinner
- Afternoon Tea Party
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