Luck Be With Ye This Year – St. Patty's Day Party Inspiration

Now that Valentine's Day is behind us, it's time to get into the real swing of things for St. Patrick's Day.

Ah, St. Patrick's Day. That's lovable holiday that encourages everyone and their mother to wear green clothes, get green contact lenses, dye their hair green, dye their dogs green (I've seen it), and other all-too-chlorophyll-colored shenanigans. Speaking of shenanigans, we're spotlighting "luck" in this month's Wedding And Party Newsletter. As a preface to all of the goodies on the inside, here's a little taste of what you can expect this holiday.

Green is the theme. So go all out with green beverages, food and decorations. Don't forget our favorite St Paddy's Day character – the leprechaun and his pot of gold.  A cute St Paddy's decoration idea can be accomplished by hanging multi-colored streamers (rainbow) above a gold punch bowl filled with green punch on your beverage table. Freeze a ring of ice with gold coins, plastic shamrocks, or even real ones to make it even more festive! Real shamrocks are edible, they just don't taste good. (A good substitute would be fresh mint leaves.) Place a cardboard cut-out of a leprechaun on the table to complete the look.

What Irish celebration is complete without strong beverages? The traditional whiskey, Guinness or a good green beer should do the trick. If you don't like beer, dye ginger ale for the same effect.

For a fun, Irish themed dinner party set up a potato bar. These are becoming super popular for wedding receptions, but why not steal this stud-tastic idea for your St. Paddy's party. Set out a hot plate with a mound of baked potatoes in the center of your table and surround it with all the favorite potato fixin's: several kinds of cheeses, sour cream, fresh chives, bacon bits, butter, the list goes on and on. You could always serve more traditional Irish foods like corn beef and cabbage too.

Desserts for St. Patrick's day are a blast to make! Think green! Dye your desserts green. Shamrock-shaped cookies, cakes or cupcakes decorated with green icing and lots of green sprinkles, plastic shamrock toys, or other festive decorations. Have fun with it!

After you and all your guests are full of whiskey and green food, try a few Irish Drinking Songs to really put you in the spirit of the Irish. Search YouTube for several, easy to learn ones you can teach your friends. Of course if it's a really good Irish party, by the end of the night you'll be making up your own!

"He must have been an admiral a sultan or a king,
and to his praises we shall always sing.
Look what he has done for us he's filled us up with cheer!
Lord bless Charlie Mops, the man who invented beer beer beer
tiddly beer beer beer."

Have a safe and happy Saint Patrick's Day! May "the luck of the Irish be with ya!"