My husband and I recently celebrated our 9 year anniversary. We wanted to do something simple and not too lavish, we’ll save that for next year. This year I decided to do a fall inspired picnic. We dropped the kids off at my parents house and we were off! FREEDOM! Here is what I put together.
Originally I wanted to do a picnic through a local business but it was last minute so I decided to put one together myself. This is what I did.
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Gathered the props
For this date night, I wanted a fall theme since in Houston, fall basically only exist 8 days out of the whole season. lol! I started brainstorming and gathered all the pumpkins that I had already purchased, any fall florals that I had, any thing that reminded me of fall, and my picnic basket. I own this one and I love it!
Here is a similar on if mine is out of stock.
Buy your supplies
I made my husband take me to Houston Garden Centers for some more pumpkins while I was there I saw they were selling hay bales! They were only $12! I originally grabbed one since they are so big. When we were checking out the cashier charged me for 2 so I went ahead a grabbed another.
I also picked up 2 more pumpkins. I had already begun to decorate my front porch for fall so I figured I would add these purchases to my front door decor.
What to eat: Food ideas
For food I was able to partner with a local charcuterie business for her date night board. It was so perfect! What I especially loved about it was that it was fall themed and had pumpkin butter as a dip as well as strong ground mustard.
If you are in the Houston area I highly recommend you hire Spread Charcuterie. She offers a wide range of options and she is also the sweetest person as well. Tell her I sent you.
If you are looking to make your own meal or charcuterie board for your date night I would suggest searching Pinterest for ideas. There are so many sandwiches, pasta salads, and affordable charcuterie ideas to be found. I’ve even seen a build your own charcuterie from Aldi!
Our board had stone ground mustard, pumpkin butter, gluten free crackers, Calabrese salami, Capocollo, aged infused white cheddar drizzled with chile infused honey, blueberry vanilla goat cheese, chocolate covered strawberries, and fresh veggies and grapes with blueberries.
Drink Ideas
For drinks, wine is a must but for me right now I am unable to drink alcohol due to some stomach/digestive issues I have been experiencing. We decided to make a Lavender lemonade. Long story short, I went to Round Top, TX with a friend for antique week (here’s the guide) we ate a place that had the best Lavender lemonade it was an alcoholic beverage and it was so dang good!
Lavender Lemonade recipe/ingredients
- Dry sparkling Lavender soda (I found this at HEB, our grocer.)
- Simply Delicious lemonade and pink lemonade
- Optional: your choice of alcohol
Mix them together to your preference and enjoy! *Dry is that brand of soda.
How to set your fall picnic up
Lay down your blanket
Rather in this case blanket scarf, any fall blanket you have will do. I don’t personally own a fall inspired picnic blanket but I have a ton of blanket scarfs so thats what I brought. We used 3 blankets scarfs for our picnic.
Stack your hay bales
Instead of stacking them on top of each other we decided to layer them. We had one flat on its side and the other one was propped up onto it at an angle.
Note: This was really hay and it got everywhere. It can be itchy also for those with sensitive skin.
On one of the hay bales I placed my black Hunter rain boots. If you are looking to buy your own pair, they go on sale for $80-99 each Black Friday and Christmas season. I brought mine because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to wear them in these pictures. When I decided not to, I used them as a prop and placed my faux fall florals inside of them. I got this set of florals from Hobby Lobby. I also places a few pumpkins on the hay bales.
Set up your picnic basket and your food
If you are looking for a cute and affordable picnic basket, this one is for 4 people and comes with 4 plates, cups, flatware, napkins, salt and pepper shakers, and a corkscrew! Everything has it’s place and can be secured all within the basket while still having room for food inside.
I opened mine and placed some coke inside and few fall touches that I got from the dollar tree last year.
Add the finishing touches
After the blankets, hay bales, and picnic basket were down the rest was easy. I added pumpkins in areas to accent the picnic and placed the food in front of the picnic basket. I also had a package of faux fall leaves and sprinkled them around as well. I’m in love with how this fall inspired picnic came out it was perfect for date night!
Breakdown of my items:
- Hay Bales and pumpkins from Houston Garden Centers
- Floral: mums from HEB
- Faux Florals: Dollar tree and Hobby Lobby
- Blanket scarfs: Amazon
- Charcuterie board from Spread Charcuterie
- Drinks from HEB
- Picnic Basket from Amazon
- Other fall touches from Dollar Tree
- Clothes: linked below
Concluding thoughts
I hope this Fall inspired date night picnic inspires you to do you own. I had so much fun setting this up and also so much fun celebrating with my husband. We really enjoyed this time together being able to be creative but also relax and enjoy our meal kid free! If you plan something similar be sure to tag me on instagram- @jennimetz, I would LOVE to see your picnic!
I have linked what I can in this post and at the bottom.
XO,
Shop the Post
Now that you know how to set up for fall date night picnic here are some fall outfit post for ideas.
Must have fall dresses: Amazon prime options
Cutest fall sweaters to add to your closet
