Midsummer's Eve

A few months ago, my dear friend Giedre and I were on one of our many wanderings around the city of Chicago when she mentioned kind of sadly that this might be her first summer not making a flower crown. It's an annual tradition for Lithuanians like herself to celebrate Midsummer's Eve with flower crowns and bonfires. It seemed like a shame for her tradition to stop, so I started brainstorming an occasion for her to make a flower crown ... and thus the idea for our Midsummer Garden Party was born.

June 20 was Midsummer's Eve, so we had a little Midsummer's Eve party at my parents' house the 19th. Flower crowns, a bonfire, food, festive outfits... and our good friend who's in the process of opening his own brewpub brought a special homemade mead for the occasion. It was fabulous.

In classic Tess fashion, I forgot to take any pictures during the party... All I have are these ones from before it started, when we were getting everything set up. Who can remember to take pictures when you're busy having fun?! Luckily Giedre took some fabulous ones so I will direct you over to her post (and include a few of hers here!). 

The flower crown station, with a costume station next to it in case anyone needed to borrow a fancy cape:

The bonfire circle:

And flower-garnished tables for drinks and snacks! Special thanks to my good friend Ellie for helping to plan the party and get everything set up.

My little sister and two of her friends dressed up as fairies and had us all laughing with their British accents and lofty promises to grant us Midsummer wishes (my mom took this picture!):

I especially love this picture with my dear friend and "name twin" Theresa:

She is the best.

Some of the guys went all out in vests and knee breeches, and my youngest sister got really into making flower crowns and made one for each girl and even for some of the babies to wear too.

The one thing I would do differently is have the party on a Saturday instead of a Friday, so it would be easier for people to get to after work. But it ended up going so well that now I want to make it an annual tradition!

The irony is that I used to be kind of opposed to the whole concept of flower crowns on adults. I recently saw an article on how to make flower crowns in a women's magazine, and my inner curmudgeon was all, "You have to be kidding me. What are we, 7? I think we're a little too grown-up to need advice on how to make flower crowns of all things!" But the joke's on me, because when Giedre suggested the idea, I absolutely fell in love with it. Why not do something kind of silly and frivolous like that every once in a while? We had a blast.

Happy Midsummer, friends!