At Matthew Murrey Design we are all about the experience The experience of designing, the experience seeing that design come to life, and the experiences enjoyed by our clients as they use, entertain, and engage in their outdoor spaces. This year, we invite you to take part in a new Mother’s Day experience—an experience in the comfort of your own backyard or garden that is designed all around mom.
So how do you create the perfect Mother’s Day experience? Its simple, really. Just follow the three step guide we created below!
Pro Tip #1 – Make it Pretty
Hosting from the comforts of your own backyard, surrounded by beautiful landscape, you really don’t need to be too elaborate on decor, but spending a little bit of time on a few specific details can go a long way. Focus on simple things such as, setting the table and arranging fresh cut flowers from your garden as a centerpiece. These small tasks show that you took time out of your busy schedule to think and plan a special day just for mom.
For the arrangement above, we found a concrete bowl in the garden section of Target and used fresh cut flowers (tulip, hydrangea, rose, pittosporum, wax flower and asian jasmine) from our garden to create an arrangement for the table. And, since we used flowers from our own garden, the color palette matches perfectly with our surrounding landscape!
For gorgeous outdoor table settings, I highly suggest stopping by Nicholson-Hardie (if you are in the Dallas area). They have a vast assortment of melamine dishes perfect for dining al fresco. If you live outside of the DFW area, Target and Crate & Barrel provide great options.
Pro Tip #2 – Make Dining an Experience
Remember last Mother’s Day, where all the food was ready and waiting when your guest arrived, and you promptly ate as fast as you could, and the dining experience was over in 15-30 minutes? That is exactly the experience we are NOT trying t
o create (or recreate) this year! Instead, put a little more effort into the planning and prepare a menu with 3-4 different courses.
To help make your planning easier, we reached out to award-winning local chef and owner of Chef-Nic Catering, Dominic Theseanparks Jr. to get his ideas for the perfect Mother’s Day feast. Theseanparks suggest keeping it sophisticated but not complicated with his easy to follow Mother’s Day menu:
1st Course—Blackened Chicken Bruschetta
2nd Course—Charred Caesar Salad
3rd Course—Shrimp or Steak Skewers with Garlic Herb Smashed Red Potatoes and Grilled Vegetable Medley
4th course—Mom’s Favorite Dessert! This course is the easiest, this is where we encourage you to go ahead and order that cake or pie from the fancy bakery down the street that she is always raving about!
Pro Tip #3 Keep the Focus on Mom
Our most important piece of advice for making Mother’s Day an excellent experience is to remember the reason you are celebrating. Consider mom, her likes, and her wants in all of your planning and pay special attention in these areas:
- The Guest List – Know who to invite. Refrain from inviting friends and random others. Keep the crowd small and intimate, and include only her favorite people.
- Conversation Topics – Know what to talk about. Save conversations about topics such as politics, your siblings love life, and any other topics that involve points of contention for another day.
Let’s raise a toast to mom and to making this Mother’s Day an experience she will never forget.
We would love to see how you celebrated with mom in your outdoor space this year. Tweet or or post photos on Instagram using #mmdesignmoms.
Happy Mother’s Day!