It’s officially summer and it’s time to soak up the sun and enjoy the outdoors! Summer is a lot different this year being in quarantine and possibly completely changing the way you view summer. With the pandemic and everything else 2020 has brought onto us, it’s time for some relaxation and aesthetically pleasing fun. I’m going to tell you how I pack my perfect picnics and how I make them relaxing, enjoyable and delicious.
- Food to pack
I really just skipped to the most important thing first and everything else will follow lol! I like to pack substantial food on picnics, but nothing too heavy because if you’re going to walk around or relax, you don’t want your food to go bad or get too warm to eat out in the sun. I like to pack a bunch of little foods and get full off the abundance of diversity I end up including in my basket.
Here are a few essentials that I love on picnics: WATER– Please don’t forget to pack water, pack at least 2-3 bottles of water and some cups so you can share with whoever you’re picnicking with, but stay hydrated! Wine or juice of some sort – I love Rose and White wine the best, and even if you don’t bring a full bottle to your picnic, its a nice treat when it’s chilled the night before to bring with your friends or significant other. We opted for a homemade Rose wine made by my stepdad which was great. Cheese– Quite possibly my favourite and the most important part. I absolutely love all different kinds of cheeses, we chose to pack a wedge of Brie and some bocconcini which was delicious. Meats– I love to pack cured meats on picnics because they’re refreshing, filling and you can eat them in so many different ways. Here I have some salami, ham and sausage. Some type of bread– We chose croissants this time around, which were great because we cut them open to make little sandwiches with our roasted red pepper hummus as a base, then piled on the meats and cheeses of choice, as well as some avocado! I also packed some crackers because they’re great to spread some hummus on and eat with meats and cheeses or just to eat by themselves. Fruits and Vegetables– We totally forgot to pack a salad however we both said how amazing and refreshing a beet salad , quinoa salad or greek salad would’ve been on a sunny day. We opted for some fresh berries ( Strawberries, blackberries, blueberries), some clementines and an avocado to split on our sandwich. We also packed some prunes in a small container because we didn’t have any dates. Hummus, Jam, some type of spread– As mentioned above, we chose to pack a roasted red pepper hummus which was amazing to spread on our croissant sandwich but jam would’ve also been so nice as well! Think about the tastes you want to evoke and then pack your picnic around that. Just when you think you haven’t packed enough food yet, trust me, you have more than enough already lol.
2. Utensils
Most importantly- pack a picnic blanket or blanket of some sort to sit on! Mine is from Winners and it’s this beautiful cream colour that goes with everything- I love it. My picnic basket is something I’ve had from my mom since I was 4 years old and it has definitely aged well. She stained it in a beautiful natural straw shade and it’s held up for 20 years! She got it initially from a local market in Toronto ( Kensington Market). Don’t forget to pack utensils on your picnic! Pack forks or spoons depending on what you’re eating, as well as a knife to cut things with. We remembered to pack a knife to cut our avocado at the last minute and made sure to wrap it up in some paper towel. Speaking of which, don’t forget to pack tissues and paper towel! Wipes are also a great idea (especially in the pandemic), to pack as well. We chose glass cups purely for the aesthetic haha, but you can totally pack plastic, paper or styrofoam cups in your basket to save on space and weight- you can also just throw them out later as well. Cups are great because you can share whatever it is that you’re drinking and it’s easy to just sit back with your drink in a cup. We also packed disposable plates to use at our picnic so that we could put our food on them and not worry about spilling. These worked out great and we got the really pretty plastic ones from Costco so they ended up looking really cute! Lastly, and completely optional of course– I packed a small cutting board/cheese board to display our food on! It looked so pretty and it really made the picnic look classy and put together- truly so beautiful! It was also so much fun to put all the food together on the board and make it look good for photos.
3. Where to Picnic?
This is also an important question! We decided to take this particular picnic to a more isolated spot on the beach, which was absolutely beautiful! Something about picnicking with the waves crashing against the rocks and being in the summer sun is amazing. We made sure to get lots of pictures and relax by the sand and water in our beach day. You can picnic literally anywhere from your backyard, to a park, a beach, the trunk of a car! The possibilities are really endless and you can make any place look absolutely gorgeous with the tips above to spruce it up!
4. Music
One of my favourite parts as I literally have a Spotify playlist for almost anything. We packed my portable speaker, which I love and it literally doesn’t run out of battery for days. You can check out and follow my Pretty Picnics Playlist on Spotify here which is a great blend of soft, calm, relaxing music. Music is really an escape for me, and it also really helps to set the mood for a relaxing, aesthetically pleasing and fun picnic.
5. Outfit
Wear whatever you feel most comfortable in! I choose to wear dresses to picnics because they’re easy and cool when it’s hot out, but they’re also really cute and sweet and are sooo my style. This one is from Pull & Bear and I was just about to link it but I can’t find it! I bought it at the Pull & Bear in Guayaquil, Ecuador in 2019. Floral prints look so pretty in picnic photos but you could really go with anything!
Hope you all enjoyed my little summer picnic guide and photos- let me know if you have a picnic with any of these tips and be sure to tag me and follow me on Instagram @savannah_alvarez !
xoxo
Savannah