what main course to serve at a nautical party

You can also serve Onigiri, Japanese rice, seaweed balls, sushi, oyster dishes, and other seafood dishes. The most exclusive cocktail parties resemble symphonies, with each course choreographed to harmonize with the other dishes. So make sure that your cocktails would pair well with your menu. 2. Serve Up Some Seafaring Suds

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What to do for a nautical birthday party?

Love the 'sea water' sign! You can't have a nautical birthday party and not have beautifully decorated anchor cookies like these! The red and blue hanging anchors and whales are a great decorative addition to your nautical party! This would be an easy DIY!

How do you serve hors d'oeuvres at a nautical themed party?

Chart your appetizer course with these original party hors d'oeuvre ideas to complement your nautical or sailing themed event. Our recipe picks include: And for the bar, add a bowl of goldfish, Life Savers, or gummy fish, just for fun! Cook shrimp in boiling water until pink, 2 to 3 minutes.

How do you decorate a nautical theme room?

Sailboats, anchors, wheels are a great source of inspiration and you can make fun garlands with them – just cut out some of cardboard. Use rope and life savers for décor, anchors and nautical striped tablecloths and table runners. Make nautical paper lanterns with various patterns.

What should I cook for a winter dinner party?

This vegetarian pot pie will always be welcome at a wintery dinner party. This hearty, tangy-sweet chicken stew couldn’t be simpler to throw together and it's a great comfort food to serve guests on a cold night. Cooking a whole fish is always going to wow your dinner guests.

Decorating & Food Ideas

Even if your nautical party isn't set on the high seas, you can still create an aquatic atmosphere for your little sailor.

Nautical Decorations

In addition to pizza, chicken fingers, hamburgers or hotdogs, you can add some nautical themed food into the mix. Here are some suggestions.

Party Favor Ideas

Thank your guests with an ocean of party favors! Some of the favors we have include:

Nautical Party Décor

Take navy and white balloons and hang them all over, make a large anchor of them. organize a photo booth of a usual sheet – just paint it in navy stripes and add seaside inspired props. Sailboats, anchors, wheels are a great source of inspiration and you can make fun garlands with them – just cut out some of cardboard.

Food

Food will not only be a great treat but also a part of décor. Let your imagination go wild, serve fruits and berries in nautical cups, place popcorn in nautical cardboard boxes, bake oyster cookies and put candies as pearls inside.

Nautical Dessert Table

Check out this fantastic red and blue nautical 1st birthday dessert table. The pale blue striped backdrop with the red and blue garland is so cute!! Love the blue anchor garland hanging on the table, along with all the desserts and awesome birthday cake!

Nautical Cake Pops

These nautical life preserver cake pops are gorgeous. I love the little red and blue ribbons that match the fondant toppers.

Nautical Table Settings

Such a simple yet beautiful nautical table setting in red, white, and blue. The garlands on the chairs really bring it all to life!

Nautical Cake

This classic nautical cake in white and navy blue adds a touch of class to any dessert table! Love the rope icing around the middle tier. So stylish!

Nautical Drinks

The cute printables on these little water bottles bring the theme home! Love the 'sea water' sign!

Nautical Cookies

You can't have a nautical birthday party and not have beautifully decorated anchor cookies like these!

Nautical Party Decorations

The red and blue hanging anchors and whales are a great decorative addition to your nautical party! This would be an easy DIY!

Cedar-Plank Salmon

A big salmon fillet always feels like a festive main course, especially when it's cooked on a cedar grilling plank, so it picks up a whisper of smoky flavor. Kick off your seafood-themed dinner party with grilled oysters and pair the fish with a simple tomato salad.

Braised Chicken Legs With Grapes and Fennel

There's nothing wrong with defaulting to chicken when you're trying to think of dinner party ideas. The key is to select a truly special chicken recipe, like this easy sweet-and-spicy braise, made with ribbons of fennel and juicy table grapes. You'll want to have a loaf of bread on the side for sopping up the sauce.

Seared Scallops With Brown Butter and Lemon Pan Sauce

Scallops are always a stunner, but these are dead simple to make: Juice lemons. Spoon out capers. Heat pan. Cook scallops. Make sauce in same pan. Serve.

Grilled Pizza

Grilling pizza makes a main dish recipe into a party. This dough is designed for the grill—you can get creative with your toppings, or let your guests go wild. (Just don't get them started about whether you need New York tap water to make a superior slice.)

Double-Stack Mushroom and Chicken Cheeseburgers

These chicken-and-mushroom burgers are worthy of a weekend hangout, but totally possible to make for a casual dinner party on a weeknight. Curry mustard is the ideal condiment, but you can use whatever mustard you have on hand.

Quick Potato Gnocchi

Impress your friends with homemade gnocchi, then let them in on the secret: these pillowy Italian dumplings were made quicker with instant mashed potatoes. Top with Parmesan and fresh herbs, and serve a salad after.

Broken Lasagna With Parmesan and All the Peas

Break long lasagna noodles into squares and suddenly you have makeshift fazzoletti, or handkerchief pasta. In this recipe, the flat, wide shapes drape over themselves, trapping the buttery, lemony sauce.

Why You Should Consider a Nautical Dinner Party

Believe it or not, we purchased a lot of the decor at Dollar Tree! Here are all the coastal themed elements you can find at your local dollar store:

Wine Bottle Coastal Centerpiece

This gorgeous wine bottle centerpiece is one of our favorite elements on the table. The base is actually two galvanized trays stacked on top of each other. First a flat dessert tray and then a deep tray. This will hold the 3 wine bottles and let us add seashells and starfish in the between to fill in the holes.

Coastal Table Setting Ideas

We ordered a large batch of rope and made our own rope themed items for the place setting.

Nautical Themed Drink Station

By the wine bar, we created this mini drink station. Simply add mason jars onto the tray. Decorate the mason jar with a cute candy lifesaver that you tie around with twine. A double drink dispenser held water and lemonade with fresh blueberries.

Nautical Brown Paper Scroll

Our favorite DIY nautical decor element was this brown paper scroll we used as a countertop runner. We have seen these amazing paper scroll projects all over Pinterest and this was the perfect occasion to incorporate it into the decor since it matched the color of the rope.

DIY Coastal Dessert Table

I have a lot of space in my dining room but not a lot of furniture. We thought it would be fun to create a separate area to display the desserts ahead of time since we had so many cute desserts to match the nautical theme.

Boat Themed Food Ideas

You can’t have a nautical-themed party with super cute boat-shaped food! It’s so easy. All you need to make is a bunch of these paper sails on toothpicks. Then add it to ANY dessert.