Looking for outdoor entertaining ideas? Want to host friends in your garden? We've come up with plenty of ways to create an event to remember with our alfresco entertaining ideas. Create a makeshift bar, invest in a pizza oven or build your own fire pit for toasting s'mores.

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Try our ideas below then check out our picnic food recipes, BBQ recipes, plus our guide on how to create a festival in your garden.

For more entertaining advice, we asked 15 top chefs and foodies to share their effortless entertaining hacks and tips.


Best outdoor entertaining ideas

BBQ from scratch

Take your BBQ to the next level by pre-making your own condiments and serving in hand-labelled bottles and jars. Try our homemade BBQ sauce, homemade sriracha, BBQ marinades, aïoli and hot pepper jelly. Other creative ideas include a build-your-own kebab stand and a pick 'n' mix wing station (try making a combination of BBQ chicken wings, BBQ fish sauce wings and vegan cauliflower buffalo wings).

Chicken Wings Recipe with BBQ Fish Sauce

Outdoor afternoon tea

A homemade afternoon tea makes the most picturesque picnic. Invite your friends or family round for tea and surprise them with an elaborate spread of sandwiches, scones, patisseries and cakes. Our favourite al fresco afternoon tea picnic recipes include cheese and chive scones, early grey and yogurt madeleines and coffee loaf cake, but you can pick and choose from our best afternoon tea recipes. If you don't have an outdoor table, give a wooden crate a clean and turn upside down for a rustic look, or invest in a sturdy picnic blanket.

A pile of fresh scones with one cut in half on a plate

Gin and tonic garden bar

Make like Café Öbergskain Gothenburg, and set up your own DIY gin bar in the garden. Check out our guide for how to make the perfect gin and tonic, including perfect serves – which tonic water to match to each type of gin, from spiced to citrus, floral to juniper-forward, along with garnishes that bring out particular botanicals. You can even forage for the latter in your garden and set your guests on a quest to find the likes of lavender, mint, basil and more for a fun, interactive experience. Serve your gins in these pretty tumblers, or check out our favourite gin and cocktail glasses.

A man behind a wooden bar outside with trees in the background

DIY pizzas

Perfect your pizza skills with our expert, step-by-step guide to making pizza from scratch. Get the bases ready then prep a selection of toppings and let your guests decorate their own. Our pizza dough recipe works equally well in a domestic oven, and our expert has included cooking instructions for the perfect crisp base.

If you want to invest in a pizza oven, we love Ooni's elegant, portable model which you can take on the move, whether it's on a camping trip with family, to the beach with friends or somewhere further afield. Check out our guide to the best pizza ovens to buy for summer for more models, tried and tested by experts.

Homemade pepperoni pizza cut into four slices

Backyard campfire

Build a fire pit to gather around and pretend you're in the wild in your own back garden. Made with just five ingredients, our take on s'mores features the all-American pairing of peanut butter and jam, or build your own s'mores pots for a memorable dessert.

Stack of s'mores with peanut butter and jam

Outdoor cocktail party

Make a few batches of bottled cocktails and put them in the freezer until your guests arrive. Display them on ice along with a selection of garnishes and cocktail glasses, and let your guests pick and pour their own on arrival. Choose between pre-bottled limoncello, our summer bottled cocktail, or our elderflower and raspberry bottled mocktail. We also love Max and Noel Venning's (of Three Sheets and lockdown success online bottle shop, Shop Cuvée) book Batched & Bottled for next-level, pre-batched seasonal drinks recipes. Prefer to leave the mixing to the experts? Buy concoctions from the UK's best mixologists using our pre-bottled cocktails guide.

A bottle of homemade limoncello with two glasses on the side

Pickling station

Get creative with activity ideas and create a pickling stand in the garden. Despite what you might think, you don’t need lots of specialist equipment and expert know-how to get started with pickling – you probably have everything you need in your storecupboard. Most pickles are made by soaking (mostly) raw, fresh ingredients in a vinegar-based brine with sugar and salt, flavoured with spices and herbs. Give a jar to each guest and have ingredients in bowls ready to add to the mix. Try our best pickling recipes to get you started. It's a fun foodie activity and guests can take away not only a new skill but a jar of pickles to add crunch to sandwiches, create a stunning charcuterie platter or an epic bbq burger.

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two kilner jars on a wooden board filled with deep red beetroot

Alfresco brunch bar

Make your own waffles and get people to mix and match with toppings. Serve the toppings in bowls and the waffles in a pile and let everyone build their own. Add some fresh, homemade bagels to the table with smoked salmon and cream cheese, or make like the French and bake your own baguettes to serve with various spreads, for an authentic 'pâte à tartiner' experience – we love Biscoff biscuit spread, Venchi's hazelnut spread and Sous Chef's Sicilian pistachio cream. Or check out more brunch ideas in our collection.

Easy Waffles Recipe

Authors

Alex CrossleyDigital Editor

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