I had a little idea for a summer party…

And like most of my “little” party ideas, it didn’t stay little for very long.

I wanted to throw one really fun summer night at our home for friends, neighbors, clients and some of the people we’re lucky enough to work with. Seattle summers are hard to beat, and after all the work we’ve done on our outdoor spaces this year, it felt like the perfect excuse to fill them with people we love and enjoy a night by the water.

The idea started pretty simply, but somewhere along the way I started imagining our own little seaside town for the night. A tavern for Dan, a cookie shop for Ally, Bait & Tackle for Hudson and, of course, a General Store for me. Once those pieces came together, the rest of the party started taking shape around them.

We added gingham-covered tables, white chairs, lawn games, flowers, great food and drinks, and about a million little details I couldn’t resist. Every corner had something happening, and seeing everyone actually enjoying all the things I’d dreamed up was probably my favorite part.

Welcome to the Keller Summer Social ’26

Captain Dan’s Tavern

Captain Dan’s Tavern might have been one of my favorite “businesses” of the whole party.

We hired Wandering Taps again to run the bar, and I truly can’t say enough good things about them. They are the kind of vendor you want at a party. They show up, take over and do their job so well that you never have to think about them again. When you’re hosting a party with a million moving pieces, that is EVERYTHING.

I recently bought a canning machine, so naturally I decided this was the perfect excuse to put it to work. We created custom canned drinks with the Captain Dan’s Tavern logo, and they were such a hit.

To keep everyone from having to wait at the bar for a drink, we filled Hudson’s boat with ice and loaded it with cold canned drinks so guests could help themselves throughout the night. It ended up being such an easy way to keep the bar line moving. Turns out Hudson’s boat makes a pretty great cooler.

We created a drink for each member of the Keller crew, including Captain Dan’s Cran, The JC and, of course, the Kellerita. Cindy from The Disco Edit made the cutest acrylic bar menu with all of our signature drinks, which pulled the whole tavern together.

Ally’s Cookie Shop

This one was a big one for me.

This was the first party I’ve thrown in 20 years where I didn’t personally bake the desserts or have my bake shop make them. That felt a little wild!

Ally has been perfecting her chocolate chip cookie recipe for a while now, and I can officially say she makes the best chocolate chip cookies. The catch? You can’t buy them and she doesn’t share the recipe. She just loves baking them for friends and family, which makes getting one even better.

For the Summer Social, Ally took on the baking and made what felt like a million of her giant chocolate chip cookies. So naturally, I had to give her a shop of her own. We created Ally’s Cookie Shop, packaged up all of her cookies and filled the shop with them for guests to grab throughout the night.

And let’s just say there was not a single crumb left by the end of the party. In fact, at one point I’m pretty sure people were hoarding them.

Hudson’s Bait & Tackle

If there’s one thing Hudson loves, it’s fishing, so Hudson’s Bait & Tackle was an obvious addition to our little Summer Social town.

Usually when we’re getting ready for a party, I’m asking Hudson to please get all of his fishing gear out of sight. This time, I was the one digging through it and hauling it out for decorations!

We used his crab pots, buoys, fishing poles and other gear to set the scene, then mixed in vintage bait buckets, old wooden boxes and tin trays to make it feel like an actual little bait shop.

Except, of course, our “bait” was candy.

I found little bait cups on Amazon and filled the shop with gummy worms, Swedish candy fish and all kinds of gummy bait. The Swedish fish candy was a HUGE hit. Guests could fill their own bait cup to take home, and I loved watching everyone dig through the candy looking for their favorites.

And because apparently opening a fictional bait shop for one night wasn’t enough, we made Hudson’s Bait & Tackle merch to go with it. We did the same for Ally’s Cookie Shop and Captain Dan’s Tavern, and seeing everyone walking around in their little shop merch made the whole thing even more fun.

Jenny’s General Store

And then there was the J. Keller General Store.

I’ve always thought about opening a general store. I have a LOT of ideas, and this is one that has stayed in the back of my mind for years. Not just any general store, but a really curated one filled with my favorite finds, clean brands, things you can’t find everywhere, and those little products you discover and immediately want to tell everyone about.

So for the Summer Social, I decided to create a mini version of it.

We mixed all of my favorite products with vintage display pieces, old wooden crates and nostalgic penny candy to make it feel like a little old-fashioned shop. I reached out to some of the brands I already love and work with and asked if they wanted to be part of it, and they completely showed up for us.

We ended up with the most incredible mix of beauty, wellness, home, food and everyday favorites for our guests to shop.

My “merch” for the party was a custom J.Keller General Store tote, and guests could use one of their shop tickets on a tote and fill it with their finds.

My mom helped me merchandise the entire store, and she is SO good at this kind of thing. We had so much fun setting everything out and making every little shelf and corner look just right. When we finally stepped back, it was exactly what I had pictured in my head. Maybe better.

And the General Store was a HIT. Watching everyone wander through, discover products, compare what they were choosing and get excited about their finds was so much fun.

It actually made me think maybe that general store idea shouldn’t stay just an idea forever.

The Flowers

Pretty Flower Farm also helped make the entire party feel extra special. Zhanna created the sweetest mini bouquets for guests to take home from the General Store, wrapped up and ready to grab on their way out.

She also offers DIY flower buckets, which I used for the flowers throughout the party. Hudson made the drive up to the farm the day of the party to pick them up for me, and I have truly never arranged flowers faster in my life. Nothing like buckets of beautiful flowers arriving on party day to really test your floral-arranging speed. ?

They turned out so pretty and were exactly what I wanted: loose, colorful summer flowers that felt like they had just been gathered from the garden.

And having the little bouquets waiting for guests at the end of the night was such a sweet finishing touch.

Inside Jenny’s General Store

The Charm Bar

I always like to have some kind of activity at a party. It gives people something to do, especially when you have guests coming from different parts of your life who may not all know each other.

And selfishly, I could have sat at this one all night.

A couple of years ago I hosted a girls’ night with BaubleBar charm kits, and it was one of my favorite party activities we’ve ever done. If you like anything crafty, they are SO much fun. I’ve gifted the kits more times than I can count since then, and they always get rave reviews.

So when I started planning the Summer Social, I knew a BaubleBar Charm Bar would be perfect.

BaubleBar sent us charm kits for the party, and I set up a long table with their placemats and coasters for everyone to work at. I used quarter-sheet cookie pans to hold all of the charms, so guests could grab a tray, pick out the charms they wanted and bring everything back to the table to create.

It ended up being such a fun little spot to sit down, make something and visit for a while. And just as expected, people got VERY into choosing their charms.

I would do this activity again in a heartbeat. For a girls’ night, birthday, shower or really any party with a crafty crowd, it’s such an easy win.

Dick’s Drive-In

For food, I really wanted the Dick’s Drive-In food truck.

If you’re from the Seattle area, Dick’s needs very little introduction. It’s been around forever, everyone has their order, and it felt perfect for the party.

I was actually so set on having the truck that when they weren’t available on our original date, I moved the party. Totally normal behavior.

Seeing the Dick’s truck pull onto our property was pretty great, but seeing how excited everyone was when they spotted it was even better.

They served burgers and milkshakes throughout the night, so guests could grab something whenever they wanted and get right back to the party.

And one of my favorite little extras: toward the end of the night, the truck made up bags of burgers for guests to take home.

The General Store may have been the big hit with the women, but let’s just say the guys were VERY happy walking out with their own bag of Dick’s. ?

Between General Store bags and burger bags, apparently no one was leaving the Summer Social empty-handed.

Styling the Party

For the actual styling, I pulled heavily from my own collection of party props. After this many years of throwing parties, I have a pretty great stash tucked away in storage, and I reuse pieces constantly.

If you look closely at party photos from over the years, you’ll probably recognize tables, chairs, crates, display pieces and all kinds of things that have been reinvented more times than I can count.

I never totally know how everything is going to come together until I start pulling it all out and moving things around, but somehow it always does.

We scattered seating and tables throughout the property rather than creating one big dining area, covered the tables in gingham and mixed in all of those older pieces with the custom Summer Social artwork and fresh flowers.

I wanted people to be able to grab a burger, find a seat, wander down by the water, make a charm, shop the General Store or just stand around and visit.

And then there were all the tiny details. Custom signs, menus, stickers, packaging, cups and merch. Those are always the things I have the most fun with. Are they completely necessary? Probably not. Do they make the party? I think so.

The Playlist

And of course, we needed a playlist.

I put together a Keller Summer Social playlist for the night and had it playing throughout the property. I’ll link it here on Spotify because a good party playlist is always worth sharing.

Goldie & Penny’s Dog Park

Of course, we couldn’t create an entire little Summer Social town and leave out Goldie and Penny.

Goldie & Penny’s Dog Park became a little lawn area for guests to hang out and play yard games throughout the night. We gave it its own custom sign and carried the same hand-drawn Summer Social artwork into this part of the party too.

Mostly, I just loved that every member of the Keller household officially had their own little piece of the Summer Social, including the dogs.

One Summer Night

As much as I love dreaming up all of these details, my favorite part is always seeing people actually enjoying them.

By the time the party started, there wasn’t anything left to arrange or move around. The shops were open, Dick’s was serving burgers, drinks were coming out of Captain Dan’s Tavern, people were making charms and wandering around with cookies and candy.

We had friends, neighbors, clients and people we work with all mixed together, which was exactly what I hoped for when I started planning it.

There is something pretty great about looking around your own backyard and seeing an idea that lived in your head for months completely full of people.

Until Next Summer…

I love dreaming up a party almost as much as I love throwing one. There’s something about starting with a completely random idea in my head, watching all the little pieces come together, and then finally seeing people actually enjoying it that never gets old.

The Keller Summer Social was exactly that. Our little shops were full, burgers were flying out of the Dick’s truck, drinks were cold, cookies disappeared faster than we could put them out, and everywhere I looked, people were having a good time.

The next morning was a very different story.  But I’d do it all over again.

Shop the Keller Summer Social

Shop Jenny’s General Store

All of the beauty, home, wellness, food and other favorite brands we stocked inside the General Store.

Shop the Keller Summer Social

The party details you can recreate: BaubleBar charm kits, Hudson’s Bait & Tackle supplies, Ally’s Cookie Shop details, gingham tablecloths, cups, canning machine, charm trays and more.

Vendors & Credits

Party Design: Chelcea Creative
Bar: Wandering Taps
Acrylic Bar Sign: The Disco Edit
Flowers: Pretty Flower Farm
Food: Dick’s Drive-In
Charm Bar: BaubleBar
Photography: Kelly Baxter

If you plan to throw a party like this, I’d love to see it or hear about it!

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