Photo courtesy of Potomac Picnics
Potomac Picnics charcuterie board
With a background in hospitality and corporate event planning, Alexandria resident Amanda Erickson decided she wanted to become her own boss, and create a career that fostered her creative essence after being laid off from her corporate job.
“People come to me to plan things because they don’t have the time or the resources...people want something new and unique to spoil (someone) in their lives,” she said.
Her business, Potomac Picnics, is a spectator’s dreamscape, with each picnic setting crafted and staged by herself and her assistant and best friend, Erin Sweeny.
Photo courtesy of Potomac Picnics
A tent is part of the picnic setup created by Potomac Picnics
When I sluggishly stumbled upon one of their photogenic picnics in Alexandria's Founder’s Park, its billowy ambience could have easily whisked me away from another bartending shift onto a champagne-induced, Target-brand cloud.
Since starting her business in April, Erickson has been constructing bougie picnics across the DMV to people itching to get out of a quarantine funk. She offers three packages. The most popular and intimate is called Cozy & Casual. Another is Boho & Bubbly, similar to Cozy & Casual, but for larger parties up to eight. Erickson’s favorite, The Movie Night, is set up on private property with a projector, screen and lots of popcorn.
Each package provides charcuterie boards, beverages, decor, utensils, blankets, different games and activities, and personalized enhancements that can be added to each package. That includes things like polaroid prints, champagne, your favorite takeout or a s'mores station, making each picnic unique.
Their charcuterie board is “90 percent from Lidl and Aldi...making it more affordable as a business and for guests, with a great selection of new and rotating items.” To go all-out for your own picnic, local businesses such as Alexandria Pastry, Neighborhood Provisions, Balducci's or Slater's Market can help you create a picnic basket or board.
Photo courtesy of Potomac Picnics
A signature elephant can be found among the decor at most Potomac Picnics
Each Potomac Picnic location is within 25 miles of D.C, from Founder’s Park waterfront view, to the fan favorite, Gravelly Point, with its up close and personal view of the planes flying overhead. When looking for the perfect picnic space, Erickson poses the question: “Does the area take away from the aesthetic of the picnic that you worked hard to create?” Picking an area with parking is essential, as well as cleanliness and accessibility to bathrooms.
As a guru of the details, Erickson makes her picnics look like something that could only have come out of the Crate & Barrel catalog, but on a HomeGoods budget. For setting up your own picnic, it’s essential to pick items that not only build on each other, but “will not take away from the whole set up.”
She starts with a base — a carpet, blanket or sheet — and adds affordable essentials like placemats, pillows and decorative place settings or paper products. Erickson loves to incorporate trendy floral arrangements like pampas grass as a centerpiece, but any floral arrangement from your local florist or Trader Joe’s will do.
Erickson focuses on using multipurpose pieces and advises if you're creating your own to go with things “that you can use for both the picnic and then to furnish your home” from her go-to supply shops — Target, Ikea, HomeGoods, Walmart, World Market and thrift stores. “Once you put all the components together, a $5 item versus a $100 item won't make a difference, it’s about how you put it together.”
To add make her picnics unique, she also buys pieces from local businesses like Etsy or does DIY projects, like the custom picnic tables her father made. “You don’t have to spend $300 at Ikea to get what you want...you can build it yourself and then (it) means something to you.”
Erickson puts her on special mark on each picnic — a golden elephant — that creates not just an aesthetically pleasing Instagram post, but a real-life experience that can't be liked or retweeted.
