'Cheers to the Girls' Labor Day Weekend!' (Photos)

My only regret about the Labor Day party I threw this weekend with my friend Jomario Jakes was that I couldn't invite more people due to the smallness of my backyard! So if you didn't get an invite, it wasn't because I didn't love you dearly — my amount of space (and food I was willing to cook) didn't!

One of the themes of ANTISOCIAL is about being social in spite of *waves around dramatically at the collapsing state of the world.* People have become more withdrawn and, ahem, "antisocial," so I like to do things that get us out of our comfort zones and into our party zones! Thus, everyone who knows me knows I love to cook and entertain. Enter my friend Jomario, a fateful garden brunch at Laduree Soho back in May, and the ideas you come up with when you're tipsy on champagne!

Jomario and I share a love for Bravo's Real Housewives, especially the once-incredible Real Housewives of Atlanta. (Last season was lacking, but we have hope for the future!) One of our favorite moments in the series was the highly problematic but entertainingly dramatic party Nene Leakes threw in Season 10, on Episode 4. Yes, I am talking about the "Girls and Gays Never Forget All-White Seafood Soiree." Letting go of the weirdness of Nene suggesting her girls bring their "best gays" to the party as if that wasn't offensive, (stylist Derek J. notes in the episode that one might not appreciate white people throwing a "bring your best Black friend" party. Ahem!) the party was pretty memorable, living up to the "never forget" part of its title!

I, half-joking but very serious, proposed the idea of Jomario and me hosting this party together, and to my delight, Jomario loved it! A reality TV dream became a reality in my Bed-Stuy/Ocean Hill backyard on Saturday, August 30th.

The party had everything! Kim Zolciak inspired red Solo cups! A "Don't Be Tardy for the Party" playlist featuring "On Display" by Melissa Gorga, and a lot of yacht rock and lady hip hop! A plate with Real Housewives of Potomac former star Monique Samuels' face on it! Everyone wearing white even though it wasn't mandatory! Actual seafood in the form of lobster, Maryland blue crab, snow crab clusters, shrimp drenched in butter and Old Bay with corn, potatoes, and andouille sausage! A bomb banana pudding! My friend (and incredible hairstylist) Jason Lamar catching party-crashing yellow jackets with his hands! Spicy hot jerk chicken and homemade guacamole! My 'Peter Thomas Is In Prison' Sorrel Punch made with Joy's Island Spice (shoutout to my girl Junny Hibbert for introducing me to that delicious elixir)! My girl Susan Lee Kim serving body-ody-ody (along with quite a few others)! Blow up disco balls! Backyard decor and design by Jomario! Re-enactments of fun #RHOA moments! FASHIONS! And photos by the legendary Audrey J. Bernard of the New York Beacon!

The party was such a blast that Jomario and I are planning to make this an annual event! So this was the 1st Annual Danielle & Jomario's Girls and Gays #RHOA Never Forget All-White Labor Day Party & Seafood Soiree. (Seriously feel like we could fit a few more words in that title!) Everything was so perfect that I wouldn't have changed anything about our party, except that next year, I'm hiring someone to clean up afterwards. Because, baby! I was not in the mood once everyone left! (Although I appreciated all the late-stayers who helped tidy up and bring tables and chairs back indoors.)

(Everyone who knows me knows I mess up kitchens; I don't like cleaning them. In St. Louis, my mom and I had a deal. I would cook (which she hated doing) if she would wash dishes and clean the kitchen afterwards (which she was HAPPY to do). Nothing has changed. I washed all my dishes over four dishwasher loads in two days afterward.)

A big thank you from Jomario and me to everyone who helped set up, including Madison J. Gray, the new executive editor of the New York Amsterdam News, who pulls double-duty as my boyfriend of three years. He did all that work and didn't even get a crab leg. Sorry, boo! And much love to the always on-time Jason Lamar, who did the most important job of removing a long-dead, decaying Brooklyn rat from the backyard before the party started. I owe you a banana pudding! Lastly, shoutout to The Imperfect Match on Etsy, which supplied the Real Housewives-themed matchboxes that I gave away as party favors!

And thank you to all the attendees who showed up in support of Jomario and me! You all looked so good! See you next year!