Festive Table Scape

A good friend of mine, Cori Sue Morris, writes a really awesome blog, Bitches Who Brunch. She recently mentioned that she had 10 lobster tails being sent to her, and would I be interested in cohosting a lobster dinner party with her and our other friend, Lindsey Becker, who has recently started cooking school! I of course said yes and started thinking about recipes, etc. One of my favorite parts of having a dinner party is setting a fun, festive table. Mine are always very basic but I think it is nice to spruce it up with colored napkins and other small items on the table. This is a particularly easy and inexpensive one to recreate, as it requires very little- a white or grey tablecloth (I borrowed another one of my friend Kendall's...again), burgundy or red napkins, an assortment of silver napkin rings (or silver ribbon!), a few silver ornaments (you could spraypaint pinecones, holly leaves or glass ball ornaments if you wanted to DIY), 2 pillar candles and some hurricanes, and some white roses for the centerpiece. I wish I could have gone totally above and beyond, but most of us (myself included) are on budgets so I improvised with what I wanted to spend. Usually when I buy entertaining gear, my go to stops are Homegoods (far away so only if I'm feeling ambitious), World Market, and Crate and Barrel. C&B has cloth napkins for $3.95 each which I think are a great deal since you can throw them in the washing machine and dryer. Everything I used in this table scape is from there, save for the hurricanes which are from World Market. At both places (WM especially) you can get nice looking silverware, glassware, and plates etc. on the cheap which I love. I think that food looks best on plain white plates, but depending on the season I'll add in some color.

Today when I went to C&B, I had no idea what I wanted to do with the table. All I had was 6 napkin rings (I needed 8) and the tablecloth. I wanted to match the napkin rings, but they were out of the ones I had previously bought so I bought 2 each of the other silver ones that were there and decided to mix and match which I think is cute and slightly less predictable than using the same one for each person. I also got some silver ribbon in case I decided to use that instead, which I think is awesome in place of a napkin ring and sometimes even cuter. When I am setting a table, I like to start with either the tablecloth or placemats, then pick the napkins, followed by candles and centerpiece, followed by the "accessories." It is kind of like putting an outfit together, and you want to get things that coordinate with each other as well as other items in your entertaining "wardrobe." Some of the items are not necessary, but my mother always sets a beautiful table which includes more than all of those so I like to try to recreate as much as possible (my tables will never be as nice as hers but I continue to try!).

Today, I had no idea what color napkins to get and originally grabbed red. After thinking my table would be a little too Christmasey, I went with a burgundy color I thought would be really pretty against silver and grey but still festive. I then picked out some grey candles (white would have been fine but the grey are awesome), and realized all of the silver ornaments were on sale. I grabbed a bunch of the less than $2 ones (12 or so) to spread around the table. If you were feeling generous, you could put a few at each guest's place as a take away. You can also use them on your tree after dinner, or put them in a glass bowl on your front hall table for a festive decoration.

In terms of centerpieces, I always prefer to do a simple one on my own. You can buy a bunch of flowers at the grocery store and arrange them yourself which is about $80 less than buying a pre made arrangement. I decided to stick with the white/silver/grey/burgundy theme and do an arrangement of white roses. While I was checking out, it dawned on me that adding some fresh cranberries to the flowers would tie everything together nicely so I grabbed a bag of those and figured I'd fit them in somewhere, either on the table (which I opted against since I am on a borrowed tablecloth and do not want to stain) or with the flowers. Short arrangements are preferable so that your guests can all see each other, so I used a short vase and cut the flowers down a little more than half way and removed the leaves for a cleaner look. I put the flower food in the water and added some cranberries. I ended up adding more at the end, about 1/2 the bag total. I am pretty pleased with myself and it was incredibly easy to do, you just have to fuss with and keep cutting/rearranging the flowers until they look right.

Once I had the flowers, candles, plates, and napkins on the table (I don't put glassware because guests are always drinking already), I spread out the ornaments. I was worried it was going to take me about 5 hours of arranging and rearranging to make it look like I hadn't arranged them at all, but for whatever reason it worked out perfectly on my first try. I wanted them to be sort of grouped but also random. Anyway I like how they look and am going to leave them be. Last stop is silverware, most of which I got on there save for a few place settings (which I will need for dinner tonight). Again, this is very basic but so much nicer than seeing a wood table with white paper napkins and nothing else. Now off to make some Christmas Candy!