Celebration table settings you can do

Creating a wonderful table isn’t rocket science. It takes a few flowers, some odds and ends of stuff you have around the house and a bit of time. In the market yesterday, I saw these wonderful Spider Mums in green and white. I always feel like red is an element you want to add in sparingly.

Because of their mass and size, I decided the tall thin glass vases I had were too ‘tippable’, so opted for some heavy bottomed crystal water glasses, partly filled with pebbles to hold the stems securely. I keep a couple bags of decorative pebbles in a box with stuff I use for arrangements. You could toss in some ribbon, candles and such, plus some inexpensive votives and vases. I find that Michaels is a wonderful source for inexpensive glass vases.

One thing I see done wrong all the time, is folks will try to stretch the flowers out. Too few flowers, in too many vases and then set in too many places. If ‘few’ is all you’ve got, then ‘mass’ them in dense groupings to make the biggest impact of them both color-wise and in sheer ‘presence’.

After I got the flowers positioned around the antler candelabra - which I had made, from an antler purchased in Wyoming, and then sent out to have the metal pinecone candle holders done by a custom metalworker - it’s time to add something else on the tabletop to ‘ground’ the arrangement.

In this case, rather than scattering the lighted candle votives around the house, I grouped them in and around bases of the flower filled water glasses.

 

This provides two levels of ‘light’ running through the tops of the flowers and then along the bottom.

Some years, I’ve taken golden and red christmas tree ornaments and scattered them under the antler and flowers, as they reflect the light upwards and out.

The key is to have lots of different basic materials around the house to work with, and simply bring them together in a creative way.

The last thing I ever worry about is ‘matchy-matchy’. I’ve collected favorite pieces since I was about 17 years old - uh, that’s the last four decades. I’ll mix up the silver with the gold with the copper. Old pieces with new. The only thing to really focus on is a color palette. I usually work with orange, green, whites, browns. As long as I stay within that, it all works. In fact, I believe it’s far more interesting to not try for the ulitmate matching everything.

Like professional designers, try to work in ‘odd’ numbers - 1,3,5 etc. It’s a more dynamic design element. I have 5 water glasses with the flowers and 7 of the votives, for example. There are 3 flowers in each water glass.

Since my dishes are pretty colorful, I keep the flowers to a minimum of colors - in this case green and white. If you have plain dishes, then go bolder with the flowers and other elements -such as napkins. And my napkins, in this case, are paper. I’m over washing and  ironing cloth napkins these days.

One thing you want to have handy when setting your table is a soft damp cloth. Giving a last minute wipe and swipe on the cutlery and glassware is important. And, I polished the table before setting it. I always light the candles, letting them burn for a couple minutes, before anybody shows up. It makes it much easier to do later, and you’ll know in advance if there’s a problem.

Get your serving pieces out early, as you set the table, thinking about what dish for what food, and then also get out the needed cutlery and spoons. You don’t want to be searching around while guests are waiting.

Also be cautious about placement of candles and flowers - or anything flammable. Nothing kills the holiday spirit faster than the fire department. And remember that the heat from candles will wilt your lovely flowers, which you can usually make last for several days after the big dinner.

Dripped wax isn’t hard to clean up. Use a ziplok bag of ice cubes with a bit of water in it. Lay that over the drips, and they’ll harden up and pop right off with a fingernail to help, from either wood or cloth.

-maven

Update on Monday, January 3, 2011 at 20:59 by mavenandmeddler

You’ve gotta hand it to the staying power of ‘mums’. Over a week has passed and they are still looking like brand new.

Well worth what you pay for them.