Thanksgiving Day for us is about beauty and food, and fun and family! Planning for a gathering around our table to enjoy a delicious meal together, whether it’s just the two of us, or with family and friends, is always an exciting way to start thinking about the holiday and how to make it special. Because we’ll be spending so much of the day at the table, making it beautiful was an important part of my planning. This year I went with a lush garden theme to bring the outside in, and to make it feel as if we were dining alfresco.
Design a beautiful garland for the table
I wanted to create an anchor for the table that had a lush garden feel to it, which came together with layering both bay leaf and seeded eucalyptus stems to create a garland. I then added a variety of real, artificial and even candle pumpkins, and finished it off with some mercury votive candles and pillar candles in varying heights.
Add flowers for brightness
I created the floral arrangement for the table to continue with my lush garden theme. For many table designs, the look won’t come together completely until the flowers are arranged and put on the table. I typically use artificial flowers in my designs so I can put the arrangement together a week or so before the holiday and tune without worrying about watering or wilting.
Putting together the arrangement can be daunting when you first start! I always have an idea of what I want the final look to be, but once I start designing, it tends to come together on its own if I’ve chosen the right florals and greenery to begin with. Investing in some quality faux florals gives you a lot of flexibility in floral arrangement for many table designs, and stores like Michael’s and websites like Afloral.com have wonderful real touch flowers that I use over and over again in different arrangements.
Here, I used a footed bowl and put a metal floral frog in the bottom to anchor the flowers, as well as clear floral tape as a guide for the flowers. I then started by adding all the artificial greenery first; I used the same seeded eucalyptus stems I used for the table garland. Then I added white hydrangeas, several white roses, and a few orange ranunculus stems for added color.
I finished off the floral centerpiece with a few organic springs I pulled out of a live arrangement from the grocery store and let air dry – they added that extra texture the final arrangement needed.
Setting the table to carry the theme to each place setting
For this year’s Thanksgiving table setting, I wanted to keep it somewhat organic to keep with our lush garden vibe, so I chose a hammered metal charger as the base, and added a clear acrylic charger with a gold rim to lay more of the seeded eucalyptus stems underneath it. I used some of my favorite dishes for the dinner plate – these are from Williams Sonoma and they work with so many table designs – and found some simple glass pumpkin salad plates at Home Goods to layer on top, continuing the garden theme. I set them on top of a pumpkin garden napkin to complete the place setting.
Adding in a few small surprises to tie into the theme
Once the main pieces of a table come together, I then start add what I call the “extras”. Little touches that elevate the design into something more fanciful. Here I finished off the table by adding these fun pomegranate salt and peppers shakes from Vagabond House.
The flowers in these beautiful glass bud vases from Juliska – which also match the stemware I used from the same company – are actually a combination of faux roses I used as part of the floral arrangement for the table, as well as some lovely little white blooms I found at the supermarket while shopping for all of our menu ingredients. With your floral design, remember that you can always mix and match real and faux flowers where it makes sense, just be sure to add water!
This year’s Thanksgiving Day table was so much fun to design! I hope you enjoyed reading about how this table came together and were inspired for your next holiday table. Until next year, Cheers!
