A Wedding Reception, A Magical Evening: Welcome to the 176th Tablescape Thursday!

Recently, my friend Maree, who blogs at  Tales from an OC Cottage, shared some wonderful photographs taken when her nephew, Joe (son of her sister, Bee) and his sweetie, Katie, were married back in November.  The wedding reception was held in the backyard of Maree's sister (Kae's) home.  Maree has posted pictures on her blog in past showing Kae's gorgeous gardens and landscaping, but I had no idea her back yard was so beautiful!  Add to that a stunningly beautiful wedding, and it must have been an evening not soon forgotten.

Maree said, "The bride (Katie) knew she wanted the cake in the gazebo...the basket ball court would be the dance floor and little white lights every where like in Stars Hallow {the little town where the Gilmore Girls lived.  We know it's not real, but we still want to live there one day!"

Maree said, "The grooms only request was the hanging paper lanterns.  He still has NO idea how we had to "MacGyver" them that morning.  The proper instructions were just TOO MUCH...we were already up to our eyes in glasses, napkins and tree branches! So I said we can just bend this to secure it...bend that to hang it...no lights had to be restrung, none fell, and they looked very cool."
I love the paper lanterns.  They immediately made me think of the paper lanterns hung for the party at Lauren and Harley's cottage home in the movie, It's Complicated,  HERE.  (Tour the main house in It's Complicated, HERE.)

I love the chairs they chose for the event.  The napkins are such a nice pop of color against the white tablecloths and china.  Lots of pretty stemware for happy toasts to the bride and groom.

If you've ever visited Maree's wonderful blog, you know she is the Queen of Glitter.   I designated that title just for her. :) Those skills came in very handy as she created the table numbers for this special dinner.  Maree told me the colors you see in the floral arrangements were chosen to coordinate with the color of the bride's shoes.  The napkins matched her shoes exactly.  I love that shade of pink...so vibrant and so pretty!  I know the bride was beautiful!

Peonies all the way from Holland!  Gorgeous!

In lieu of favors, the bride and groom made a donation to the Wounded Warriors Project.  Love that...such a a great idea!

Kae's daughter, Molly, along with her husband, were the photographers for this special day.  It's my understanding she photographs weddings all over the country.  If you would like more info about how to reach her, I'm sure Maree (Tales from an OC Cottage) will be happy to put you in touch.

This photo made me gasp...soooo beautiful!   Truly, truly a magical night!  Wish I could have been a fly on a lantern, watching it all down below.  Okay, maybe not a fly...how about a beautiful butterfly.  Yep, that's it.  A butterfly drinking in all the beauty below.

Maree, thanks so much for sharing these lovely pictures.  I want to come live in Kae's backyard!  Tell her I'll be there by tomorrow. ;)

Looking for more ideas for creating table numbers for a wedding reception or any occasion.  You'll find a tutorial HERE.

If it's ideas for table settings, click on the category,"Tablescapes" at the top of this blog and scroll down where you'll find picture links to posts with details images of table settings for all occasions, including bridal showers.

Looking forward to all the beautiful tables posted for this Tablescape Thursday!

To receive the latest posts, as well as updates about blog parties, subscribe via an RSS Reader or have BNOTP delivered right to your Inbox.  You'll find links to subscribe via RSS and e-mail on the sidebar to the right.  Thanks for reading; so glad you are here!

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*If you are reading this via email or RSS feed, to view all the tablescapes linked for Tablescape Thursday, click HERE.

Please Read:
If you are participating in Tablescape Thursday, please be sure to add your permalink below, and not your general blog address. To get your permalink, click on your post name, then just copy and paste the address that shows up in the address bar, into the "url" box when you link up.

You'll need to include a link in your post back to the party in order to link up and participate.  That's so visitors to your blog will be able to find the party and  the other Tablescape Thursday participants.

If you would like to use the Tablescape Thursday logo button in your post, just copy and paste it to your computer and upload it to your post as you would any photo. Or, grab the html code you'll find under the "Parties" heading at the top of this blog.

Please, don't add your post name/blog name ALL IN CAPS...it tends to create big spaces between the rows of links. Thanks!

Let's try something fun today! Please visit the person who linked before you and after you...that way everyone will get some visits. Hope you'll visit more, of course.


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Elegant New Year's Eve Table Setting: Welcome to the 175th Tablescape Thursday!

Can you believe this is our 175th Tablescape Thursday?  Wow!  That's a lot of fabulous tablescapes when you consider how many are linked here each week.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to all you talented ladies and gents who share your amazing eye for detail and beauty.  It's so wonderful to visit your blogs.  The world just melts away for a while as I lose myself in the wonderful table settings you create.

My friend, Bonnie, graciously shared the table she created for her New Year's Eve celebration with friends.  I fell in love with it the minute I saw it.   I have this thing for clocks so this table setting is one of my faves.  The chandelier got a touch of whimsy or should I say, it's "chimerical."   (See the earlier post today.)  Do you see the pocket watch draped above?

What a festive way to welcome in 2012!  Love the black, gold and cream color scheme.

Clock salad plates are from Pottery Barn, last year.  Love these!

What a great idea...using a bow tie as a napkin holder.  Perfect for a New Year's Eve celebration.

Bonnie used masks as well.  Fun!

I'd love a set of these clock-face plates but a quick check on eBay produced nada.  Waaaaa.

The vintage look of the clock plates goes so well with the centerpiece.  (Pssst: Sharlotte at Sharlotte's Reflections made her own vintage clock-face plates since she wasn't able to find the PB plates.  Click on her blog name to visit and see how she did it.)

Bonnie, thanks so much for sharing this wonderful table!  What a grand way to kick off the new year!

Resources:
Dinner plates - Butler's Pantry
Clock Salad plates - Pottery Barn, last year
Glasses, placemats - Target
Linens, Chargers & Flatware - Marshall's
Napkin rings; Bow ties for the gents, Masks for the Gals - Avery's, many years ago

Looking forward to all the wonderful tablescapes linked for this Tablescape Thursday!

To receive the latest posts, as well as updates about blog parties, subscribe via an RSS Reader or have BNOTP delivered right to your Inbox.  You'll find links to subscribe via RSS and e-mail on the sidebar to the right.  Thanks for reading; so glad you are here!

Reading this post via e-mail or RSS feed?
*If you are reading this via email or RSS feed, to view all the tablescapes linked for Tablescape Thursday, click HERE.

Please Read:
If you are participating in Tablescape Thursday, please be sure to add your permalink below, and not your general blog address. To get your permalink, click on your post name, then just copy and paste the address that shows up in the address bar, into the "url" box when you link up.

You'll need to include a link in your post back to the party in order to link up and participate.  That's so visitors to your blog will be able to find the party and  the other Tablescape Thursday participants.

If you would like to use the Tablescape Thursday logo button in your post, just copy and paste it to your computer and upload it to your post as you would any photo. Or, grab the html code you'll find under the "Parties" heading at the top of this blog.

Please, don't add your post name/blog name ALL IN CAPS...it tends to create big spaces between the rows of links. Thanks!

Let's try something fun today! Please visit the person who linked before you and after you...that way everyone will get some visits. Hope you'll visit more, of course.



Welcome! Thanks for coming to the party!

Elegant Dining in Brumby Hall: Welcome to the 175th Tablescape Thursday!

Early this morning I posted a tour of the downstairs of beautiful Brumby Hall.  If you missed that tour, you'll find it here: Brumby Hall.  For Tablescape Thursday, I'm taking you into the dining rooms.  Yep, Brumby Hall has two dining rooms, probably due to its function as a special events facility now.

This dining area was at the very back of the home.  Isn't the chandelier gorgeous?  I loved the simplicity of the three hurricanes down the center of the table.

The salad plates depict the Twelve Days of Christmas.  This one is "nine ladies dancing."  Does anyone recognize the pattern?

Love all the detailed carving on this beautiful sideboard.

This room had built in china storage.

A closer view...

Another beautiful chest...

Toward the front of the home you'll find a second dining room.

Here we see another stunning chandelier.

Another beautiful centerpiece...

Take a peek at the other beautiful furnishings in this room.  You often see these tall mirrors in entrance halls of historic homes.  This one was lovely here in the dining room.

The room was decorated for Christmas since this tour was in early December.

The dining room had its own Christmas tree.

I'll be sharing three upstairs areas/rooms in this historic home soon.  In the meantime, you can tour the downstairs HERE.  Love historic homes?  You'll find more historic home tours, HERE.

Looking forward to the beautiful table settings posted for this Tablescape Thursday!

To receive the latest posts, as well as updates about blog parties, subscribe via an RSS Reader or have BNOTP delivered right to your Inbox.  You'll find links to subscribe via RSS and e-mail on the sidebar to the right.  Thanks for reading; so glad you are here!

Reading this post via e-mail or RSS feed?
*If you are reading this via email or RSS feed, to view all the tablescapes linked for Tablescape Thursday, click HERE.

Please Read:
If you are participating in Tablescape Thursday, please be sure to add your permalink below, and not your general blog address. To get your permalink, click on your post name, then just copy and paste the address that shows up in the address bar, into the "url" box when you link up.

You'll need to include a link in your post back to the party in order to link up and participate.  That's so visitors to your blog will be able to find the party and  the other Tablescape Thursday participants.

If you would like to use the Tablescape Thursday logo button in your post, just copy and paste it to your computer and upload it to your post as you would any photo. Or, grab the html code you'll find under the "Parties" heading at the top of this blog.

Please, don't add your post name/blog name ALL IN CAPS...it tends to create big spaces between the rows of links. Thanks!

Let's try something fun today! Please visit the person who linked before you and after you...that way everyone will get some visits. Hope you'll visit more, of course.


Welcome! Thanks for coming to the party!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town: Welcome to the 172nd Tablescape Thursday!

Greetings and Happy Holidays! I've been working on a tablescape in the dining room this week, but I'm short one thing I need to complete it. So, last night I put together a totally different table setting in the breakfast room.  While taking pics today, I played around a little with a setting on my camera called "effects."  I've included a few pics taken in the effect setting known as "color sketch."

This tablescape turned out to have a "Santa" theme.  I paired Santa salad plates (used in this previous Christmas tablescape) with red trimmed Noritake, Colorwave dinner plates. As I was setting the table, I remembered I had three sleighs stored away with the Christmas decorations. Once I climbed into the little storage area under the eves, I discovered I actually had four sleighs. All were received as gifts over the years, except one. It struck me as funny, how completely different they all are in their design.   I think you'll enjoy seeing all the different "takes" on Santa's sleigh.

Oh, one more fun thing to note: this table setting includes the "key to JOY."  See if you can spot it.  We can never have too much joy, right? (Click on any photo to further enlarge it.)

Please enjoy this table setting accompanied by the well-loved poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas, better known as Twas the Night Before Christmas.  Per Wikipedia, "According to legend, A Visit was composed by Moore on a snowy winter's day during a shopping trip on a sleigh. His inspiration for the character of Saint Nicholas was a local Dutch handyman as well as the historical Saint Nicholas."

Twas the Night Before Christmas
By Clement Clarke Moore

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.

And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

You can create this same effect with photos at a site called Photobucket.  HERE is a tutorial explaining how.  Hope these steps still work.  It's been a while since I wrote that tutorial.



Resources:
Amber Glass chargers: Hobby Lobby 2-3 years ago
Dinner Plates: Colorwave, Provided by Noritake
Santa Salad Plates: HomeGoods, 2-3 years ago
Stemware:  Spode, Christmas Tree, Marshalls.  French Countryside Ruby Goblets, Mikasa, 1 year ago
Flatware: Hampton, Tuesday Morning, 1-2 years ago
Plaid Napkins: Marshalls, 2-3 years ago
Napkin Rings: "Key to Joy" Ornament, Walmart this year
Centerpiece: Crystal Beverage Server: local antique shop, 1-2 years ago
Red ornaments: Old Time Pottery, last year
Sleighs:  3 received as gifts, 1 purchased but don't remember where now
Live, evergreen mini-trees:  Big Lots, this year
Painting-like photos were taken with a Nikon D5100 in the "Color Sketch" effect setting

Looking forward to all the beautiful tablescapes posted for this Tablescape Thursday!

To receive the latest posts, as well as updates about blog parties, subscribe via an RSS Reader or have BNOTP delivered right to your Inbox.  You'll find links to subscribe via RSS and Email on the sidebar to the right.  Thanks for reading; so glad you are here!

Reading this post via e-mail or RSS feed?
*If you are reading this via email or RSS feed, to view all the tablescapes linked for Tablescape Thursday, click HERE.

Please Read:
If you are participating in Tablescape Thursday, please be sure to add your permalink below, and not your general blog address. To get your permalink, click on your post name, then just copy and paste the address that shows up in the address bar, into the "url" box when you link up.

If you would like to use the Tablescape Thursday logo button in your post, just copy and paste it to your computer and upload it to your post as you would any photo. Or, grab the html code you'll find under the "BNOTP Parties" heading at the top of this blog.

Please link back to the party so your regular readers will find all your fellow Blogger's tablescapes, too.

Please, don't add your post name/blog name ALL IN CAPS...it tends to create big spaces between the rows of links. Thanks!

Let's try something fun today! Please visit the person who linked before you and after you...that way everyone will get some visits. Hope you'll visit more, of course.


Welcome! Thanks for coming to the party!