Hi All!
Whew, with the wedding season taking a nap, we've been fortunate enough to work on a few special projects. The first being the annual Holiday dinner for the General Managers of the Toll House Los Gatos. Adrienne from Adrienne Marie Weddings and Design and I planned a dinner around the theme Buon Natale! (Merry Christmas in Italian) Our plan was to design a table for a dinner of 20 guests. We used a King's table (or mock King's table made up of 4 8' tables butted up to one another). Next we dressed the table in rich and textured linen from Classic Party Rentals called Monaco Sienna, it played an important role in bringing a luxurious feel to the room. To add a special touch to the brown leather banquet chairs we tied each chair with a golden organza sash from Blanca Samano at A Touch of Elegance. We knotted each sash in the back of the chairs and used a gold pin to fasten little boutonnieres of golden tree fern to the backs, which had stems wrapped in burgundy satin ribbon. More sashes were used to tie off the curtains on the two sets of french doors leading into the room, we also used a gold pin to fasten little boutonnieres of golden tree fern to them as well. Sashes were also down the middle of the table as a runner (waste not!). On top of the runner we spead out italian ruscus we sprayed gold, as well as tree fern we sprayed gold. On top of the runner, golden italian ruscus and golden tree fern, we set square glass vases in three different heights down the middle staggered. Each different height vase had it's own type of arrangement. The shortest vases had broken glass bits we sprayed gold along the bottom of the vase, a little bear grass, golden tree fern submerged under water and poking out around it, and a burgundy dahlia floating atop. The medium height vases were filled with long alstroemeria flowers in a peachey tone with red dashes of color, along the bottom was also a dash of broken glass sprayed golden. The tallest of the vases held red ilex berry stems, also with a touch of broken glass sprayed golden along the bottom of the vase. To bring the table's sparkle and charm to life we used small square glass candle holders wrapped in gold hole-punched foil in between all of the arrangements. Make sure when you are setting a table that your candles are close enough to the arrangements to bounce light off of them. After setting the middle of the table with our special arrangements and candles, we put down a golden charger at each place setting, and golden glass bread and butter plates. On top of each charger we set specialty napkins from Classic Party Rental in a deep burgundy called Topaz Burgundy. This set the scene to bring in a little color and warmth. Each napkin was pocket folded, and into each napkin we tucked a slender golden menu wrapped with a golden cord and mini burgundy tassle, which acted as the menu's belt. An Italian treat of soft and puffy almond cookies hand dipped in amaretto chocolate (by mwa!) were wrapped up in clear celophane and tied off with burgundy satin ribbon to match the ribbon on the boutonnieres which adorned the back of each guest chair. Two tables close by for wine service were also draped with specialty linens from Classic Party Rentals called Empress Gold, this is one of my favorite linens because it has a raised fuzzy flower patter on it=) I like to pet my linen! And of course we couldn't leave out putting two beautiful arrangements on the wine tables, both were a mix of all of our floral materials, and around each we put golden pine cones and more candles. After we helped set the glassware and flatware we were done! Rumor has it that the General Managers were ultra impressed with their golden holiday setting! We hope to do this project again next year!
Ciao!!!
Nicole
