The Big Recital Table

The Vivster (my daughter) recently had her first ballet dance recital.  We turned this event into the epic event of the year.  I mean, this was like the Academy Awards for three year olds.  Both sets of grandparents came to Connecticut for the event.  We even made a big dinner for the family the night before the big event. 

I have long wanted to write a post about table settings for dinner parties.  I haven't had a chance to gather photos from various different dinners, but here are the photos from the recital dinner. 

I'm a firm believer that a person's decorating style transcends to everything they do.  From the way they dress themselves to the way they decorate a table.  It's no secret by now that I love to mix colors and patterns.  I do this in my own wardrobe and also in my decorating.  The table is no different. 

I love to entertain because it gives me the chance to try to set the table in a different way each time.  In this case, I found this teal and beige geographic fabric in my coat closet.  I had intended to recover a room divider but never got around to it.  This was a remnant fabric I picked up from the store for less than $10.  I decided to use this as the base for the 'table cloth.'  Then I added a burlap runner (also from the fabric store and I literally folded the edges under for a "seam."  I added a linen colored place mat.  I continued to layer the rest of the settings.  The napkins are striped gingham. 

The flowers are from Trader Joes.  I bought bunches of similar hues and then re-organized them into small square vases.  I had been to an event in the past few days that used the table settings (happiness, celebration) so I recycled them for this table.  Added lots of low laying candles...and voila. 

Unfortunately, I don't have more photos of the entire finished table...but hopefully you can get enough of an idea from here.   

Oh, and in case you were wondering...I think a star was born at that recital!