Why Should Your Meal Planning Include a Table Centerpiece? Centerpieces Are Romantic, Conversational, and Decorative.
When you sit down to eat, how often do you include table centerpieces? Not often? Well, these decorations can be simple, inexpensive and available on a moment’s notice! Using table centerpieces for every day use, you can brighten your table considerably, making even a casual family supper a little bit special. How can you have a choice of ready table centerpieces? Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Table centerpieces can be varied. If you are fortunate enough to have a garden of your own, you can always have a large vase filled with fresh flowers on the table. But of course, if you have no garden of your own, then it is simply not possible to go about buying flowers every day! You can move on to something else, if vases are not suitable. After all, a centerpiece is meant to enhance the entire meal setting–not just that one point.
Other great table centerpieces are–candlesticks, decorative tins or boxes, tiny vases, votive candles, luminaria and baskets. In fact, any of these can complement a large vase to suit a particular theme.
Another point to be kept in mind is, “how many people are going to be at the table”? If it is only two individuals, a single tall vase filled with roses should do. Just keep it at one end. This creates a very romantic atmosphere!
If you’ve got a large gathering, you won’t want a tall vase of flowers, beautiful as it may be, to interfere with your guests’ conversation. It can be awkward to crane your neck around that vase to speak with someone across the table.
To provide centerpieces for a larger group, include a table runner that runs underneath the table for its whole length. On the table itself, create a combination of luminaria or votice style candles and small glasses or vases. Fill the glasses or vases with small dried flowers. The flowers can be tied with colored ribbon bows. These are to be spaced out along the center. Thus, there is an attractive presentation of the theme.
Another way of ensuring that decorations do not come in the way of conversations, especially during formal occasions, is to use ornate candlesticks as table centerpieces. The selected candlesticks should be large and have thin profiles. Keep one at each end. The space in between is to be filled with shallow baskets that have silk flowers in them.
Another glitzy component of table centerpieces are the strings of beads, garlands and “icicles” such as are found as tree decorations at Christmas time. These can be woven amongst your candles and flowers for a special look. Alternatively, small figurines can be worked into these centerpieces. Try to keep the numbers of different elements to just a few. This makes a bigger visual statement than many mismatched items. You want to avoid a cluttered look.
A marvellous centerpiece constitutes of a long and shallow basket. This basket is to be filled with “Indian” corn and fall gourds that are colored and sparkling. Again, you can use a few attractive baskets as table centerpieces. These can be filled with fresh fruit which the guests can easily reach out for.
Those who give formal parties all the time, set aside a place in the sewing room or in a cupboard to store all these table centerpieces. Whenever an occasion arises, they can be removed easily and set on the table. Of course, the ideas presented in this short article are not the only ones. There could be many more ways of enhancing the visual appeal of a dining table. All you have got to do is “think and create”!
