When decorating a table for Easter, you need color — lots of it, and flowers that signal the arrival of Spring. Our 2011 Easter table was a riot of colors, carefully chosen to set the mood.
There were going to be six of us for Easter — Michael, my mom, Deloris, her mom, and our friend Sue. The centerpiece needed to be low enough to allow us to see each other over the table. I started with irises and tulips from the garden and added gerbera daisies and orange tea roses from the florist. With the lime green glass globs at the bottom, it made a stunning arrangement, accented with sequined eggs scattered about (Pier 1), on top of a lime green sequined curtain panel (Ross) and a pair of bunnies from New Leaf Florist. The only thing that would have improved it is if I had thought to buy some florist foam so that my flowers would have been less maddening to arrange!
Earlier in the week, I had made a much larger centerpiece of just tulips and irises. It looked great, but was too tall for the middle of a table full of short people.
Getting the table ready!
I actually went through several iterations before deciding what I wanted my final table to look like. A couple of days before, I started pulling out dishes, silverware, placemats, napkins, and experimenting with various combinations. I felt like the Goldilocks of tablescapes. Too bland. Too blah. Aaaah. Just right.
You can see the choices I mulled over below, along with the finished tablescape. Some of the differences are subtle from what pic to the next — a silver charger, rather than a gold one. Different flatware. Different glasses. I started wishing that I had paid more attention in math class when they taught the formula for determining how many different combinations one can make when one has x number of variable categories and y number of options per category. Sadly, I didn’t think it was going to have any real life application.
This picture and the next show how I ultimately decided to dress the table. I alternated lime green and hot pink placemats and used flower-shaped dessert plates and bowls (after all, 5 of the 6 of us were females) and a solid colored Fiesta plate underneath (half were lilac, half were lime green.) It worked quite well with the colors in the centerpiece and the bunnies. And, in case you’re wondering, it wasn’t me who put the silverware in that configuration . . .
Easter Brunch
When you are planning to entertain for a special occasion, don’t leave your tablescape to chance. I do a dry run ahead of time to make sure the finished look is what I imagined it would be. It’s also a good time to learn whether you have any missing tableware or are not going to have enough placemats, napkins, or napkin rings. This is a test I did for an Easter tablescape. I concluded it would be fine for a casual brunch, but it wouldn’t be a good fit for a formal Easter dinner.
Even so, it was pretty cute. Each tablesetting was slightly different. The colors in the napkins and the table runner tie it all together.
One other thing I sometimes do is plan my menu around the dishes I want to use. Here, I wanted to trot out the spring-colored ramekins and the peach glass dessert dishes. If I am really going to use them, I need food that will look good served in those particular vessels.
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