I started brainstorming. I gathered everything I could imagine that might work and placed it together on a small table just to see how it might look.
I immediately sent an email with these pictures to the committee for approval, and it was then that I realized that I didn't catch on to the theme's style. She sent me back a photo with a rough sketch of what the rest of the tables would look like:
... As well as an old tear-sheet from Veranda which provided the inspiration for the table decorations:
Okay, NOW I got it. Keep it clean and modern.
I decide that in addition to the head table, I will also do something for the entry table, and for all three bathrooms. Now I re-brainstorm. And get started....
This is the entry table above.
I go home and take a giant clamshell that I have on my patio and purchase two potted orchids. Once I fill in the space in the shell with paper and moss, I gather barnacles and crystals that I have scattered around the house and place them around the orchids as decoration. I take one of my quartz lamps and borrow the matching one, and that entry table is done!
Next I finish deciding the bathrooms before I tackle the challenge, the table.
Placing Cymbidium orchids in narrow vases are easier than it appears. Clip some of these orchid's blooms close to the head. This is a vase from ZGallerie that I purchased a few years back. Use a chopstick or a paintbrush, and slide down the bloom and position exactly where you want it, making sure that the orchid is not upside down. Once they are all in place, slowly fill with water (I point my sprayer towards the back of the vase, away from any direct hit to the flower). Once filled, if you need you can adjust the blooms with your chopstick. It lasts for 7-14 days.
The selenite and the bird specimen are both placed on lucite/glass risers. The quartz votive holder usually contains tapers, but I am using it as a vase in which one grocery store bloom fits perfectly in it.
Again, I went on a scavenger hunt around my home, looking for things to place together on this antiqued mirrored gold-bamboo tray. It is a hodpodge of wooden obelisks painted to look like malachite, a porcelain biscuit jar from portmerion, again in a malachite pattern, some coral from my back patio, a slab of selenite and another quartz votive holder.
I purchase three stalks of cymbidium orchids (thank goodness for having a wholesale floral account, otherwise this would not be within our budget). I use some for floaters in the vase mentioned earlier, and the rest I am going to use in votive holders.
Once I gather my personal quartz crystal candle holders, I place soaked floral foam inside. On most I line them first with ziplock baggies, cut at the top to ensure no leakage on the table.
Because the stalks of orchids are not very strong, I use waterproof floral tape to adhere them to floral picks so they will go into the foam easier.
The rest of the floral foam has been soaking overnight in the sink. There are two camps of thoughts on how much to soak your foam. I've heard NEVER do it over night as it leaves it more brittle and less firm. Then I've heard never soak it LESS than overnight, because it will not be fully absorbed of it's water. Oh well, I just do what I have time to do and what works best for me.
I have a large quartz crystal bowl, which I decide to use and line with a plastic liner. Once this is finished I place my wet foam inside the bowl.
I can only afford 8 stalks of calla lilies, but the middle seems bare, so I use the stalks that I cut off the bloomed lilies and tape them together at the bottom and use them as decoration in the middle of the arrangement. Deciding that this is going to be a modern arrangement let me do some unusual things in this arrangement and helped lift the load of stress off my shoulders a little.
I place the bowl on a cakeplate on the center of the table. I scatter some cactus druzy around the edge to hide the glass of the plate. I use my gold chargers (here) and my French Ceramic Provence Dinnerware from Crate & Barrel, here.
This is just getting the table set, before the flatware and stemware. The lucite place-card holders are not mine, but I wish they were! They were loaned and are original circa 1960's.
The arrangement ended up consisting of calla lilies, cymbidium orchids, spider mums, button mums, lavender hydrangeas and some grey-lavender type of ball-berry-flower to which I have NO idea the name of.
I hid the foam with some reindeer moss.
These little mineral and quartz birdies were all found at various times on eBay.
I can take NO credit for this dessert, but I had to include it because it was such the perfect finishing touch! Not only is it adorable looking, but the ice cream is a Mexican Vanilla and it was AWESOME.
What an afternoon. Such Fun!
And thanks to my new friends for a truly lovely day.
