Thanksgiving: Celebrating the Harvest

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a quick peek at the flowers I created for a private home today. Entertaining over forty people for Thanksgiving can be daunting, but a lovely space and flowers in the colors of the season help create the perfect setting to celebrate and give thanks. What guest wouldn't love to sit down to a beautifully set table?

More on what flowers and materials I used tomorrow - for now, whether you are just getting ready to serve a crowd or you are just finishing up, I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Designing for a Crowd

Whether you have four or four hundred to your table for a celebration, I think there is nothing as beautiful - or necessary - as flowers for your centerpieces. Of course, you may say I am biased, but believe me when I say that flowers make the visual design of your table come alive more than any other element, whether your space is large or small.

So last week, when I created the flower arrangements at Waynesborough Country Club, I had this concept in mind - how could I make the greatest impact in this huge space? There was a 40-foot table set up for the main buffet, three other huge buffets scattered around the rooms, and 35 tiny vases. In addition, they asked me to use a cornucopia for the main centerpiece.

Designing on a large scale can be fun, and I wanted to create a variety of harvest-themed arrangements for the members to enjoy as they celebrated Thanksgiving. When one designs big, the challenge is to create a visual impact both from far away and up close - it sounds simple, but it's not. Too much material or color can look junky and messy from far away, and too little has no interest up close. I also had to design 'in the round' - the main piece would been seen from all sides.

So I chose a few colors - reds, purples, greens, and hints of oranges and yellows for a good, far-away impact - and used gilded fruits, branches, berries, vegetables, pods, moss, and gilded wheat to create the detail and delight up-close.

For flowers, I used purple stocks, bells of Ireland, solidaster, Freedom roses, Milva roses, yellow lilies, orange lilies, white, orange, and yellow snapdragon, trick dianthus, and green cymbidium orchids. It was a fun event to work on, and I loved the chance to create a variety of looks within a single theme. Enjoy!

Main buffet -

To give you a sense of the space in which I was working -

A collar of gilded wheat for the cornucopia -

A side view of the buffet -

A rear view -

The other side view -

One of the three additional buffet pieces - lots of pods and branches -

Green apples always look so fresh -

A shot of one of the vases for the tables -

A Last Look at Fall

As we ease into the winter months, I wanted to be sure I posted some photos of the Thanksgiving work I did last week. I know many are already decking the halls and putting out Christmas lights, but I believe in granting each season and holiday its due - why rush? Half of the fun is the anticipation!

So, with that, here's a look at the flowers I did last week for a Thanksgiving dinner in a private home. The 32-foot long table was set for thirty with an adjoining children's table. I simply love the grace of this dining room - it's perfectly designed for entertaining and the table linens, chairs, and flowers complemented the wall color and rug beautifully. What a wonderful home in which to celebrate Thanksgiving!

I used white and green Fresca hydrangea, three varieties of hypericum berry, Milva roses, Terracotta roses, brown cymbidium orchids, cockscomb, gilded wheat, and pheasant feathers - all cushioned in loads of seeded eucalyptus - to create a lush, berried, autumnal look. My client wanted it to be elegant, and I think the effect was amazing!

I also created two other large pieces - one for the kitchen and one for the front hall - where I added thistle, lilies, curly willow, Bells of Ireland, orange snapdragon, and a pop of solidaster - both in silver containers.

Last, but not least, I arranged two small pieces for the powder room of roses and freesia - I always think that flowers in the powder room are a wonderful touch. One's guests do appreciate them! 

Enjoy the lushness of fall! 

Front hall - a bit blurred!

Kitchen -

Powder room -