Setting the Table

Food is a big deal in my family. We love cooking, trying new foods, watching cooking shows, and eating. Food is the center of every celebration - and we all pitch in on the big days like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My sisters and I also love to set the table. This usually only happens on holidays, and we're always excited to break out the china and the nice silverware.

This year, my sister and I decided to take on the task of coming up with something new for the table. We flipped through lots of magazines for inspiration and decided we liked the monochromatic look. We would pick a color and build from there.

The first thing that grabbed our attention were these green champagne flutes.

We liked how they had a bit of gold in them but didn't look murky, like olive green.

Then, after over an hour at the craft store, we found something that we thought would make a simple and elegant centerpiece.  We were drawn to some branches with pears on them and knew we'd found a "theme." A slim, oval vase would hold the branches horizontally down the middle of the table.

And fresh pears would serve as place card holders, using paper leaves with our names on them. Our "Family Pear Tree".

A plain white table cloth, simple green placemats and chargers, and a few gold candle holders made it fancy without being stuffy or crowded. We rounded out the settings with the family china and some white cloth napkins that we already had.

We were all very pleased with the outcome. In fact, we've already planned to use the same set up for Christmas!

And even though we had to purchase items for 12 place settings, we did a great job of keeping it budget friendly. We did lots of price comparisons to make sure we got the best deals. And it only took :

• 5 trips to Target
• 4 trips to the Dollar Tree
• 2 trips to Garden Ridge
• 1 trip to WalMart
• 1 trip to Kohl's
• 1 trip to Bed Bath and Beyond
• 1 trip to Baker's
• and a call to Costco

Phew! But here are how the numbers came in:

• china: preowned = free
• 12 white napkins: preowned = free
• 12 sets of silverware: preowned = free
• 1 white table cloth: Target = $18
• 12 green place mats: Target = $1.80 each = $21.60
• 12 green metalic chargers: Target = $5 per 4 = $15
• 8 gold candle holders: Target = $1 each = $8
• 8 white votives: Target = $3
• 12 green champagne flutes: Dollar Tree = $1 each = $12
• 1 oval vase: Garden Ridge = $8
• 2 pear stems: Garden Ridge = $10 each = $20
• about 4.5 lbs of pears: WalMart = $0.96 per lb = $4.15

Grand Total = $109.75

Less than $10 per setting, plus a centerpiece!

I really loved doing this. My sister and I had so much fun! I kinda wish someone had video taped us at the craft store...we had fake flowers, branches, dishes and vases strewn all over the place! And then we ended up with only 3 simple pieces.

Plus, I think the outcome was phenomenal. It got me excited to work on wedding decoration plans!