This table setting caught my eye. As I noted yesterday golds are still making a showing for tabletop items, from candles to candle sticks to flatware. It’s slowly been folded into the trend market for the past 5 years and it’s still holding tight. But let’s talk about summer vegetables for centerpieces, votives and even salt cellars. How creative this is to use lettuce as individual salt and pepper cellars- and a radish hollowed out for a votive holder. These are clever ideas and using vegetables as your centerpiece in late summer certainly can be elegant and seasonal. Using a darker cloth like this slate blue cloth can really make the colors in your vegetables have a grounded background for them to pop off of. (A white cloth might not have the same effect.) I’ve also used eggplants and nuts and mushrooms as centerpieces which can be quite dramatic, even on black. A centerpiece of heirloom tomatoes can also be amazing. I carry a beautiful slate gray-blue linen which comes in napkins, table cloths and table runners on my shop. As much as I love this beautiful photo, please note though, a proper way to set your glassware on your table is for the water glass to be placed above the knife and the wine glasses to the right of that. The red wine should be placed a little above the water glass and to the right and the white wine a little below the water glass and to the right like the illustration below. Also, always make a napkin ring easy for your guests to slip off, tying a knot like above may not be the best way. If you are going to use a ribbon make a loose binding or a bow that is easily pulled. You don’t want your guests fumbling to untie a knot to get to their napkin.   -Lynn Butler Beling

Photo credit: Photobucket- unknown source / Diagram via Martha Stewart

*You might also be interested in a vegetable themed wedding that we posted. Here’s the LINK.