Table Decor on a Budget

This last week I was in charge of the food for a women’s event at church.

The theme of the event was preparedness and food storage – the event was called “Stockin’ Up!”  There was a great guest speaker from Arizona who shared with us her method for storing food and being prepared.

Since we were unsure how many people would attend we decided to go with a dessert bar.  We did bar cookies because those would be easy to cut into smaller pieces if we had more people than we expected.  We planned on 200 and had over 350 people there so we quickly cut all the bar cookies in half and it worked great.

For a list of the bar cookies served and the recipes go here.

Of course we had a budget to work with for the event and bar cookies are great way to stretch your budget because you can cut them big or small. 

I also came up with a few fun ways to stretch that budget with the table decor.

One of my favorite things to use on a serving table is cake plates.  Not only are they pretty but they create nice height on the table.  So using the theme of the event – food storage  and stocking up I created my own cake plates out of canned food and other items found at the dollar store!

I used a combination of clear plastic and silver serving plates from the dollar store along with some canned food I bought there.  Our color scheme for the night was green and pink so I found some canned fruit with pink, green and yellow labels – perfect!

 

Because the plates were fairly lightweight we used some duct tape to attach the plates to the cans so they didn’t topple over when people reached to get a bar cookie  – thanks to my husband and friend Jeannena for figuring all that out for me!!

 

I always like to lay out the serving table with all of its serving pieces beforehand – to make sure that it looks good and the table is well balanced.

 

Of course a centerpiece of flowers in a large can added the perfect touch!  The flowers and the pink and green ribbon came from Costco and helped tie everything together along with the pink and green sheer pieces of fabric we already had from another event.

 

I also created little place cards in my Creative Memories Storybook Creator software that sat on little stands I found at the dollar store!!  I like to know what I’m eating!

The total spent on table decor was very little and was created mainly out of things from the dollar store!

Of course the table always looks prettier when it is full of food!

 

 

What’s your best budget saving table decor ideas?

Holiday Table Decor

A few weeks ago I hosted my annual Holiday Breakfast.  It is something I do every year for my first line team members who work with me in my direct sales business.

I’ve got the menu pretty well down for that event.  You can check it out here.  Because I can do that breakfast almost on auto pilot it gives me time to think about my table decor.

I always serve the breakfast buffet style so I like to do something to decorate the table or counter from which I serve the food.  Usually I serve off my large kitchen island but this year I decided to do it from the kitchen table.

I pushed the table up against the wall to give people a little more room to move around the table.

I love magazines and have quite a collection at my house.  My favorite thing to do is tear pictures of pretty things out of them and file them away.  I use the photos for ideas or inspiration. In this year’s December issue of Better Homes & Gardens I found a photo that inspired my table decor for my holiday breakfast.

They had used an old wooden sled on the table with a grouping of glass cloches with ornaments underneath.  When I saw the photo I remembered that up in my attic I had an old vintage wooden sled I had picked up several years ago at an antique store.  It was one of those purchases that my husband had said “What are you going to do with that?”  Actually he says that quite often.  My reply of course was “I don’t know, but I’ll find something!”  I knew I loved it and sometime I would need it!

So my nice, kind husband crawled up into the attic to retrieve the sled for me.

Very rarely do I ever purchase something specifically for a table decoration, except for fresh flowers but a lot of times those just come out of my garden.

I love the challenge of looking around my house to see what I have and what I can re purpose as table decor!

 

For this decor I used a glass cloche that I have.  I placed it on top of a small green cake stand I had previously purchased at Home Goods and filled it with some ornaments I hadn’t used on my tree.  A few of them I actually removed from the tree to use!  The other little cake stand I also had.  My little addiction to cake stands comes in handy sometimes!

 If you don’t have any glass cloches you can also use glass vases and just turn them upside down!

 
 
I added a few pieces of artificial greens around the base of the cake plates or if you have cut down a fresh tree use a few of the branches you cut off to get it into the tree stand.

I then just scattered a few more ornaments in the greens.  I think it looks great and I love the height that the sled gave the centerpiece!

Next up was the dining room table where we would be eating.  Again I looked around the house to see what I could use – re purpose!

I decided my little collection of glittery vintage santas would look great as part of the centerpiece.

I used a piece of green chiffon fabric as the base for the centerpiece.  I have a collection of different colors of chiffon squares to use as an anchor for centerpieces.

Here’s an example from my Little Princess Tea Party.

 

Just purchase a yard of fabric and then serge the edges or do a small folded hem.  I have even been known to leave the edges raw and tuck them under.

 
 
I grabbed another one of those cake stands I am so fond of and a few more ornaments off the tree (my tree has lots of ornaments so these weren’t missed!), another sprig of greens and a few more candles that usually sit in my kitchen windowsill.

I positioned the santas so they were facing different ways so that no matter what side of the table you were on you had a nice view of Santa!

 

What fun things have you found around your house to use as table decorations?