‘Tis the season for Thanksgiving and winter holiday meals… If you’re hosting any gatherings, the tips below are meant to help you balance the aesthetics of the event with the logistics of helping your guests enjoy some yummy food and beverages. 🙂

Here are my thoughts on creating or purchasing flower arrangements that will be a good match with the way your event is laid out:

A general guideline: Whether your dining table is rectangular or round, it’s best for your flowers’ height to be 12 inches or fewer, so it’s easy for everyone to see each other across the table.

For a meal at a rectangular table with a separate buffet table (or servers bringing plates to the guests): If you don’t need room on your table for serving dishes, you can easily place a series of small centerpieces down the middle of the table, or one centerpiece flanked by bud vases and/or candles. For the buffet table itself, if it’s being used on all sides, you’ll need an arrangement that looks good from all angles. But if it’s against a wall, you can decorate it with a front-facing arrangement.

For a meal served family-style at a rectangular table: If there will be platters and bowls on your table, make sure the flowers won’t take up too much room. If your rectangular table is wide, you may have enough space to place several small centerpieces down the middle. For our dining table at home, which is not very wide, I either place a narrow foliage garland and/or a series of bud vases down the middle. Or only one small centerpiece at the center, flanked by candles.

For a meal at a round table, whether family-style or with a separate buffet table: This is nice and simple, because you can place one centerpiece in the middle of the table, or a cluster of bud vases.