It's a Party!

 The lovely Catherine Hopkins over at The Shiny Pebble blog is having a party! Catherine's dining room has been re-designed by fabulous interior designers over the past few months in her Designer Challenge series. To celebrate, we were all invited! 

I thought I'd help design her party. Of course, I've had to make a few assumptions. Please join me!


Catherine's guests are arriving at the front entrance. They don't realize that the main party will be in the tent in the rear of the property. The twinkling lights they caught a glimpse of were assumed to be hanging on the back porch. You know, fourth of July-ish.

Not Catherine!

Let's begin in the entry:

The niche was crying for flowers for the occasion. I suggested using two glass vases filled with delphinium, agapanthus and magnolia.  Simple, beautiful.

Delphinium                         Agapanthus                            Bay magnolia
Italy of My Dreams               Veranda magazine                       


Look at Catherine's pantry!

Italy of My Dreams by Matthew White


Ah-ha! I found that lovely heirloom lace tablecloth for the dining room table. Thankfully it was rectangular. I didn't think it was necessary to use the undercloth, but we could have if Catherine had insisted. Maybe in another color?

Italy of My Dreams by Matthew White

Isn't the Julie Neill chandelier she chose to-die-for? 

It was just installed before the party, so we had to go with a centerpiece on the dining room table that was a bit lower. It was difficult to decide between two of these tall fruit compotes filled with flowers and trailing greens that spill onto the table,

 Abigail glassware


 or Casa Blanca lilies in these mouth blown vases.

Veranda magazine  Photo by Tria Giovan

The guests are now being guided by Catherine's oldest two children (who have promised "to be good for the rest of my life!" in order to stay up late and spy on the adults and sneak the food) out the rear door, into the garden and the tent beyond.  

Here is how it looked during the lighting focus last night. 

The dance floor, all white with a black border, is placed on an angle. The tables are all 36" rounds, to encourage guests to mingle and dance. No parkers allowed!

Catherine chose a theme of elegance (for a Southern lady!): cream and gold with touches of silver/blue, so we chose table linens of sheer white over an undercloth of metallic platinum.   

On the guest tables are these precious, gilded glass vases scattered down the center:

Carolyn Quartermaine    As seen in Set with Style by Caroline Clifton-Mogg


We definitely need lots of candlelight! Everywhere.

Set with Style by Caroline Clifton-Mogg

Be they candlesticks or votive candles, lighting is the most key ingredient of the party. And it goes without saying that the tent lighting makes or breaks the party.

The huge food stations on each side of the tent are draped with the metallic platinum cloths. They are accented by these large, fabulous vases.

 Abigail glassware

The flowers we used for Catherine's party included as many garden flowers that Catherine could cut. The garden roses were perfect. Look at her front walk filled with hydrangea!

 Italy of My Dreams by Matthew White

Here are some of the garden roses. They include the peach Crown Princess rose and the cream Classic Woman rose. The tent smells amazing!

       unknown name  credit              Crown Princess rose credit              Classic Woman rose            
We accented the roses with white and soft blue hydrangea, along with cuttings from the Weigelia bushes in Catherine's yard, and some Solomon's Seal cuttings. Both will last a long time if they are conditioned properly first.  

Veranda magazine                                                           

Solomon's Seal                     Weigelia

 In the powder room, we placed these garden roses:

Italy of My Dreams by Matthew White

And last, but not least, Catherine decided to give her guests these good-bye gifts as they leave:

 Carolyn Quartermaine Revealed

Can't wait to see you, Catherine!