Last month Southern Vintage Table was invited to help set the tables at a popular local event – the annual Hometown Heroes’ Luncheon. Recognizing local folks who have made a difference in our community is sponsored by 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com. These local heroes have included high school students, local business owners, volunteers, teachers, professors, and leaders in our community who have made contributions in a significant way.
We appreciate Jada Jarillo for inviting us to provide our vintage tableware, and all of this past year’s hometown heroes! Our community is better because of you and your contributions. For more information about this unique event, go to Hometown Heroes Luncheon: Celebrating our 2023 Heroes.
Tea parties, which have been around since 1662, had their start with this historical event:
“… the first tea party was hosted in England. In 1662 Catherine of Braganza, the wife of King Charles II, hosted the first ever tea party on record following the marriage of her and the king. Queen Catherine was originally a Portuguese princess, born into the noble house of Braganza by her father, King John IV of Portugal. As a wedding gift to King Charles II and Queen Catherine, the Portuguese royal family gave her a casket full of tea.” Hackberry Tea
That’s fun to know, right? Well, 362 years later, tea parties have become quite the thing here and we have all the niceties to help you, including a tea party essential, tiered stands. Coming up in the next few weeks we have several parties booked and we need lots of them, so we are crafting a few.
We are well on our way – just 3-4 more to fashion. After we coordinate the stand with a teapot, tea cups, small plates, creamer and sugar, and platter, we’ll be ready for our clients’ tea party!
Tulips are a favorite flower for many folks, including us! We knew that their beautiful shape and range of colors would provide the inspiration for our new tablescape featuring the regal color of purple.
Did you know tulips once grew wild in Central Asia? About 1000 AD Turkey began cultivating them and named them tulips which is Turkish for turban. Once they were brought to Europe in the 1500s, their ever-increasing popularity was sealed – everyone adored these delightful blooms and that love continues today. – Bloom and Wild
We gathered a vintage floral topper, grass chargers, napkins, gold flatware, vintage plates featuring purple, and vintage purple goblets. In a variety of purple vases the tulips were arranged. Lastly, we selected petite art pieces and vintage postcards, green and purple candles, clear and green peg votives, and brass candleholders. Our plan was to leave the basic place setting and florals in place and switch out the decor to see what impact they would have on the overall design.
In this series of photos, you’ll note the purple candles and vintage post cards.
In each of the photos below, we switched out a few decor details to see which we liked best. Top left – green peg votives; top right – purple candles; lower left – clear peg votives; lower right – green candles. Also, note each setting has its own lovely petite art piece to enjoy!
In the end, the tablescape with the purple candleholders and vintage postcards was our favorite; however, we also believe that isn’t a wrong choice!
A harbinger of spring is the arrival of these sunny, happy flowers – daffodils! Their rich yellow color invites us to smile and get ready to greet warmer weather filled with bird songs and the fresh green of nature.
These daffodils, provided by Fernrock Farm, inspired us to design two vintage tablescapes that embraced their golden color. In the first, we filled blue and yellow vases with the flowers, set the table with blue and white vintage plates, yellow goblets, gold flatware, and different napkin patterns. Petite art pieces were placed with each setting to add to the eclectic look.
Notice the round grass chargers? They are new to our offerings, available up to 65 guests. Their lighter hue is quite lovely with these two spring tablescapes.
Now to a quick change-over to a green vintage tablescape. This design featured four different vintage plate patterns, vintage green goblets, green vases filled with the same daffodils, vintage green votive-topped candleholders, and four different napkin patterns. The vintage gold flatware and grass chargers remained on the table.
Thank you, Fernrock Farm, for providing the sweet daffodil focus for these two vintage tablescapes and for today’s blog! We look forward to a new floral inspiration as the growing season opens up. Happy Spring, everyone!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It’s the perfect day to feature Green as a styling color for tablescapes and decor. This primary color of nature brings a sense of calmness, healthfulness, and optimism, and shows up quite often in our vintage inventory. Enjoy the green of vintage in our photo galleries showcasing a variety of items, from vintage goblets, to vintage plates, and decor.
We have been meeting with some amazingly creative clients who are planning their weddings, showers, tea parties, and dinners. Looking forward to seeing how their designs unfold at each of their happy celebrations!
Petite vintage serving dishes – lemon nappies, platters, bowls – can be the perfect dish for the tea table, filled with lemon slices, cheese straws, and chocolates. Although meant for a small delicious treat, they also can be used to hold jewelry, small soaps, or trinkets. Such versatility!
We first came across these small handled dishes at a thrift store. The owner explained that they were lemon dishes and were part of a client’s collection who had decided to downsize. Instantly falling in love with them, we left with several and still continue to find them here and there. Our collection is now over 20 and we won’t be able to resist adding more.
Below are petite vintage dishes that include small platters, bowls, dishes, and spoon rests which are perfect for the treats served at the tea party table. We also can see them enticing your guests with small bites set along the dinner table for your guests to enjoy along with the main meal.
Petite Dishes Slide Show
Vintage Orange Lemon Dish
Vintage Floral Lemon Dish
Vintage Lemon Lemon Dish
Vintage Gold Blue Green Lemon Dish
Vintage Green Leaf Lemon Dish
Vintage Azalea Lemon Dish
Vintage Leaf Blue Pink Lemon Dish
Vintage Purple Green Lemon Dish
Vintage Berry Lemon Dish
Vintage Scalloped Pink Green Lemon Dish
Vintage Yellow Rose Lemon Dish
Vintage Pink Gold Lemon Dish
Vintage Purple Floral Lemon Dish
Vintage Yellow Roses Lemon Dish
Vintage Blue Floral Dish
Vintage Dish Blue Pink Shell
Vintage Floral Green Lemon Dish
Vintage Gold Cream Lemon Dish
Vintage Blue Lemon Dish
Vintage Green Pancies Lemon Dish
Vintage Petite Oval Floral Platter
Vintage Petite Oval Pink Rim Berries Dish
Vintage Petite Blue Yellow Floral Dish
Vintage Petite Blue Floral Platter
Vintage Blue White Petite Platter
Vintage Pair Petite Green and White Platters
Vintage Peitite Gold Floral Handled Bowl
Vintage Peitite GOld White Handled Bowl
Vintage Petite Purple Floral Dish
Vintage Petite Pink Floral Spoon Rest 2
Vintage Petite Blue Green Spoon Rest 2
Vintage Petite Leaf Florald Plate
Vintage Petite Leaf Floral Rose Plate
Vintage Petite Leaf Floral Plates 3
Vintage Petite Violets Leaf Plate
Vintage Pink Purple Bowl
Vintage Peitite Lobed Roses Dish
Vintage Peitite Dark Blue Orange Basket
We couldn’t find much about these adorable dishes except they probably emerged during the late 1800s and lasted until the mid 1900s. They were made in a variety of countries, such as Germany, England, Japan, and the United States. Such beautiful, petite works of art!
“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.” – John Ruskin
And, so it was – a bridal shower masterpiece for Martha. A long-standing tradition among women friends is to honor a soon-to-be bride with a celebratory party before they marry. Guests lists include friends of the bride, mothers of the bride and groom, as well as their friends. This event provides a fun gathering for folks to meet each other before the wedding day.
For Martha’s shower, florals were everywhere! When guests entered Casey’s home, they were greeted with Jami’s grand floral arrangement in the hall, petite florals along the mantle and kitchen side table, and along the buffet table. What a glorious treat for everyone! And, since we all love flowers, the petite arrangements became gifts for the guests.
The shower officially began with drinks. Set up on the side table was a mimosa bar with an assortment of vintage pink and green goblets, Prosecco, and juices. In the butler’s pantry, guests could choose water, tea, or coffee. Our vintage clear, green, and pink goblets were lined up here, too.
A key element of any party, including bridal showers, is food. After meeting folks and catching up, it was time to eat. Our vintage silver trays were donned with a variety of sweet and savory treats. Also on the table was a crystal bowl filled with colorful fruit, deviled eggs, and spicy shrimp.
Jami chose an assortment of vintage plates – pink and green glass and green and pink patterned china. Vintage napkins, silverplated forks, and serving utensils completed the table settings. With the beautiful spring floral centerpiece, the final tablescape was perfection!
A shower would not be complete without a game for guests to play. Jami and Casey organized a Jeoporady-esque game to introduce the guests to Martha and Stephen. Categories included “About the Bride, “About the Groom,” “Wedding Trivia, “Wedding Movies,” and “Famous Couples.” The winner was awarded with a bottle of Champagne and, let’s just say, that the winning card was not pictured here.
Opening gifts for the couple was next. Martha unveiled from the beautifully wrapped gifts gorgeous bowls, a set of pots and pans, a cookbook, lemon apron and pot. holder, dishes, tablecloth, and pitcher among other lovely items. It was fun for all to see the nice things the couple will be using soon.
Guests left the shower feeling well-fed, happy to have met Martha and friends, looking forward to the April wedding day, and loving their sweet bouquet of spring florals. C’était magnifique, Casey and Jami!
Wanting to show the range of looks with our vintage tableware and decor, we have created a slide show for our home page. You can see it here and on our home page, too! (Working on resizing this on mobile devices.)
We’ve added a little something something to our already full vintage inventory, but we think you’ll agree that these are all great additions. When a vintage colored goblet comes up for sale, we can’t resist! The vintage pink ones above were found on marketplace and the vintage teal and light green were online purchases. Remarkably, the vintage yellow ones were found at a local thrift store – what a thrill to find them! All are on the shelves at Southern Vintage Table’s studio for folks to see and select for their guests.
The next set of vintage pretties are ready for a tea party! These small dishes can be filled with lemons, bonbons, tea sachets, or any petite sweet. We have a great collection of these vintage mini dishes that look terrific on your guest tables.
This sweet vintage teapot is now one of our favorites! Looking forward to packing her for our tea parties coming up.
Is it a pitcher or a vase? Obviously, this vintage floral pitcher is both! Spring bouquets will look fabulous in this vessel. (No dissing our fake arrangement, please. 🙂 )
Now, we have the perfect vintage prop that pays homage to jazz or actually any kind of music – a vintage saxophone. You might remember the trumpet and other vintage decor that were used at a speakeasy corporate party. You’ll enjoy looking back at this event, Speakeasy Party Photos are in. Wish we had that saxophone then!
Photo by Martha Manning
Lastly, we have new business cards!
Now, back to the Super Bowl commercials… Have a fun week!
