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Southern Vintage Table Event – A Valentine’s Bridal Shower for Katie!

“Created by Michelle” provided this beautiful, scrumptious “naked” cake. The gorgeous backdrop was designed by Katie, Lauren, and Ryan!

One of life’s happiest events is a wedding and right up there with it is the traditional celebration for the upcoming nuptials – the time-honored wedding shower. And, Katie and Ryan’s shower was even more special because Katie is our delightful niece. She and our daughter, Taylor, grew up together which means this day was pretty special for many of us!

The event took place at the Schley’s Grange Hall – a wonderful facility north of Hillsborough that is an affiliate of the NC State Grange and National Grange organization. Their mission is to serve the local farming community and their building is available for groups to use and rent. It was perfect for our large gathering of 60+ friends and family who wanted to share their good wishes with Ryan and Katie.

To add extra sweetness to the occasion the date for the shower was set for Valentine’s day. Our color scheme featured pinks and blues with a splash of Valentine’s. Katie’s sister, Lauren, sewed light blue base cloths to peek through our beautiful, vintage laced overlays. Bouquets of roses, baby’s breath, and tulips added a fresh spring look in our vintage milk glass vases. Final decor touches included vintage frames, postcards, votives, glass candle holders, and – yum – Hershey’s kisses.

The tables were set with mixed and matched vintage china teacups with a tea napkin tucked underneath, and our lovely vintage patterns of silver-plated flatware. Vintage blue, clear, and pink goblets added the colorful sparkle. Since the delectable treats were served as a buffet, our vintage luncheon plates were beautifully stacked and ready for guests.

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

As a “Thank You” to her guests, Katie baked sweet favors and shared their personal meaning with us. Last Valentine’s Day on the way to a game, Ryan presented her with a box of chocolates. Now, this was no ordinary box; it contained dark chocolate turtles! As Katie shared in her story, she had mentioned how much she loved dark chocolate and Ryan remembered this. But, the other part of Ryan’s choice is they were in the shape of Katie’s beloved animal, a turtle. So, as you might guess, Katie loved his sweet gesture! This is one of their favorite memories together, and now it is also one of ours!

“Best shower EVER!! Everything was elegant and so beautiful! Shelly did a great job picking out the right china and glasses for the shower; all of the colors worked perfectly together. The Valentine’s Day theme came across well in a subtle way while still feeling like a bridal shower. I loved everything about it! Shelly even remembered a few of the pretty vintage post cards that I like and she included them in the centerpieces as well! It was a perfect bridal shower and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family that each worked so hard to help bring it all together. I had a great time celebrating with and seeing so many of my friends and family! After seeing how beautiful everything was at my shower, I’m even more excited to see the final outcome of the centerpieces at our wedding reception. I know Shelly will make it just as lovely! Can’t wait for our Big Day!” – Katie

My pleasure, Katie, and thank you! I join Katie in thanking all who put together this joyous occasion – bridesmaids, Heather, Katie, Sarah, Brittany, Krystle, and Megan – sisters, Lauren and Andrea – mother, Joy – and family friend, Cynthia. More photos will be forthcoming from photographer and friend, Jenny Swanson, and we’ll be sure to share!

Katie and her lovely bridesmaids! Heather, Katie, Sarah, Katie, Brittany, Krystle, Megan

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Southern Vintage Table Event – A Valentine’s Dinner Party

Southern Vintage Table Vintage Decor

The love of a family is life’s greatest blessing. – Unknown

The sweetest of all holidays brought a wonderful request from Sarah – an invitation for Southern Vintage Table to help with her Valentine’s Day dinner party. She loved our vintage place settings and decor when we set the table for her family’s Seder dinner last year and we were thrilled to be asked back again.

We packed mixed and matched vintage dinner and salad plates, silver-plated flatware, water and wine glasses, and decor items for her 40 guests. Since her dinner was buffet-style, our main setup mission was to create beautiful centerpieces for her tables. With Jami, Priscilla, and Sarah’s gorgeous selection of flowers, we did just that!

Our centerpieces began with our assortment of vintage silver-plated trays. Lush bouquets of roses and tulips along with accents of vintage frames, tins, votives, and bowls filled with chocolate kisses completed our Valentine’s look. On the coffee bar, stacked with vintage teacups, and around the room, Priscilla and I created sweet vignettes with Jami’s adorable moss-covered purse arrangements.

Vintage China Rental NC — Sarah’s Baby Shower

Thank you, Sarah and family, for inviting us to be a part of your family celebration! And, many, many, thanks to friends, Jami and Priscilla, for our delightful evening together! Any occasion with friends and family alongside is always magical, wouldn’t you agree?

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Southern Vintage Table Event – Love Was In the Air!

It’s been a fun weekend for Southern Vintage Table! We helped with Sarah’s Valentine’s dinner and Katie’s bridal shower – two sweet occasions filled with joy and love. After packing, delivering, setting up, cleaning up, repacking, unloading, unpacking, cleaning, and putting away, there was little time left for our weekly blog but here are a few photos from these two lovely affairs. More details and photos coming soon!

Many thanks to Katie’s friends and family for helping set up, clean up, and pack! And, I am so grateful for the creative talents of my friends, Jami and Priscilla, for arranging centerpieces, matching teacups, and making it such a fun evening getting Sarah’s dinner party ready for her guests!

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Vintage Feature – Framed Centerpieces

It’s been very busy at Southern Vintage Table this week. This month we are helping with four events! And, what’s wonderful is these are very different kinds of affairs. We have a bridal shower for Katie, Sarah’s Valentine’s dinner party, a photo shoot with Tre Bella, and the Rolesville Chamber‘s annual awards banquet. We are packed and ready for the first three and getting things together for the fourth. Look for these to be featured in the coming weeks!

One of the table decor items we are featuring for the bridal shower and dinner party is a collection of small vintage frames. For the last couple of months, I’ve been picking these up at various thrift stores and my vision was a montage of frames on the table filled with lovely things like post cards, intricate lace or doilies, and pretty flower backgrounds. I love how these look and can’t wait to see them on the tables!

These frames are in our Tabletop Decor Collection and can coordinate with any event. I’m working on our soon-to-be-revealed Vintage Centerpiece Package and our frames certainly will be included as one of many different options to help create interesting and pretty tables for your guests!

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Vintage Feature – Amy’s Floral Inspiration!

I had a nice surprise this week! Amy of Knots’N’ Such Event Planning presented me with this gorgeous, fragrant arrangement in one of our vintage aluminum mugs used at a photo shoot last month at The Royal Banquet and Conference Center in Raleigh. Of course, I absolutely love the combination of flowers, colors, and greenery. As I was admiring the beautiful flowers, it came to me. This bouquet will be my inspiration for this week’s blog! I’ve been wanting to showcase more of our vintage vase ideas and these would be perfect! So after I enjoyed this arrangement for a day, I began experimenting.

First, I tried a deep purple vintage vase shared with me by a dear friend. The shape of the vase is a classic and Amy’s arrangement looks oh-so beautiful! I had to enjoy this for several hours before taking it apart to test out a few more looks.

For the next look I wanted see how the lovely flowers would look in an assortment of milk glass and vintage white egg cups. I think you’ll agree these petite arrangements are sweet against the white glass!

Vintage Decor Rental at Southern Vintage Table

The trailing plant gave me one more idea I wanted to try. Using a tall candle holder with a tea light glass insert, I created this look. It needs more of the trailing plant cascading around to hide the green floral foam but it is stunning, don’t you think?

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Thank you, Amy of Knots’N’ Such Event Planning, for the flower bouquet and for providing the inspiration for this week’s blog. We have more vases pinned on our Pinterest board and be sure to check out our vintage decor on our newly revamped website!

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Vintage Feature – New Website is Up!

Whoop whoop!! Our new website is up and running! My wonderful, fantastic reviewers (Trudy, Carrie, Priscilla, Jami, Mary and Pat) and I love the color scheme and the slide shows featuring our beautiful, vintage inventory. I am so excited our site pages and blog posts all are here at the same place! I can even check my site stats here and now everyone can pin photos directly from the site. Yippee!

~ If you are on our old blog site, go here now to view this post at its new home! ~

Email subscribers, here’s something really important to note – this will be my final post at my wordpress.com blog. I will be posting from this new website but it is super easy to re-subscribe at the top right of this page. New subscribers are welcomed!! When you subscribe, you’ll be notified via email that a new post is up, which is every Sunday. (Also note, this post and all the other posts are published on both blogs but I will be taking down the old one soon.)

I’d love, love, love (and be most appreciative!) if you’d also follow us on Southern Vintage Table’s Facebook page. I tried adding a Facebook Like Widget but I couldn’t find a position on the page that looked right. That’s one thing I need to figure out. I post on Facebook once or twice a week, mostly about new vintage finds or treasures, which I think you’ll love to see!

For those who are interested, I am using GoDaddy’s feature, Managed WordPress, which means I went from WordPress.com to WordPress.org because it’s now a self-hosted site. With this change, I now have more control over the themes and can add widgets to add all kinds of features – like the slide shows on each page featuring our inventory, a footer with contact information and a email subscription field only on the blog page. There is still much to learn! I also dropped my Dreamweaver subscription and, with the Managed WordPress on GoDaddy, I have reduced my hosting fee. GoDaddy provided a temporary url to use while building the site, took down the old site when I was ready to launch, and migrated all the pages over to the same domain name. All in all, this is a terrific update for Southern Vintage Table!

Take a look and tell me what you think! I’d love to hear your comments, ideas and suggestions.

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Vintage Feature – A Mother’s Grief Kindles a Porcelain Legacy

I saw this unusual candy dish in the thrift store and, I admit, my first impression was that it was a bit gaudy. Without my glasses, I couldn’t read the mark very well but I did see that it was made in Pasadena. The script of the mark and the place clinched the deal – I bought it.

It sat on my table for weeks, and occasionally I’d pick it up and admire it, running my fingers across its smooth, ruffled edge. The muted colors and delicate handiwork of the roses captivated me. Finally, I took a photo and decided to do a little research about its history. I couldn’t find the exact piece but I did see another one that was pretty close. However, it turns out the story of this woman-owned American company was the best part of this vintage find.

According to the International Ceramics Directory, Florence Ceramics began in the early 1940s by Florence Ward, an anguished mother who lost her young son to a rare blood disease. To cope with her grief, she took a ceramics course at the Franklin School for ceramics and pottery. Her artistic talent was quickly revealed in her figurines of women and men dressed in authentic historic dress. Friends admired her work and she began selling her signature pieces from her garage.

As her success grew, Florence Ceramics moved to a large, modern facility in 1949 and began mass producing her figurines. Her employees loved working for the Ward family and high standards were always revered. Eventually, as the story often goes, cheaper reproductions from overseas and the death of her husband caused Florence to sell her business to Script in the early 1960s. According to the eBay article, Florence Ceramics aka Florence of California, “A great era of perfection and detail in porcelain figurines came to an end.”

Alas, I do not have any figurines to share but you won’t be disappointed if you take a look at some of these found at Replacements. So beautifully vintage!

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Vintage Feature – Revamping the “About” Page

This past week I have been working on my new website. One page I have wanted to change and update is “Our Story.” So after researching effective “About Me” pages, I hit on this idea. The page title is simply “About.”

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Hello, I’m Shelly.

I’m the owner of Southern Vintage Table, a vintage tableware and decor rental business. After two years of scouring thrift stores, estate sales, antique shops, auctions, craigslist and even my own home, I have collected lots of vintage china, glassware, flatware, serving dishes, linens, and accessories. Many things have been generously shared by friends and family. Our collection spans the 20th century and everything is available for hire.

Here are a few things about me – in no particular order.

~ I’m an optimist, like my mother, and believe things have a way of turning out okay. Maybe not in the way you envisioned but perhaps how it must.

~ I’m a retired middle school teacher, wife, mother, sister, daughter, aunt, niece, and friend. I am a twin with 7 siblings and have two children. I met my husband in the 6th grade.

~ My alma maters include Orange High School, Western Carolina, and UNC-CH. I have a masters in education and earned National Board Certification.

~ My last teaching assignment included a video/news program class called MNN, a web graphics course, and yearbook. I taught 6th, 7th and 8th graders and sometimes had a student for all three years, which always delighted me.

– Whenever I can afford the time, I take the scenic back roads. Thankfully, I usually have the time.

~ I especially love candlelight, potted plants, flowers, pretty china, and wooden boxes. My hobbies have included sewing, playing tennis, making mosaics, and rearranging furniture.

~ As the owner of my business, I have learned how to drill holes in china, get rid of stains in china and linens, and – gasp – properly set a table. And, I love setting tables!

~ When I go thrift store shopping, I’m not necessarily thinking about what the item is, but what it can become or how it can be repurposed. Sometimes I can see it right away, and other times I buy it knowing the vision will come eventually.

~ I’ve started reading a few pages of a book before I go to sleep. I’ve almost finished “Bossypants” by Tina Fey, which I highly recommend. Witty and profound.

~ I’ve written a country song I want Miranda Lambert or Kelly Clarkson to sing and have a movie I want Reese Witherspoon to produce. I’ve messaged the cosmos to help me with these two projects. Hey, it can’t hurt and it just might help, right? That optimism my mother gifted to me is kicking in here.

~ I love meeting new people and listening to their life stories. I especially enjoy hearing the names of their children, parents, grandparents, and even further back. Makes me feel like I’m time traveling with them.

~ I am so grateful for my friends and family. Their wisdom and stories have infused my life with joy and love.

~ I’d love to talk with you and promise our Southern Vintage Table collection will create a memorable, lovely affair for your special guests!

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Let me know what you think about my new “About” page. If you have any ideas, suggestions, or additions, I’d love to hear from you. Really, I mean it…

New website is well on its way – should be unveiling it soon! Here are some photos I took this past week for it.

Vintage Gold Rimmed Glass Compote With Fruit

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Vintage Feature – 3 Goals for the New Year

A new year is the perfect time to set a few goals and we have three major ones on our list at Southern Vintage Table. Here they are!

~ Goal 1 – Develop a “Table Decor” package ~

We have collected all kinds of cool, wonderful vintage doo-dads and small linens – tins, vases, books, postcards, coasters, votives, doilies, hats, gloves, small purses, small stands, candle holders, small frames – to use as table decor. Our next step is to put together a “per table” package so clients can customize their own vintage look for their guest and serving tables. If I haven’t checked this off my list and you would like to know more, please let me know! I’ll get right on it!

~ Goal 2 – Work on assorted DIY projects ~

This one may be the most fun goal of the three but figuring out which ones to tackle first will take some time. For instance, I found two 3-paneled dividers but both of them need a little work – one needs embellishing and the other needs to be repaired. We also have a few wooden items that would look so much better with a distressed look and a couple of trumpets just waiting to be upscaled into something unique. Just waiting for some cosmic inspiration…

~ Goal 3 – Revamp our website and Pinterest Boards ~

H-u-u-ge job, I know, but it’s time for a fresh look and we now have lots of terrific photos from this past year to showcase. I will be moving my business site to Wordpress but I have a lot to learn about how to do it.

Okay, my goals are out there which means I better start checking them off. In the meantime, sending you wishes for a wonderful, happy and prosperous new year from
Southern Vintage Table!

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Southern Vintage Table Event – Hot Off the Press!

Yesterday a wonderful surprise came in our Facebook mail – a post from Faith Teasley Photography. Ashley’s spring wedding was featured in a prestigious online publication, The Every Last Detail, and photos of Southern Vintage Table‘s beautiful china and table settings are highlighted in the photo essay.

Feast your eyes on this gorgeous wedding captured by Faith Teasley in Soft Pink & Pale Blue Vintage Garden Wedding. Thank you Ashley, Faith and The Every Last Detail!

Faith Teasley Photography

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