Tulips

Happy Valentines to All!

“The love you feel in life is a reflection of the love you feel in yourself. “

Deepak Chopra

Today we wish all a Happy Valentine’s Day! Whether it be celebrated with your sweetheart, friends, family, or just yourself, this day is all about love – that inexplicable gift we both receive and give to others. But, perhaps the truest meaning is that love begins with knowing, celebrating, and loving yourself.


We love and thank our clients who participated in our Share the Love offer. We enjoyed planning, collaborating, advertising, and executing the details for you. We are so pleased that you enjoyed the experience, too!

Happy Valentine’s Day and thank you for making ours unique and special! Shelly, you could not have chosen better for us. I am in love with these plates!

AA

These clients have been instrumental in the planning of a new endeavor – offering intimate vintage “To Go” packages. The first to be launched will be a Tea Party To Go package. We are working on the details so you easily can host a magical and traditional tea party!


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Vintage Valentines Overhead

Southern Vintage Table Event – A Vintage & Romantic Valentines

Valentine’s Date at home!! My boyfriend partnered with SVT to plan a Valentine’s themed date. We have not gone out much due to COVID and this was just so fun, memorable, and classy. It felt like he took me out to a nice restaurant but we were in the dining room! The candles, pink glasses, napkin rings, and sweet postcards all tied together to create a beautiful table….a table we lingered at and talked for about an hour together! I would definitely love to use SVT in the future!

Kaitlyn, Chapel Hill

Because work schedules didn’t work for next weekend, Mark and Kaitlyn scheduled their Valentines’ celebration early. As our first clients, we excitedly put together the items for a safe, easy pickup from the bench at the front of our studio. Mark ordered takeout BBQ and with the colorful vintage tableware, they were set for a romantic, intimate meal at home. We asked if someone could take a few photos for us to share, and here they are!


You still have time for this offer! Order form below.


Vanilla Strawberry --- Chocolate Raspberry --- Champagne --- Carrot
Rental cost is due when invoiced. Returnable security deposit is due two days before pickup via invoice. Interested in rentals for 3 or 5, please let us know for adjusted pricing. shelly@southernvintagetable.com
Pickup and drop-off will be at the front door of Southern Vintage Table, 222E Orange Grove Street, Hillsborough, NC. Packing list and repacking directions will be included. As soon as the items have been unpacked and inventoried, we will notify you regarding the security deposit.

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Valentines Table

News: Cultivate the Memories of Valentines Day 2021

Elements provided for your Valentines table

While in the midst of our daily life, we most likely aren’t thinking about the memories we are locking away. Sometimes, however, we can foresee a moment, like a holiday, for which we want to always remember. This year, Valentines 2021 may be unlike any yet celebrated; a day we will want to preserve.

If this day has meaning for you, cultivate your soon-to-be memories with something unique, out-of-the ordinary, special. Remember to use your senses and save keepsakes.

Southern Vintage Table, along with Fireside Farm and Happily Desserted, want to provide that something special for you. Serving your home-cooked meal or takeout dinner and dining on our vintage wares will cultivate memories. The taste and smell of the gourmet cupcakes as well as the long-lasting beauty of the dried florals in a handcrafted bottle-vase will delight you for years to come.

Keepsakes from Valentines 2021

If you are interested in cultivating your 2021 Valentines memories, go here to complete your order and thanks for supporting us.


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Share The Love Title

News – Announcing our “Share the Love” Valentine’s Packages

Valentine’s Day is three weeks from today! How will you celebrate with your sweetie, family, or friends this year? Do you need something that will brighten this day of love and create an everlasting memory?

We can help you put together an experience that will inspire sweet memories of love, beauty, and togetherness.

Our “Share the Love” Valentine’s package has everything you need to set a romantic tablescape. We will provide carefully selected vintage place settings for two (or more) , vintage table decor with a handcrafted bottle-vase filled with beautiful, everlasting dried florals, coordinating napkin rings, and 4 gourmet cupcakes. Prepare your special meal or order takeout from your favorite restaurant and the memories begin.


Intrigued? Here are four reasons why “Share the Love” is perfect for you!


Reason 1 – Everything included is eco-responsible.
The dishware is vintage, the dried flowers are organically and locally grown, and the gourmet cupcakes come from a local baker.

Reason 2 – Three different vintage themes from which to choose!
Elegantly Classic has sweet, fancy plates; Boldly Botanical features place settings with big, vibrant florals; and Naturally Neutral incorporates earthy tans, beiges and brown. All coordinated pieces complement each package.

Reason 3 – Three local, eco-minded women-owned businesses have collaborated to bring you this collection.

Lisa of Fireside Farm grows organic flowers here in Orange County. Happily Desserted‘s owner, Shrimi, bakes speciality cakes and and uses locally and seasonally available ingredients. Shelly, owner of Southern Vintage Table, curates vintage tableware for rent. The three of us partner with the Green Wedding Guild, an organization whose goal is to help clients choose sustainable options.

Reason 4 – You also will be sharing the love with us!
Our businesses have been affected by the pandemic. If you add takeout from a local restaurant, you’ll be helping four businesses! Your participation supports us during this time until we can safely gather once again. We all will be most appreciative!


Encouragements, questions, or comments? Please let us know!
shelly@southernvintagetable.com

Ready to take the next step? Simple! Go here!


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Lace with Vintage Pins

News – A New Year Cheer from Southern Lady!

A bit of cheer was sent to us to start our new year!! The delightful news was the publication of an article that appears in the January/February 2021 issue of Southern Lady for which we were consulted. The article is beautifully presented in this lovely publication and we are so pleased to be mentioned.

The Legacy of Lace
Touting both a rich history and perennial popularity, heirloom lace is unwavering in its versatile appeal.
Written by Elizabeth Bonneer Czapski
Styled by Melissa Sturdivant Smith
Photographed by Stephanie Welbourne Steele.

Here’s an excerpt from the article which mentions us:

At Southern Vintage Table, an antique tableware rental company in Hillsborough, North Carolina, owner Shelly Heath shares a fascination with lace that she’s acquired for her events. But, she also believes that much of its draw, especially in our region, lies in nostalgic merit. “I think folks appreciate vintage lace because of the delicate and intricate designs as much as its personal history,” Shelly explains.

“If it has been handed down from previous generations, it carries a sentimental value that is priceless. Lace is also versatile – as a table covering, a hankerchief, or an embellishment on {clothing}.”

Southern Lady Magazine, Jan/Feb 2021, pages 45-50.

Of course, we are truly honored to have been asked about our deep appreciation for vintage lace. Our collection at Southern Vintage Table includes lace doilies, tablecloths, handkerchiefs, napkins, and even a boho-inspired lace curtain-backdrop. Let us know if you’d like to add a bit of lace to your next event!

PS – This is our second mention in Southern Lady! 🙂


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Vintage Doilies

News – SVT is Featured in the September 2020 issue of Southern Lady Magazine

Last summer we were contacted by Elizabeth Czapski, an editor with Southern Lady magazine, to share our experience with vintage linens. They were working on an article that embraced their history, beauty, and repurposed uses for today. We corresponded several times about Southern Vintage Table and specifically about linens we offer to our clients. We shared photos that illustrated how they can be displayed and used, pointing out how we love to mix and match vintage patterns, whether it’s tableware or napkins. Were we thrilled to be interviewed? Heck, yeah!

Turns out the adage, “good things come to those who wait,” would apply here when we found out that article’s publication date had been moved to the fall of 2020. No worries, we thought. Next year will be great. Little did we know that this year couldn’t have been more perfect – the delay translated into a huge morale booster for us!

So, this week we received a copy of the September 2020 issue of the Southern Lady magazine. As we flipped through the gorgeously photographed pages and corresponding features, we found our article on page 99- “New Life for Old Linens.”

Two of us were interviewed – Lois Lamb of Vintage Linens by Lois and moi, Shelly Heath of Southern Vintage Table. Wow. Reading the article and seeing our name in print with advice about vintage linens was surreal – and quite wonderful! Here’s one excerpt:

“These time-honored, regional customs created a market that allowed Shelly Heath, a retired middle school teacher, to start Southern Vintage Table. Based in Hillsborough, North Carolina, her company rents out antique tableware – including napkins, doilies, and tablecloths – for weddings and other events.” “We specialize in mixing and matching patterns, colors, and styles for out clients,” Shelly says, a practice she recommends applying to your own home entertaining.

“As far as not having enough matching napkins, no worries,” she says. “Don’t be afraid to mix them up for your guests. Use several different patterns.” Lois echoes this sentiment…

Both women agree that you should cherish heirloom linens for their aged appeared and storied imperfections, not in spite of them. “Embrace the history of the vintage linen,” Shelly says. “Little tears and holes need not be fixed – they represent a loved item.”

Czapski, Elizabeth. “New Life for Old Linens,” Southern Lady Magazine, September 2020, 99-102. Print.

Shelly reading about Shelly is quite an experience! We are sincerely grateful that Elizabeth found SVT online and included us in her article. Vintage linens are delightful to share, through words and with the real thing.


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Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Vintage Feature – Setting the Vintage Table with the Kindness of Friends

“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Since I opened Southern Vintage Table, I have been heartened by the excitement of my friends and family for the concept of this business. Folks love the idea of finding, collecting and bringing together the collage of vintage china and tableware patterns!  Many have also generously gifted me with their personal family treasures and I have loved hearing about their mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. In this post, I want to honor the family dinner table pasts of four women – Mildred, Grandmother Björk, Edna and Lillian.

Mildred, who recently passed away, lived in the NC mountains all her life. She and her husband of nearly 70 years dearly loved each other and their family. Her son and my brother-in-law, gave me her set of amber Whitehall glasses by Colony Glass. I do love this vintage amber pattern but I mostly love that they were once part of the Webb family’s happy dinner table for so many years.

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Mildred’s vintage amber Whitehall tumblers

I got a call one day from Nancy that she was cleaning out cabinets and had some things she wanted to share with me. Along with the vintage glass, silver items and decorative aluminum trays, she had a set of 12 gorgeous vintage placemats made by her husband’s Grandmother Björk. Nancy remembered that Grandmother Björk loved to crochet and even when she was almost blind, she was still sewing and edging linens. With their delicate, perfect design and their classic ivory color, I can easily envision Grandmother Björk carefully stitching these to use at her family dinners.

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC
Beautiful hand stitched vintage placemats

My friend, Priscilla, sent me a message that she wanted me to come over for a visit. She showed me all around her happy home and I reveled at the beautiful nature displays. (She and her husband both taught science.)  Our tour ended in a room where she had stacked items she thought I could use with my business. Among the many treasures were two boxes of vintage silverware and one was from Edna, her husband’s mother. Edna, the wife of an agriculture professor and the mother of two PhD boys, loved to cook fresh vegetables from her garden. Everything about this visit filled my heart with gratitude, especially this lovely vintage silverware that Edna lovingly set around her family dinner table.

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Edna’s lovely silverware came in the most charming box!

This week Carrie of Fernrock Farm and I made a business call to the Chapel Hill Carriage House. It turned out that the owner’s daughter was once a student of mine and I knew her sons as well.  At the end of the tour of her beautiful grounds, Brenda asked me if I would like to have her grandmother’s china. She explained that it had been boxed up for years and she really wanted to share it with someone who would love using it as much her grandmother did. Her grandmother, Lillian, lived in Arlington near Boston and enjoyed serving big dinners to her family. Of course, I was both honored and thrilled!

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Lillian’s beautiful china from Gilchrist Department Store

The delicate blue and red roses against the cream background give this pattern that perfect vintage look. Although I couldn’t find the name of Lillian’s china, it does say on the back that it was “made expressly for Gilchrist – Boston”. Gilchrist, I discovered, was a major department store in Boston that opened its doors in the mid 1800s and closed them in the mid 1970s.  Now, Southern Vintage China is the caretaker of Lillian’s lovely set of china, which probably dates from the 1920s-30s.

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC
Classic vintage china with delicate roses on a cream background – love the two-handled cups!

One final story about this week’s gifts. When I was visiting Priscilla, I met Becky, a friend of theirs who regularly goes on mission trips to tear down houses that need rebuilding. After Priscilla introduced us and told her about my business, Becky shared that she recently had been to her 90-year-old father’s home and had picked up a set of glasses that were now in the trunk of her car. The glasses, she explained, had once come packaged with tea and then she offered them to me. Wow – aren’t they incredible?  They will be featured in an upcoming blog!

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Buy some tea, get some tea glasses!

Sets of glasses, linens, silverware, china and more – all shared by the families of Mildred, Grandmother Björk, Edna, Lillian and Becky’s mother.  How does one show her appreciation for such beautiful gifts?  SimpIy and sincerely, I thank you.

Each time we set the table at Southern Vintage Table, we honor these women and many others who loved their families and the special time they spent around their family dinner table. Namaste.

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NCPS – My to-do-list continues from weeks’ past.  Something more interesting than ironing napkins and cleaning silverware always comes up!  Thank goodness…

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Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC