As we approach the holiday season, you’re most likely making all of your holiday plans. Which of course, includes Thanksgiving. You may be traveling home for your Thanksgiving celebrations, staying local, hosting, or attending. If you’re extra lucky, you may even throw in a gathering with friends prior to the big day… double the turkey! Or simply planning your Thanksgiving dinners with friends, AKA a Friendsgiving.
What is a Friendsgiving?
The word Friendsgiving is the perfect merger of Friends and Thanksgiving. Basically, it’s when you host a Thanksgiving celebration with your friends, not family. Typically, Friendsgivings happen not on Thanksgiving Day. However, you can still totally throw a Friendsgiving if you are not planning to be with family on the actual holiday.
I personally love my Friendsgiving traditions. I mean, the holiday is of course wonderful to spend with family. But if you’re like me, some of friends are family. So I love celebrating with them as well whether its on Thanksgiving Day or anytime during the holiday season. So with that, I wanted to share how to create a Friendsgiving tablescape for a small intimate group. Just like your Thanksgiving tablescape should be super festive, the Friendsgiving table deserves its own moment.
After all celebrating the holidays in style with your friends is fun while getting festive through decor is part of the holiday spirit.
How to Create a Friendsgiving Tablescape
How to Choose Your Theme
Everyone is inspired and I get most of my inspiration through Pinterest. Once I decide on a them, I decide how I can take that idea and make it unique to my style.
This tablescape is one of my favorites to date. I love that it’s intimate, romantic, modern and very inviting. The color palette is alway very warm and cozy to me.
For me, all of this is important because I personally don’t love large crowds and love have a glass of wine with friends that leads to lots of laughs and deep conversations.
I know that looking at this, it may seem hard, but follow along through these steps to learn how to create this tablescape. It’s super simple and cost conscious. And, if you do please share with me, I’d love to see your ideas! Creating is such a passion of mine if all forms from entertaining to fashion!
Designing Your Center Piece
When designing your dining room tablescapse, you should always start with the center piece first, after all it’s the conversation piece surrounding the entire table. Here I chose to use pampas grass, I love the natural beauty it gives off and its floral that you might already have in your home as I did. If you don’t, I’d recommend getting some. I move might around my house constantly! Any fall flowers could be used as would be equally as beautiful!
For my tables decor, I always create my fall floral arrangements in an odd number, I chose 3 here. One large vase and two slender statements with one pampas grass stem in each.
Lastly, I added a personal touch of the cotton gauze around the vase which adds a geometric element to the vase. I actually puddled the excess cotton gauze ribbon at the base of vase to create softness.
For the table runner I used this $9 netting. I liked the white and that it added a modern element to the table setting.
I also added some velvet pumpkins since the theme was Friendsgiving, but again, I love that removing them this tablescape could be classic for any occasion or intimate dinner party.
How to Create The Table Setting
When creating and elevated table setting you first want to stack your appetizer plate on your dinner plate. It creates a dining experience one won’t forget and it feels more elevated that way.
I used the same netting ($9) for my table running but for the place settings I spray painted it champagne which was the perfect romantic color. Tied the ribbon in the bow. Then popped in some faux fall floral floral stems from Afloral.
I also always have wine glasses and an appetizer on the table so they are ready and I think it completes the table setting.
How to Add Your Personal Touch
As, I mentioned above on how I created each of these table settings, it’s so important to add a personal touch. Each of my table settings had a coordinating but different faux floral in them to make it personal.
For the silverware, I kept it classic, but I’ve been eyeing some gold ones for my holiday table setting. In my shop the post I added some grateful ones, but here are some beautiful classics!
Other idea is to use place cards, you can find beautiful ones on Etsy! If you don’t want to use a ribbon, simply add a beautiful napkin ring. These are all simple and tangible ways to create a tablescape thats easy!
Friendsgiving Table Setting Ideas:
Traditional Fall Colors
It’s a classic for a reason, ladies. Traditional Fall colors are always a good idea for Thanksgiving. Think gold flatware, brown or orange tablecloths, then mix in various Fall leave colors throughout the table. You can even throw in a few standout items like turkey plates, candles, or figurines.
Tons of Pumpkins
I LOVE the idea of gathering a ton of pumpkins on the center of the table. You can grab all different sizes from mini pumpkins to medium size. Even grab a few different shapes – taller and wider pumpkins. Definitely opt for a few different colors too!
Food Focused
Okay this is a really fun and unique Friendsgiving tablescape idea. Since this holiday is really centered around food and gathering people together, I love this one. All you need to do is make sure that you’re serving a ton of sharable food. Then set up your table to display the food as decor. So think beautiful charcuterie boards, dip bowls, and any other finger foods strategically place on your table as decor. You’ll need risers to create some depth and dimension on the table. Then all you need is a tablecloth and maybe few small candles or floral arrangements to place around the displays.
Non Traditional Color Scheme
Friendsgivings can actually be the perfect time to experiment and do something outside the box. Non traditional color schemes that can be fun to try for a Friendsgiving include dark grays or black with white, deep or emerald green, purples, or even a blush pink with grey tons could be really beautiful.
Neutrals Tones
This decor color scheme is similar to my table settings. I love this one because it’s beautiful and still gives off earthy vibes. However, the colors aren’t as a bright as traditional Fall colors. So it’s more of a vibe, honestly. For this set up you can use nudes, beige, white, grey, etc. White plats are always easy, and for florals you can do baby’s breath and pampas plants which are just gorgeous!
I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did writing it. Creating a tablescape and being creative makes me so happy! I also created a video of the entire process over on instagram here. I’d love for you to go check it out!
A little fun fact, I actually almost started my blog with party planning as so stay tuned for more of me sharing a passion of my whole lifestyle. One of my favorite hobbies is creating children’s birthday parties!
Again, thank you for stopping by the gray details and shopping! To stay up to date on my fashion trends, sign up for my Newsletter or shop my looks here. Don’t forget to also follow me on instagram for more outfit inspiration. I don’t know about you, but I’m always getting inspired on pinterest with home and NAIL INSPO!. Have a bless holiday season and never hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!
Okay, off to enjoy the holiday season, and maybe a little Bailey Irish Cream holiday cocktail, because why not? Tis the season!
Best, Amanda
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