An Honorary Mother’s Day Table

Happy (almost) Mother’s Day to all of you! Whether you are a mother, are celebrating a mother, or are remembering a mother, I hope your plans to make someone feel special are underway. When my talented, tablescaping friend Randi of Randi Garrett Designs approached me with her idea to co-host a Mother’s Day table tour with some of our blogging friends, my wheels started turning. Of course, I LOVED the idea as I never pass up a chance to “create” in my dining room, but as only a mother to two pups (although honestly, they are my babies), and with both my mother and my mother in law living out of state, I wondered “how am I going to design an authentic table?” That doubt lasted about two seconds as I soon decided that my table would reflect an honorary celebration. If you have landed on my page via Sarah of Sarah Sofia Productions, welcome! Sarah’s event designs serve as incredible inspiration and as a closeted event planner wannabe, I love living vicariously through her posts. Whether this is your first time here or you stop by frequently, I hope you will stick around as I take you through the frustration adventure of creating my Mother’s Day table. 

As I said, my concept was based on an “honorary celebration”; in addition to my mother and mother in law, I set places for a couple of special ladies who are no longer with us. I envisioned that if they were all able to sit around our table together, living in Georgia, I would want to serve some of my favorite southern fare, including a peach cobbler (read on for my favorite easy, killer recipe). I planned to have a blush-toned table with more peaches than I could count, overflowing from a center bowl. My mom warned me that peaches may be “tough to do” since they aren’t quite in season yet, and, in the spirit of Mother’s Day, I will say it – ‘mother knows best’. To make a long story short and to not divulge too many details behind the sweet attempt of helping my vision come to fruition, I’ll just say that sometimes, things don’t turn out how you plan and you have to make the most of them. And yes, that includes creating tablescapes . Instead of 30 peaches, I ended up with 4 peaches and 6 reddish nectarines. Instead of white hydrangeas, I had to get creative with carnations. And when the pink, translucent plates I was going to use looked better suited for a five year old’s birthday party, I was glad to have another option on hand.

After I got over the initial disappointment of not having the table I had envisioned, I started to appreciate and like the result of my efforts. And, if each person who I had set a place for was actually able to come together for a Mother’s Day dinner, I thought they would enjoy the feminine and local touches too.

One thing that did not change was that I knew I wanted to fill a big white bowl – if it wasn’t going to be comprised entirely of peaches, I would find other things to fill it with. Since it was fairly deep, I went with a tip I learned from my mother – I laid down some towels in the bottom to take up space. I put two small, round vases on either side, on top of the towels and made them snug by situating my fruit around them. I then took my floral stems- blush and peach roses with white carnations – and arranged them around the fruit with their stems in the small vases until there were no gaps.

To create more of a “bounty”, I went outside and clipped a few pieces of greenery to incorporate on one side. As much as I love symmetry, I preferred the look of only one side of green leaves.

It didn’t feel quite complete so I took it a step further and “borrowed” a few low sprigs off our new Japanese maple. (I actually tried to be sneaky with the scissors during this part as I wanted to avoid my husband catching me in the act, butchering his new baby)  I didn’t want the dark red to overpower the sweet tones so even used sparingly, it made a big impact.

I finished it off with a small, clear vase on each side with a few stems, and incorporated a few blooms flowing down the center, almost like a floral garland. I even included a small sprig of greenery as the final touch on each plate.

If you are wondering about “Mama Nan”, that’s my mom. We both have the middle name “Nan” so embracing our joint identity as “the Nans” is a normal part of our lives. And, we love it. The most fun part of this is while it may seem like I hosted a “pretend teaparty” for myself, my mother actually did come for a visit so she was able to experience this table I set in her honor. We had the best weekend, shopping, sippin’ wine, getting mani/pedis, eating a LOT of food, and then capped it off with a Van Morrison concert. We truly are two peas in a pod and there are few things I look forward to more than when we can visit with each other.

Don’t be fooled – the prettiest peach made it to the top 😉

Here you can see the “garland” effect I mentioned. I love overlapping different centerpiece elements – it immediately makes my feel like my table is more styled for an “event” and less for a regular dinner.

I set a place for my grandmother at the head of the table. The epitome of class, one of my favorite memories of her is when I was about 10 years old. She hosted some of my friends and me for a luncheon – complete with a sophisticated menu and a full formal table setting. Her style has influenced both the decor aesthetic to which I am drawn and the kind of lady I would like to be.

My absolute favorite dessert is warm peach cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. As a Georgia native, it’s pretty much a “rule” and also super fitting that my favorite recipe is from fellow Georgia girl, Paula Deen.

GET THE LOOK

Because peaches aren’t quite in season, I went the safe route and used canned. This is my absolute favorite cobbler recipe – if you aren’t a fan of peaches (don’t tell me that 😉 ), you can use other fruit. I recenlty used this same method in making a cherry cobbler.

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 cup of milk (I used skim, which works fine)
• 1 28 oz. can of peaches in syrup

1. Set oven for 350°. 
2. Place butter in 9×9 baking dish and put dish in oven to melt butter as oven preheats.
3. Combine flour and sugar and mix well.
4. Slowly add milk to sugar and flour – mix until there are no clumps
5. Once the butter has melted in the oven, pour the batter into the baking dish.
6. Spoon the peaches from the can on top of the batter. 
7. Once the peaches have been spooned, pour the syrup on top. DO NOT MIX TOGETHER
8. Bake 30-45 minutes (40 minutes is my lucky number) or until the cobbler is golden brown. 
9. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream

*original source*

I hope you leave here ready to celebrate or remember those important women in your life, a must-try recipe in your planner, and a few ideas on how to assemble a fun table. Next, head over to Kara at Kara’s Party Ideas – not only is she sharing some Mother’s Day inspiration, but you could probably get lost in her blog searching all of her incredible ideas for any event. Wishing you all a wonderful and very happy Mother’s Day!

Don’t miss any of the inspiration on these participating blogs:

Designs by Laila | Design Loves Detail | Crazy Chic Design | Lindsay Hill Interiors | ZDesign at Home | Zevy Joy | House of Five | Haneen’s Haven | Shabbyfufu | Sunny Side Up | Randi Garrett Design | Sarah Sofia Productions | Kelley Nan | Kara’s Party Ideas | Decor Gold Designs | CitrineLiving | Jeanne Campana Design | She Leaves a Little Sparkle

GET THE DINING ROOM LOOK

GET THE TABLE LOOK

ADDITIONAL SOURCES

12-Light Chandelier | Dining Table:  (84″ in Salvaged Brown) | Buffet: (72″ in Distressed White) | Curtain Panels: (98″ in White) | Rug: HomeGoods- Calvin Klein wool | Mirror: HomeGoods | Lamps: HomeGoods | Silver Tea Service: Family Heirloom | Mercury Glass Candle Holders | Black and White Salad Plates: HomeGoods | Pillows: Pier 1 (no longer available) | White Serving Bowl: HomeGoods | Branch Candle Holders: HomeGoods | Paint: Sherwin Williams- “Lauren’s Surprise”

*post contains affiliate links | where original product is not available online, an alternative option has been sourced*