Celebrating Fall with A Harvest Dinner – Part I

A few months ago I was asked by Occasions Magazine to create a holiday entertaining spread for their September issue.  Any holiday; whatever my little heart desired.  So since fall is my absolute favorite it was obvious I would gravitate towards that, but instead of Halloween or Thanksgiving I wanted to create something that celebrated the changing of seasons; a harvest dinner.   

The only thing standing in the way of my vision was transforming hot-lanta in the middle of June into a crisp fall day in October.  Luckily just outside of Atlanta you can find exactly what I was looking for in the form of a magical place called Serenbe.  The day was a scorcher, one for the books.  Our gorgeous red cake actually melted and se almost all passed out from heat stroke, but when the sun began to set, the light became perfect and in my eyes something magical happened, harvest happened.

Bursting with fall tabletop ideas I decided to make the table itself the focal point knowing that while this was a celebration of fall the table could easily transition to a Thanksgiving or even Christmas table with a few small tweaks.  I wanted the table and seating to feel organic; matching but not matching if you know what I mean.  

A lush green garland full of feathers ran down the center, with simple but perfectly layered place settings in warm brown and burgundy tones.  Spray painted gold pears held guests’s names and “I’m thankful for” and “I couldn’t live without” cards waited to be filled out.  A personal holiday tradition, guests fill out the cards then place them in a bowl.  As  the bowl is passed around the table each guest pulls a card and reads it out loud.  It’s just a little way to get the conversation flowing and most importantly give thanks.

I couldn’t have been happier with how everything turned out.  In fact because I have so many images I absolutely adore it’s going to actually take me 3 days to share it all with you.  So for today we focus on the table.  And if you’re in the area pick up the Florida or Georgia issue to see the spread or read all about it online .  And make sure you check out our behind the scenes video.  Happy harvest Loves!  truly, MKR