A Toile Tale: Friends for Fall Dinner

One of our favorite couples spends the winter in Florida, and several of us wanted to be sure to have dinner with them before sending them off to sunny shores. It turned out to be one of those evenings that you never wanted to end. We sat and laughed and laughed and shared some lovely memories.

It was a table of eight....my favorite! These are vibrant people, so not neutrals here!

I have slowed down in my antique collecting, as we approach the reality of downsizing, but this remains one of my favorite things to collect. I especially love the engraved badge on the wood. I filled it with the bright, bright colors of fall, along with some cream roses and bleached wheat.

Makes me smile!

Those colors are reflected in the rest of the choices I made for the table.

Years ago, I bought these bittersweet wreaths to use as chargers. I bring them out every year, and so far, they have held up well. Then I toned them down with my gold edged cream Lenox dinner plates, and some vintage salad plates with a variety of fruits featured on them.

Some placesettings had this bleached wooden flatware.....

and some had this dark wooden flatware.

The vintage napkins are embroidered with a sweet little maple leaf, and gathered into an antique bone napkin ring.

I thought these little squirrel place card holders were perfect!

These were new to the table this year and it made me so happy to be using gold again.

By far, these are my favorite candlesticks and I love what the wood does for the table.

Do these make you smile?

Well, we sure did have lots of smiles around this table!

Here's wishing a great winter to our friends. They are the cutest newlyweds I know. I love to share their happiness and this was a great way to do so.