Tabletop Decor: Theme Starting Point

CHICAGO—May 21, 2003--Whether you have an enormous budget, or you're flying by on a shoestring, the first place to concentrate your theme budget, and energies, is on the guest tables where attendees will spend the most time noticing the details or lack therof.

When it comes to finding interesting ways to execute a theme, try to look below the surface for the less obvious, more surprising elements which add to the guest's overall perception of the event.

If you're lucky enough to have a generous allowance for theme accents, then consider additional decor treatment at the entrance, room perimeter and corners, as well as primary staging areas -- punctuate the entire effect with dramatic lighting and you've covered your bases.

Your budget can be stretched and your theme flushed out in more detail by adding inexpensive and seemingly mundane products to the table setting. For instance, if your theme is the Sixties/Andy Warhol, you can stock up on jumbo-size Campbell's Tomato Soup Cans at the grocery store. If you're hosting a circus theme, boxes of animal crackers make great placecard holders. Cut out and laminate thematic pictures, postcards and magazine covers to accent the tabletop or consider using them as placemats. For a Mardi Gras theme, give your florist a minimal centerpiece budget and add your own beads, feathers and masks to each one.

The only rule we absolutely adhere to is to always make sure to use floor length tablecloths. You could spend a fortune on centerpieces and your guests' attentions would be unwittingly drawn to the gangly and obtrusive banquet table legs!

Examples of additional table setting ideas