Today is a big day, my parents are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary! Every year they like to joke and say it’s been 34 long, hard years, then 35 long hard years but although long and hard, they have spent it together having a lot of fun along the way.
For as long as I can remember my mother has regaled me with stories about the first few years of my parents’ relationship. Sharing fries and gravy in the Woodwards cafeteria on their break. Going to their favorite Chinese food restaurant and being told they ordered too much food. Heading over to Boston Pizza on half price Tuesdays. Or my mother asking my father to order white chicken for his meal at Swiss Chalet so she could trade her bun for his wing. If you haven’t noticed there is a bit of a theme, my parents have always loved to share a meal together.
So what better way to celebrate then to share a meal with family. This year we ventured out in public and went to my parents favourite Indian buffet and were joined by my aunt and uncle. We had a lot to celebrate, two wedding anniversary’s, two moves, a birthday, a new business venture (more on that to come) and how lucky we are to be able to go out again. This time last year we had to celebrate by staying in and ordering food from not one but two of our favourite restaurants. Which means yes, this table setting is from last years celebration, we just never got around to posting it, but here it is at last!
Once again our setting inspiration revolved around a beautiful tablecloth, with a floral paisley design in plumb, orange, yellow and red. We love a colourful tablecloth because it gives us so much to work with. Sometimes though it poses a challenge especially with dinnerware. Although we do have a number of sets it is probably something we spend the most amount of time on. This time however all we had to do was look to our everyday dinnerware. At the time we were using vintage Mikasa’s Desert Wave design for every day use, it has since been retired but is still one of my favourite designs and was perfect for this setting.
For the table napkins we used two different colours, gold and orange, the combination was striking and became a prominent aspect of the setting. We strayed again from tradition by placing the vintage brass Thai cutlery underneath the table napkin which left us more room for the bread plate and the yellow paisley shaped dipping dish mom had found only months before.
For the centrepiece we used a brass tray, and vase made in India. We also found a beautiful brass candle holder and some tealights to finish it off. Like we have said before and will keep saying, look for inspiration around your home, flowers aren’t the only thing you can add to the centre of a table setting, more often than not, we find all sorts of different items to add interest to our settings.
Although we love to spend a celebration at home and do up a wonderful table setting we all realize how lucky we are to have been able to spend it at a restaurant this year. We got to hear stories about my parents wedding day, of how warm it was, and how the wedding cake almost didn’t make it intact to the reception. If you choose to stay in, Mom and I hope that you find some inspiration from our table settings and fun ways to celebrate your milestones with those you love.
Congratulations Mom and Dad! Here’s to another 35 long hard years full of food, laughter and love.
