Thanksgiving is on November 26 this year, and somewhere in the Triangle a dining table is about to be pulled away from the wall, fitted with the leaf that only comes out once a year, and set for more people than the room was built for. We have been dressing Thanksgiving tables here for a long time, and Thanksgiving centerpieces in Raleigh have one job that never makes it onto the card: they share the table with the turkey, and the turkey wins.
Start with the table you actually have, leaf and all, and the number of people you are squeezing around it. Everything else follows from that.
Low enough to talk over
Sit down at your table. Put your elbow on it and make a fist. Anything taller than your fist is going to sit between two faces during dinner, and one of those faces will spend the evening leaning around a dahlia. We design our Thanksgiving centerpieces low and wide, with everything interesting happening at the level of the plates and glasses.
Long tables are easier than they look. A row of three or five smaller arrangements down the middle keeps the whole length alive and leaves gaps for the platters. A low runner of flowers and foliage works too, with candles set into it, if the table is wide enough that nobody has to reach across it. Round tables want one piece in the center that spreads out rather than up.
We also design these to be lifted. When the food comes out and the table suddenly has no room, the centerpiece goes to the sideboard for an hour and comes back for dessert. A heavy, low vessel with a flat base makes that a one-hand job.
What Thanksgiving centerpieces in Raleigh look like this year
Burgundy, copper, rust and soft cream, with a little plum when we can find it. That is the palette we keep coming back to, and there is a reason it works. Everything on a Thanksgiving table is some shade of brown, gold or orange. Turkey, stuffing, rolls, sweet potatoes, pie. Put an orange arrangement next to all of that and it disappears. Deep burgundy stands out against the food and makes the whole table look richer. Cream and white open it back up so the center of the table does not feel heavy.
The flowers we are designing with this season are the last of the dahlias if frost holds off, garden roses in toffee and caramel tones, the big single-bloom chrysanthemums, celosia, scabiosa pods, rose hips, oak leaves and dried grasses. A few small gourds or a cluster of seeded eucalyptus around the base finishes it. Herbs belong on this table more than any other. A few stems of rosemary, sage or bay in the arrangement smell like the kitchen, which is the point.
One thing to skip at the dining table is anything strongly perfumed. You want to smell the gravy, and the flowers can be beautiful without competing for the air.
Candles, kids and the gravy boat
Candles go low and in glass, or in a straight line of tapers set well clear of the flowers. Dried grasses and taper flames are a bad pairing, so if you love both, keep a hand's width between them.
The kids' table deserves its own small arrangement in something that will survive being knocked over. A squat ceramic pot with a tight cluster of flowers does fine, and it tells the children they are at a real table, which they notice.
Leave room for the things that live on the table all through dinner: the gravy boat, the salt, the butter, the cranberry sauce that someone in the family insists on. If you are not sure how much room you have, set the table the night before with every serving dish you plan to use, then see what space is left. That is the size of your centerpiece.
Keeping it fresh from Wednesday to Saturday
Fresh flowers can carry the long weekend if a few things go right. Keep the arrangement cool overnight, away from the oven, the heat vents and the sunny window. Change the water every other day, which for most people means Wednesday night and Friday morning, and give the stems a fresh cut when you do. Keep it away from the fruit bowl. Ripening apples and bananas give off a gas that ages cut flowers fast, and the fruit bowl always ends up on the same counter.
If one bloom goes before the others, pull it. The arrangement will close around the gap and look as if it was designed that way.
Hosting somewhere else? Send the table a gift
Plenty of what we make this month goes to a host, from a guest. No wrapping, no re-gifting, and it is on the table that same night. Driving to family in Cary? Flying in to your parents in Durham? Flowers that arrive ahead of the meal tell the cook you showed up early, at least in spirit.
Write the card in your own words and sign it, because the card prints only what you write. If you know the host's colors, tell us. If you do not, Designer's Choice lets Anita read the season and build something for that table, and we will make sure it suits the house it is going to.
The shop has the fall arrangements, and if you want a gift with a longer life, an orchid can keep blooming for weeks. For a wider look at flowers through the holidays, our earlier post on holiday flowers for entertaining picks up where this one ends.
Happy Thanksgiving from the studio.