An Elegant Floral Dinner Party for A 40th Birthday

To celebrate her 40th birthday, Nancy, of Oak & The Owl, hosted a supremely elegant dinner party at home for her closest friends. Picture leather table linens, emerald green tapered candles, rich burgundy florals (from her very own farm!) and champagne cocktails. My, my, is this a fete to remember! Honestly, we can’t think of a better way to ring in a new decade, or any birthday, really, than to bring in a private chef and dine at a beautiful table in good company. Our shoulders relax and eyes twinkle just thinking about it!

Nancy says, I’ve always loved birthdays. I think they’re a great time to be with your loved ones and have fun and relax. Because I was turning 40 this year, I wanted to go all out, but on a super small scale. I put together a small guest list of some of my closest friends and hosted a seated dinner. We had a local chef come in and serve a 4 course meal, which was so great because my husband and I could just enjoy the party and not have to worry about the cooking.

Being in the events industry, I of course had to make it beautiful. For the design I played off of the Ellie Cashman wallpaper in our living room and brought in black, cream, green, and a touch of burgundy with brass accents. I used La Tavola‘s black leather dot linen for the continuous long table that took over our living room. Then, I used Adore Folklore‘s beautiful place settings for the chargers, plates, flatware and napkins. I recently started investing in tabletop for my family dinners and was able to use my vintage crystal glassware, mixing and matching with every other setting.

It was a family affair getting ready for the party where we moved all our furniture either out of the house, or to different locations, all so the extended dining table could fit. We also brought in some of Adore Folklore’s lounge pieces, and it all came together perfectly. For the florals, I used my collection of brass compotes and created centerpieces of garden roses from my farm, Ella Rose Farm, and greens I cut around Fallbrook. Then, I added 15″ tapers from Creative Candles in two shades of muted green and put them in brass candlesticks. To top it off, Hey There Cupcake created the most beautiful birthday cake. I sent her an image of the wallpaper, and the design elements I was using, and told her to go for it. It was perfect! And so delicious.

It was such a fun night! The laughter was continuous, the wine flowed, and everyone left saying they didn’t know I knew so many great people. The feeling was mutual among everyone, it was a night of great people sharing good food and lots of laughter.