New York party designer Renny Reynolds shows how to make a tablescape of exotic fruit.
Materials:
mat that has been wired together with twigs
grapevine basket or a piece of driftwood
mangoes and papayas
whole pineapple
taper candles
red striated tea leaves
straight pen
galax leaves
four more tea leaves
fern
oranges
dried flowers of your choice
star fruit
kumquats
roses
tulips
freesia
plastic water tubes
palm fronds
colorful plates and napkins
ribbon in color of choice
gardenia
Steps:
- Lay out the mat (figure A). It will give shape to the whole table.
- Position a grapevine basket or a piece of driftwood on one end of the mat and surround it with mangoes and papayas (figure B). Artichokes are great to add to for their texture and color, and pineapple flowers add great color.
- To create a pineapple candlestick, cut the top off the pineapple and slice the bottom so that it will set level. Core out the center and place a taper candle inside.
- Fold over red striated tea leaves, tape them together and use a straight pin to add them to the bottom of the pineapple (figure C).
- Add galax leaves and four more tea leaves around the top of the pineapple.
- Place the candlestick on the table and surround it with fern and additional fruit (figure D). You can also place taper candles in oranges.
- Throughout the entire display, fill in any blank spaces with dried flowers of your choice as well as star fruit, kumquats, roses, tulips and freesia. Be sure to place flowers in plastic water tubes to make sure they will last through the evening.
- Use palm fronds for place mats and add colorful plates and napkins.
- Tie bows in contrasting colors around the napkins.
- The crowning touch, which should be the last step, is to place a gardenia in the center of the bow on each napkin (figure E). The basis of the table decor is the colorful tropical fruit--it really adds zing to the table.
