New Years Eve Tablescape...on a budget!

Hi all!

Ok, I realize it's a few days after New Years Eve, but I decided I'd put up some pictures from my New Years Eve Tablescape! As I mentioned earlier, one of my best friends and her family came in town New Years Eve and I wanted to have a pretty spread for the family and for them when they came. We were planning to stay up until midnight...even the kids and so we needed some good fuel!


I wanted to create something shiny and elegant...so I made my colors silver and gold. Here is how the table turned out!

Nothing at this table was over 5 dollars. The white plates and bowls, the sparkly "garland rings" as well as the "accent" plates (the paper dessert plates) were bought at the Dollar Tree for...you guessed it. $1! Those versatile white plates are going to be the foundation for most of my tablescapes, I think. 

I found the napkins at the after-christmas clearance at Walmart. Walmart was also where I found the gold charger plates for just 98 cents each!

We wanted to do a "sparkling cider toast" with the kids at midnight, so I found these cute plastic champagne glasses at the Dollar tree...6 for a dollar.   I also grabbed a packet combo of glitter at Michaels for $1.99, I think.  

I decided to do a trick I saw on Pinterest and I painted Mod Podge on the bottoms of the champagne glasses and then sprinkled the glitter all over them.  I did 4 in silver and 4 in gold and I really liked how they turned out!  So inexpensive and really cute...and no worries about the kids dropping and breaking any champagne glasses...haha!  Here's a picture of one of them.

I'm finding that a Buffet-style meal is becoming my favorite.  I'm still learning the art of getting everything out in time so that it's ready, and still hot and/or fresh.  I'm learning that in-advance setup is pretty crucial for this.  I had my buffet table set up since the day after Christmas with the tablecloth and all the decor items so that it would be easier the day of the meal to focus on the food and other cleaning that needed to be done.

Here's the buffet...food was not on it yet, but these were all pieces I already had.  I added plates of appetizers onto those gold chargers, which were the only things I bought recently.

I do like the way it turned out....but after looking at some of the other tablescapes on Pinterest and some of the blogs I'm following, I'm seeing that I could have used even a few more pieces on the table to make it even more appealing.   

Another place where I fell short was drinks!   I had completely forgotten to put those out for people.  Fortunately, my bestie and her family were totally cool about going and getting their own drinks.  They weren't expecting anything so fancy..haha!  But it was a good lesson for me.  

I think I need to make a list ahead of time to remember things...ya know...like DRINKS!  =/

In the end, though, I think everyone had a lot of fun, and that's what a great event is all about, isn't it? 

How do you organize ahead of time for your get-togethers?  I'd love to hear your tips and tricks!  Thanks again for reading.  Come back soon!  =)


This post was added to "Home Sweet Home" on "The Charm of Home"