Out of Africa 1920s Themed Table Decor

Here is part 2 to our recent Out of Africa 1920s theme table for the charitable event supporting education, Fantasy Tables for Promising Futures. To read more about this event and to see the custom-made invitation for our guests, click here. Many thanks to my dear friend, Chloe from Celebrate and Decorate who inspires me with her creative contributions to this unique event theme. Not only did I have fun putting this together, but our guests’ enthusiasm made it all worthwhile!

The Dishes

Selecting the dishes is usually the first step in how I design a table. In searching Facebook marketplace for something else, I stumble upon these John Haddock & Sons Indian Tree pattern which has a vintage, elegant feel. The seller has 10 dinner plates, which is the exact number of guests attending.

Surprisingly, the seller lives a few blocks north of me and we become fast friends over the Facebook Marketplace purchase.

The plates are edged with a Greek key style pattern in neither gold or silver, but something in between. My silver beaded edge chargers work better than brass ones. Purchasing these years ago, I think they came from Pier One Imports? Here is a link to something similar.

Table Linens

I do get the option to borrow linens from the club, but for this event I use my own. Vintage linens sheets with elaborate monograms seems appropriate. Every time I use these pieces, I take a trip down memory lane to when I bought them from a convent in Paris.

The small shop in the convent was filled with hope chest items from tablecloths to bed linens to dressing gowns. I am guessing these items came from the nuns who took their vows with the church and never used the treasures their families collected for the a future wedding. Unfortunately, I only purchased two sheets and am kicking myself ever since. I overlap the two sheets at the table, keeping a monogram at each end.

For napkins, I have these large pretty embroidered linen ones from my collection. The napkins look best folded under the dinner plate, with the decorative edge toward the bottom of the charger.

Centerpiece

It’s nice when you have friends who will let you borrow their gorgeous silver pieces. The two large candelabras are from my friend, Janie and the smaller two are from my friend, Susan. Since the table is 108″ long, I fill it in with a few silver candlesticks of my own. Silver mint julep cups hold gorgeous roses (from Safeway), yin and yang daisies and greens, which pick up the tones of the flowers on the dinner plate.

Since we are not allowed open flame candles (unless they are in a hurricane or votive holder), I find these drip wax battery operated flameless nearly 10″ taper candles on Amazon for a great price (6 tapers for $19.99). These are so much less expensive than the Luminara brand, which are $65.00 for two. After carefully reading the several hundred reviews, I decide to buy 18 of them. Don’t they look real?

Since they are remote controlled, you can turn them on and off all at once with the press of a button!

The Piece de Resistance

The unique part of this theme is the large tent which my husband and friend, Rick, carefully erected over the table. Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of it in its entirety that evening, but here is the pre-assembly of it in the yard.

What started out as a tent canopy with anchors attaching it to the ground, this tent needs to accommodate our tallest guest (6’7″) and be accessible to the servers at the club.

My innovative spouse, Scott raises the height with tall poles and increases the stability with weighted pole holders. A cross member makes the tent extra sturdy and he adds hooks to the poles to hang the lanterns. To soften the corners, I place mosquito netting on each side.

What the tent accomplishes for our table is a sense of privacy and its own space, even though we are around several other tables. I have so many of these lanterns which are leftovers from a previous dinner event at our church. If anyone needs lanterns in Phoenix, see me!

Additional Vignettes

Since I do not want anyone to trip on the weighted bases, I place a few themed vignettes nearby. Over the last few months, I have been collecting cool looking suitcases which are fun to stack and display.

Additional suitcases are positioned on the fireplace hearth with a wicker picnic basket, flowers, teacups, a large silver cloche and more candles.

Other Personal Touches

Existing pictures of our guests are photoshopped with a sepia tone, giving a vintage look to the mini suitcase resin picture frames place cards. From efavormart, they are $7.99 for a packet of 4 here. One guest said they will use it as a future Christmas tree ornament!

As an after dinner treat, each guest gets a little “suitcase” filled with See’s chocolates. Hiding them under the large silver cloche made for a fun presentation at the end of the meal.

If you saw the 1985 Out of Africa movie with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, you know the music is spectacular and won several Academy awards. My husband created a playlist and with a portable speaker, we play this moving music during dinner.

Our Guests

One of the highlights of the evening is seeing our guests arrive in their khaki and white outfits! How fun that everyone participated in the theme as indicated on the invitation.

In past years we host 8 at our table, but this year we have 10. One of our guests is an internationally renowned artist who so kindly donated 4 of his art pieces for the auction. For the dessert auction, I make my Limoncello Bundt cake which sells for $250.00!

Kudos to the chef for a fabulous dinner~the food for nearly 200 people came out hot and tasty. Our excellent servers (Gigi, Jesse and Brett, to name a few) embraced the theme and excitement of the evening.

If you missed it, I share other table themes in my last post. To see our first fantasy table, Dinner in the Library, click here. Last year’s table, Enchanted Forest can be seen here.

We are always so honored to be part of this amazing charitable event. Last year, over $74,000 was raised for scholarships. Waiting to hear the final number this year but love that there is so much generosity in our community.

Thank you for joining me today and sharing in the fun of our Out of Africa 1920s table.