Concept & Styling Lucy Ewing
Images Anna Benner
Catering The Poor Girls Pantry
Flowers Poppy & Fern
Macrame Emilian Lorena
Ceramics Shannon Fricke
Wine Down the Rabbit Hole Wines
We first heard the term Gal’entines whilst scrolling endlessly through Pinterest {as you do} and loved the idea of bringing some of our girlfriends together for a dinner party around valentines day….what better time to get your ladies together and drink wine, eat chocolate and maybe even watch your fave episodes of Sex & the City {not that we ever need an excuse…}.
The location was Lulu’s lounge room, we simply cleared away her couch, coffee table and pot plants to give ourselves a blank canvas for our event. You really only need a humble little space to create an intimate event like this one.
We we’re lucky enough to have the girls from The Poor Girls Pantry cooking for us in the kitchen. They put together a delicious (and astoundingly affordable!) meal of gourmet salads and pizzas. We finished off the meal with an oh-so-pink apple and raspberry crumble, and strawberries dipped in melted cacao butter.
After dinner we cleared away our table, laid down a mattress, got cosy with lots of blankets and pillows, and set up a projector to watch back to back episode of Sex & the City! Such the perfect way to finish off our already luscious evening with the girls.
Steps to styling the space:
1 – Create your space: If your sitting on the floor you can’t go wrong with a rug. Even if you’re on chairs, a rug still frames the space really nicely. This is frame the space you’ll be working with and help when knowing where to place extra decorative pieces.
2- Hang a branch/floral installation: Having something decorative overhead really takes this from being a nicely set table to a full on dinner party! Jess from Poppy & Fern Flowers sourced this branch from a local supplier for us, but you can also find cherry blossom branches at florists and simply join them together with twine or string. Otherwise some beautiful bunches of flowers hanging fro the ceiling, or even single stem roses would give a beautiful effect. We’ve used brass lanterns in the past too! Get creative, there’s a million possibilities to make it your own.
3 – Bring in your table: We used our fave trusty picnic style low table that we DIY’d previously. Here’s the link to whip one up yourself. If you don’t have a table up turned crates with a piece of ply board on top works perfectly too.
4- Set the table: Bring out your favourite dinner plates, cutlery, glass wear and napkins. Our beautiful ceramic plates in blush and stone white are from a local creative Shannon Fricke.
5- Style your space: We were lucky enough to have a gorgeous feature piece to hang on our wall that really bought the space to life – our Macrame wall hanging is from Emilia Lorena. Some artists and companies give the option of hiring pieces if you just want to add an extra special element just for your event.
6 – Design your tablescape – create a table runner with jars filled with flowers, white pillar candles, and string lights for extra ambience as the sun goes down. As place settings we found agate crystal slices to write our guests names on in gold paint. Not only does it add a little something special or the table, it’s also a beautiful keepsake from the evening.
6- Light the candles, pour the wine (or rosé in our case), and enjoy your evening!
We hope our little soiree inspires you to carve out some time to decorate your lounge room, crank your favourite tunes, and invite your lady loves over for a little gal’entines celebration. Or maybe you’ll take inspo from our set up for a future bridal shower, birthday lunch, blessing way, or a random Friday night ~ we know we won’t be waiting till next year to recreate this again.
Team Spell
xx