If I'm honest, I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day decor. It just feels incredibly cheesy to me. The hearts, the candy, even the color combination isn't my favorite.
Don't get me wrong, I love Valentine's Day. I love the idea of a day dedicated to celebrating love and reminding the people in your life just how much you care about them. I still remember my first Valentine's Day with Cain. It didn't go very smoothly. He didn't see the need to buy each other gifts for "another fake capitalistic holiday" and I, an avid gift giver, didn't understand why HE didn't understand how it was romantic. After a few conversations of understanding each other's perspectives and a surprise flower bouquet delivery later (oops), we came to agree that maybe the holiday was a capitalist scheme, but maybe it wasn't all that bad.
Since then, we've enjoyed celebrating love not only on February 14th, but every other day of the year as well.
Again, it's not the holiday itself I don't like, it's the decor that I take issue with. So for my dining room tablescape, I wanted to honor the season of love, while keeping it elegant. (No heart shaped napkins over here, sorry folks.)
The first element I wanted to work on was my floral arrangement. If you read my post from last week, you know that I've been having an absolute blast creating arrangements from different flowers selected at Trader Joe's. Which is, in my opinion, the best place to purchase flowers from.
I asked Cain to FaceTime me from TJ's while I selected what flowers I could kind of see from the blurry image on his phone. Different shades of whites, greens and pinks was what I ultimately decided on. And I spent the evening meticulously organizing the flowers.
When I approach a floral arrangement, I try to think of it like this:
Two neutral flowers and two statement flowers.
In this case, the neutrals were my white and green flowers and the statements were the pink ones. (I'm so sorry I didn't get the name of each kind of flower but if you know them, please comment below!!)
I hesitated to include the hot pink buds because, again, I dislike the red and pink combination. But I ultimately decided that they look more pink than red, and that the bouquet could use a bit of a dynamic effect. So they stayed.
I also reused the arrangement from last week (see below) by refreshing the water and replacing the purple flowers with pink ones! I couldn't very well toss it before it's time just because a week had passed. And the wilted white roses looked romantic to me.
I purchased this tablecloth on Amazon, and absolutely love it. I think it's the perfect Valentine's adjacent piece that isn't cheesy but still let's you know that we're going with a bit of a V-day theme. (Clearly, I still have much to learn in the homemaking department, otherwise, I would've ironed it before putting it on the table and snapping pictures. Ahh, c'est la vie.)
I grabbed these napkins from Macy's on an impromptu shopping day, and I happened to stumble upon an amazing sale! I chose this light teal color because I wanted to add some uniqueness and texture to the table. As opposed to selecting white, pink or red. Even though it's not a typical Valentine's Day color, it's soft enough and versatile enough to work for this holiday and many others.
SO many of you have asked about my gold flatware! They were a gift from my awesome soon to be Mother-in-Law for Christmas. They were given to her as a gift by her mother, and have now found a new home here at Fancy Cottage. Talk about a treat!
I've also been working very hard on learning how to mix and match patterns when it comes to dinnerware. I'm not perfect at it yet, but lately I've been putting what I've learned to use in these tablescapes. I think the fun of it is realizing that things don't always have to "match". And in fact, I prefer if they don't. It's much more fun that way.
I buy almost all of my plates and bowls when I go vintage and thrift shopping. There's just a uniqueness that you don't find in today's modern and minimalist styling. Often times I can find a set of 5-10 gorgeous vintage plates for less than $10. It's a great way to add charm to your table without breaking the bank.
I'm excited to be posting more consistent lifestyle content here on the blog and will be sharing many more Valentine's themed posts you won't want to miss!
xo,
F.
FTC: This post is not sponsored. The description contains affiliate links, if you click on one of the product links, I receive a small commission. This does not effect the price of your purchase. It simply helps support my channel and blog and allows me to continue to make videos. Thank you for the support!
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