Fourth Quarter Dinner Party, June 1, 2018

Sweet Mister has been at it again, so the end of May turned out to be quite a busy period of time. Sweet Mister's birthday was Wednesday, May 30, and to celebrate we hosted about 100 guests in our backyard for a bluegrass concert. Thursday was a whirlwind as I cleared away things from the Wednesday party and maintained a dead run as I prepared for a Friday, June 1, dinner party for 24. Our guests were members of Sweet Mister's Fourth Quarter group. Fourth Quarter is a group of men who seek to invest their resources in significant projects to help others, as they approach the fourth quarter of their lives. I set three tables for our guests. We'll start in the breakfast room; come on in...

We were still close enough to the Memorial Day holiday that I chose to set my table with red, white, and blue. I wanted to keep a masculine to neutral tone to my table designs. Sweet Mister actually chose the china for tonight's dinner. I was thrilled that he was interested in participating.

 

 Mottahedeh Blue Canton candle sticks were featured in the centerpiece on each table.

The Coalport decanters held fresh water for our guests. Originally the decanters held a limited edition liqeur. I've purchased a good number of them through eBay for less than $15.00, some for $7.50 or less.

  Each of the table centerpieces included a larger Mottahedeh Blue Canton piece.  For the breakfast room, it was the large oval tureen.

You'll find the Mottahedeh Blue Canton Bell candlesticks on several of the tables. I am fascinated by these bottom heavy pieces. I keep them out in our home much of the time. The small tin containers of yellow roses could be found on all three of the tables. At the end of the dinner, we asked each of the ladies to take a container home as a party favor.

The Mottahedeh Blue Lace Charger anchored the settings on the three tables.  I find myself using this charger quite often. The Anton Wingen carved stag horn flatware came out of Germany shortly after the war. I've been collecting them for Sweet Mister's party. So far I have almost enough 3 piece place settings. I need a few more forks, and boy are those teaspoons hard to come by. I fill in with a brown spoon from one of the  flatware designs offered by Horchow.  Because this was a gentlemen focused dinner, I went with a more casual Williams Sonoma hemstitched linen placemat for the evening.

 The dinner plate was Coalport Athlone Blue, again chosen for the men, by my man. I gave him an A+. The Athlone Blue dessert plate made a later appearance for Texas Sheet Cake.

To complete the place setting, I chose the St. Louis Tommy goblet for iced tea or water and the Hungarian AJKA Arabella wine. Both of these goblets have an excellent hand, perfect for men and women.

 

The place setting was completed with a red bordered hemstitched linen napkin, laid across the plate to preserve space on the 60" table. Nice for the gentlemen, with just enough elegant touches to please the ladies. I just noticed that a few of the wines are AOL. Sweet Mister grabbed them for guests who wished to have wine prior to dinner. Most of the time I serve pre meal wine in a different goblet than those on the tables. Tonight, I anticipated that it might lead to some confusion for some of my guests, so I suggested using the table wine goblets for both. It worked just fine, other than for this pic. Let's head on into the games table in the living room. Comments will be kept to a minimum (for me) from here on down the road.

The details are basically the same with three exceptions. The Mottahedeh Blue Canton candlesticks are a different style, and the centerpiece here is a Mottahedeh Blue Canton centerpiece bowl. This table has the addition of a Williams Sonoma white linen hemstitched tablecloth to cover the flip-top table top that I use so often to turn the games table into a 60" table.

Now we'll proceed to the dining room...

Again, just the same, only different...you'll note the addition of a Williams Sonoma navy bordered linen hemstitched table runner. I don't use runners often; don't know why. I have them, I just don't use them regularly. 

On the dining table, I used the larger Mottahedeh Blue Canton Dragon tureen. This piece normally spends quite a bit of time on my mantle.

 You've come to expect at least a few touches from our Nana. Tonight it's the silver serving piece filled with salt and pepper at the right end.

At the opposite end, Nana's sterling master salt is paired with one of her sterling and cobalt open salts. Thank you once again, Nana.

It was a lovely evening with good food, good friends, and good fellowship. Remember, each comment will be entered to win my 8th Blogiversary give away! You can also take a trip back in my archives and comment there to earn another entrywith each comment, to win the give away. Bon Voyage. 

Speaking of Bon Voyage, Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch has been spending this last week in Maui, Hawaii. I can hardly wait to see her pics and learn about her trip. You'll want to check up on her this coming week.

This week I'm joining:

Tablescape Thursday with Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch