SMP at Home: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. It has to be my favorite holiday of the year. Its underlying sweetness. Its celebration of friends and family. Its ridiculous spread of food that I can devour for literally days on end. And for many of you newlyweds & soon-to-be’s this will be the first time that you host a Thanksgiving of your very own. So we’ve come up with a bit of easy-to-steal inspiration for newbies and seasoned pro’s alike based all around the concept of Organic Elegance. And really simple, approachable design that you can do on any budget. Oh and a huge thank you to Heidi at White Loft Studio for capturing all of the pretty on film.

We believe that a successful celebration, whether something as elaborate as Thanksgiving or as simple as a dinner among friends, should be well balanced. And by that we mean that there should be a bit of home cooking, a bit of potlucking, a bit of DIY and a bit of profession help. By balancing your efforts, you will set yourself up from the beginning to be a true hostess in the best possible form.

So lets start with what we DIY-ed. If you missed it, we put together gorgsous Linen textured chargers that framed our organic elegant place settings, then we layered in iron-on transfer Magnolia linen napkins and lastly, we sprinkled in some fun conversations starters that made our guests feel so very at home.

From there, we worked with New England Country Rentals to help set the table stage. This is where those profesional services can be an enormous help. Especially if you are like us and your dining area seats only a few of your nearest and dearest. We rented a long table for 10, gorgeous linen tableclothes which draped both our table and the round mismatched table that we used to house our turkey & gravy. This brought instant luxury and cohesion to the space. We layered on pieces that we already had – china, champagne saucers, salt and pepper cellars – all in keeping with our white scheme. We also rented gorgeous vintage flatware from NECR, along with chairs and two beautiful tufted head chairs.

In lieu of floral arrangements, we used bunches of Magnolia leaves that were easily wired together to form a table runner of sorts, tucking pillar candles in here and there to create a glow. We saved money on flowers by using simple greenery and yet the result was nothing less than lovely. Our Conversation Starters were sprinkled in throughout the leaves for our guests to discover.

For dining, we set up two stations of sort. The main event which was kept simple and beautiful on a single round table, and then the sides which we placed on a black dresser that we already had. We kept our serveware and bowls very simple in white and let the food really take center stage.

Now for the menu. We built this menu as really a foundation for Thanksgiving. The beauty of this celebrated holiday is that you can layer on more exciting dishes or keep things really simple and you still have the recipe for a beautiful meal. We love the idea of a collection of friends coming together with their own signature dish. Our menu however consisted of the classics – turkey with gravy, roasted sweet potato wedges, carmelized brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, simple mashed potatoes, baked squash and stuffing.

And not to fret. We’ll be debuting recipes, shopping lists, how-to’s and timelines for in THIS THURSDAY’s Thanksgiving Guide Made Simple. For us, this is what SMP at Home is all about. Making beauty approachable. And more importantly, really really simple.

We hope you’ve enjoyed a glimpse into our Thanksgiving Style and that you’ll check back at Thursday for our downloadable, printable Guide with literally everything you’ll ever need to design a beautiful, comfortable, really fun celebration of your own. If you’re in the market to inspiration borrow, here is where we got all of our goodies: