Mother’s Day Fancy

I’m continuing to catch up on my spring posts and today I’m covering Mother’s Day. We hosted my husband’s side of the family this year and while my sweet husband insisted that I not work too much on Mother’s Day, I assured him that getting to set a feminine table for the ladies would not be work at all but, on the contrary, would bring me great pleasure!

I set up the dining room for the ladies so we could have a frilly table and the men had the kitchen table set just for them so they wouldn’t have to endure the pink and fluff, haha!

I’ve had this April Cornell tablecloth for so many years and I’ve always called it my “Mother’s Day tablecloth” because the floral pattern and soft colors are just so lovely and feminine.

I went to Winn Dixie the Saturday before Mother’s Day to get fresh flowers, but these gorgeous potted tulips caught my eye and I decided to purchase them instead. Aren’t they beautiful!! I thought it would be smart to use them for the lunch and then plant them in my flower bed but since that following week was graduation followed by our big trip out west, I failed miserably with that plan.

I let the floral tablecloth and the potted tulips due the talking and kept the rest of the table setting understated with my wedding china, crystal glasses, silverware, and lacey white linen napkins. I finished with a couple of miniature birdcage candle votives and a pink-wrapped raspberry chocolate placed on each place setting.

I used the same dishes and glasses for the men’s table but made kept everything else simpler and more masculine with tan-checked napkins, a linen runner, fern fronds, a straw lantern, and a mint chocolate at each place setting. This more manly table setting was husband approved and appreciated!

To keep all the moms from cooking all weekend, Joel arranged for part of the meal to be catered (everyone chipped in) and part prepared by us. For our appetizer table he purchased some dips, fruit, and crackers from Costo, and I arranged them on a board.

For the main course he cooked the most delicious steak filets and ordered sides from a local caterer. It was all so delicious! We mamas truly felt spoiled.

I was in a big baking mood that week, so I told him I’d enjoy making dessert. I made a coconut cream cake and a raspberry chocolate ganache cake served with a few choices of ice cream flavors. We had half of each of these cakes leftover so I wrapped them well and froze them to pull out later for Father’s Day at my mother’s house.

It was a very nice day celebrated with family and good food and now Mother’s Day seems so long ago!