Wine Tasting themed dinner party setting for Mikasa.com

For Fall 2012, to celebrate the harvest I created settings and decor for a wine tasting-themed dinner for Mikasa.com. Here on the cover of Classic Style, for the story "Celebrating The Harvest," I featured tableware patterns Antique White with grape-patterned Antique Orchard accent plates. I used fun paper grape leaves creating for decorating a cheese plate, as coasters, and found wonderful glass "grape bunches" napkin rings online. The beautiful, burgundy wood handled antique wine bottle opener, was a vintage online find as well, and adds a lot of personality to the shot. I found an image of corks on a photo stock website, and we printed that out to use as a whimsical background for this shot.

For the splash, I found a fun "bottle" of wine made of standing corks on a stock site to use as a unique background for the sub-title of the story on the splash. The designer added fun leaf shapes that appear to be popping out of the bottle. The theme of grapes runs through the piece; used as props for the shot of the five-piece place setting of Antique White and as props for the shot of turrine and soup bowls in lower right hand of the layout. 

Setting a Mardi Gras-themed dinner party!

For Mikasa.com website I helped produce a Mardi Gras themed dinner party scene. Here the modern confetti-patterned Esplanade was featured. I picked up on the ombre colors of green and purple, by creating cut paper place mats. They were a little time consuming, but well worth the effort in the end. They photographed beautifully and added lively color and texture to the table.

Other fun elements I added to the table were green Swarovsky crystal embellished high heel shoes. Although their intended purpose was for business card holders, I turned them into stylish and fun place card holders. They reference the traditional women's float at Mardi Gras, which is shaped like a high heeled show.

copyright on images belong to Lifetime Brands.